Who are the Facilitators?

This train-the-trainer guide that has been prepared to facilitate dissemination, adoption and adaptation of Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future for use in locally/nationally relevant ways.

The audience for the Toolbox includes in-service and pre-service teacher education leaders who are recognized as being able to 'make a difference' by catalysing colleagues to develop a strong commitment to using Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future themselves and to sharing the benefits of their training with their colleagues.

Workshop facilitators plan, organise, co-ordinate, facilitate, control and structure the workshop. In other words, they are responsible for the whole workshop process. As well as knowing all the techniques needed to support the process, they must also be natural motivators, people who can encourage and influence a group to work towards a common goal.

A crucial factor in any workshop is the personality and style of the facilitator leader. The relationships developed between the facilitator and the participants and the participants themselves are very important. These relationships structure the power dynamics of the learning environment. As a result, they influence the climate for group learning by determining the level of involvement of the participants, which, in turn determines how individuals contribute and participate. Positive and open relationships help participants to assume ownership of a workshop, to create personal meanings, and to move towards self-directed learning.

An effective facilitator seeks to understand participants' backgrounds and point of view, and has the expertise to balance responding to participants' needs and moving a workshop forward.

Above all, an effective facilitator conveys genuine enthusiasm.

An Active or Passive Approach?

Teaching approaches in workshops may range from lectures to collaborative approaches where meaning is constructed through participants dialogue and interactions.

Designing a workshop that has a balance between passive and active learning tends to appeal to a wide range of participants because the different forms of learning so encouraged changes the pace of the workshop, thus maintaining interest, and accommodates a wide range of different learning styles.

Skills for a Facilitator

To facilitate a workshop to disseminate the Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future programme, a person should be able:

	To discuss principles and philosophy of reorienting educational policies, programmes and practices towards a sustainable future.
	To appreciate the key role of teacher education in building the capacities of teachers to plan, implement and evaluate learning experiences that reflect principles and philosophy for teaching and learning for a sustainable future.
	To be sensitive to the participants backgrounds, work contexts and needs.
	To create participatory, active and cooperative learning opportunities.
	To encourage participants to express views and take 'ownership' of the Education for Sustainability philosophy.
	To motivate participants to want to overcome any perceived constraints on reorienting educational policies, programmes and practices towards a sustainable future.

The 'Never-Evers'

Facilitating a workshop requires practice and experience. To help us there are many guidelines for facilitating professional development workshops.

Peggy Sharp suggests there are a number of things we should try not to do when facilitating a workshop, and proposes 13 'Never-Ever' statements that can be used as reminders of good workshop facilitation.

	Never ever forget that individuals at the workshop are unique, with needs, interests, and experiences particular to them.
	Never ever require individuals to participate in an activity.
	Never ever talk to participants as if they are children.
	Never ever ridicule participants or their experiences.
	Never ever neglect the participants' personal needs.
	Never ever say that you are going to rush through and compress material in order to complete what is usually a longer workshop in a shorter length of time.
	Never ever say that you would have brought more materials if it had been possible. Never ever tell participants what you've forgotten.
	Never ever give excuses.
	Never ever read from a lengthy prepared text.
	Never ever share illegible handouts. Never ever share a disorganized 'mishmash' for a handout.
	Never ever give participants something to read and then read it to them. Never ever share overhead transparencies that participants cannot see or read.
	Never ever share with participants a workshop schedule that is impossible to follow. Never ever go past the scheduled time. Never ever forget that you have an audience. Never ever take the workshop so seriously that everyone (including the facilitator) cannot have fun.
	Never ever plan a workshop without considering this list of never-evers.

Source: Sharp, P.A. (2000) The 'Never Evers' of Workshop Facilitation, National Staff Development Council.

The theory and practice behind these 'Never-Evers' are the focus of this section