NIFL-AALPD:679
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From: jataylor (jataylor@utk.edu)
Subject:[NIFL-AALPD:679] from Cris, Qualities of a good facilitator
Date: Sat Sep 27 2003 - 12:24:02 EDT
I think one of the qualities of a good facilitator is the ability to follow the activities that are planned beforehand but to adapt them to the reactions of the particular participants. This emerged as a factor in the quality of the professional development that was done as part of our NCSALL professional development study: participants didn't care for facilitators who "followed a script" and didn't make allowances for their particular needs to discuss some issues longer and shorten discussions of others. But neither did they care for facilitators who let them (or one person in the group) get off track, so that the scheduled activities on the agenda went by the wayside or went uncovered at all. A balance is important between doing the activities that are designed (that you present in the session agenda at the beginning) but adapting them in time and design to where the participants need more time or a different focus. Either sticking to a script, or throwing the script out the window were not highly acclaimed facilitator behaviors for the participants in our study. This takes some experience as a facilitator, some snap decisions, listening to the participants' excitement or reading the irritation and boredom on their faces; it means not being so wedded to a workshop design that small adjustments would throw you off as a facilitator. In other words, I think a quality facilitator learns how to make small adjustments to the participants' reaction to the activities in the design, but doesn't completely overhaul and throw out the design midstream, especially if that overhaul is being driven by the needs of one of the participants.
Cristine Smith
World Education
csmith at worlded.org
