Facilitation thoughts
This space would be used to share some thoughts about facilitation of group discussions . The thoughts here are based on the experiences I have had facilitating different types of sessions.
I have learned from many persons including Dr Janice Jackson, Beverley Braithwaite-Chan, Bonita Harris, Paulette Henry , the Facilitator's Forum (whose meetings I attended in Guyana between 2008 and 2011 - with Abbas Mancey, Lorna Smith, Kala Seegopaul and others) .
I continue to learn from many others and I have trained persons in facilitation.
Any mistakes in any of these blogs are my responsibility, and not those of any of the persons from whom I have learned.
Learning included learning skills, but also changing some of my beliefs and attitudes.
What is facilitation?
The words 'facilitator', 'facilitation' , 'moderator', 'moderation' , 'animator' , 'animation' are sometimes used to mean the same thing, or could mean different things. Many persons use facilitation skills when training and so the words 'facilitator' and 'trainer' in Guyana are often exchanged.
Mediation is a different process.
My understanding of the word 'Facilitator' is a person who makes interaction between people easy and productive. Mrs Lorna Smith had shared an anecdote that a facilitator is a person who could get a group of nuclear scientists to decide on a design for a power station without having any knowledge of nuclear physics herself.
Bonita Harris says her thinking on facilitation "Where a PhD and someone who just barely graduated from kindergarten, can sit with others in a session and both parties come away having learnt, and having enjoyed the learning process. Facilitation for me is about making teaching and learning easy for teachers and learners."
She also facilitates using the philosophy embedded in her favourite quotes from Educator Dewey (1859-1952) "Learning is not just learning things, but learning the meaning of things. Learning is learning to think. Learning should lead to change. If there is no change; there is no learning."
Facilitators could be used for focus group discussions, therapeutic sessions (with appropriate skills in the area), large group discussions. Group sizes could range from 6 to 100 or more.
This video from IIFAC describes in the purest sense what a facilitator normally does.
I think a 'moderator' in Guyana is a person who would chair a discussion which is led by some presentations, and then encourage persons in an audience to give feedback. Moderated sessions I think do not necessarily have any structured agenda or specific outcomes.
The one or two times I have seen 'animator' used in Guyana is when a person is asked to insert themes and topics into discussions so that the discussions and conversations could flow on some theme.
Facilitation styles tend to differ and I have seen that some styles are more effective with some groups than with other groups.
Facilitation and training often include some content presentation.
I have learned from many persons including Dr Janice Jackson, Beverley Braithwaite-Chan, Bonita Harris, Paulette Henry , the Facilitator's Forum (whose meetings I attended in Guyana between 2008 and 2011 - with Abbas Mancey, Lorna Smith, Kala Seegopaul and others) .
I continue to learn from many others and I have trained persons in facilitation.
Any mistakes in any of these blogs are my responsibility, and not those of any of the persons from whom I have learned.
Learning included learning skills, but also changing some of my beliefs and attitudes.
What is facilitation?
The words 'facilitator', 'facilitation' , 'moderator', 'moderation' , 'animator' , 'animation' are sometimes used to mean the same thing, or could mean different things. Many persons use facilitation skills when training and so the words 'facilitator' and 'trainer' in Guyana are often exchanged.
Mediation is a different process.
My understanding of the word 'Facilitator' is a person who makes interaction between people easy and productive. Mrs Lorna Smith had shared an anecdote that a facilitator is a person who could get a group of nuclear scientists to decide on a design for a power station without having any knowledge of nuclear physics herself.
Bonita Harris says her thinking on facilitation "Where a PhD and someone who just barely graduated from kindergarten, can sit with others in a session and both parties come away having learnt, and having enjoyed the learning process. Facilitation for me is about making teaching and learning easy for teachers and learners."
She also facilitates using the philosophy embedded in her favourite quotes from Educator Dewey (1859-1952) "Learning is not just learning things, but learning the meaning of things. Learning is learning to think. Learning should lead to change. If there is no change; there is no learning."
Facilitators could be used for focus group discussions, therapeutic sessions (with appropriate skills in the area), large group discussions. Group sizes could range from 6 to 100 or more.
This video from IIFAC describes in the purest sense what a facilitator normally does.
I think a 'moderator' in Guyana is a person who would chair a discussion which is led by some presentations, and then encourage persons in an audience to give feedback. Moderated sessions I think do not necessarily have any structured agenda or specific outcomes.
The one or two times I have seen 'animator' used in Guyana is when a person is asked to insert themes and topics into discussions so that the discussions and conversations could flow on some theme.
Facilitation styles tend to differ and I have seen that some styles are more effective with some groups than with other groups.
Facilitation and training often include some content presentation.
Facilitators must be trauma informed. They must have a basic knowledge of what trauma is in order to identify how it affects participation in various sessions.. They must be self aware and attentive to participants.
For more information on Trauma Informed Facilitation, see Sweeney, Mary-Margaret “Trauma Informed Facilitation.
For more information on Trauma Informed Facilitation, see Sweeney, Mary-Margaret “Trauma Informed Facilitation.
This series though is not intended to discuss 'public speaking' I do not pursue public speaking opportunities myself as this is not one of my skills.
Session
In the ramblings, I will use the word session to mean anything from a 1 hour gaff to a five day workshop. The word session could also mean a meeting. (I know in Guyana session could mean a whole different thing which has nothing to do with work)
These days , I do not recommend any workshop or other interaction for more than two days in sequence. Bonita Harris believes that training sessions should be a week so that there is time for transformation.
Some of the questions I want to ramble about are :-
- What are the characteristics of a (good) facilitator?
- How to plan and set the agenda for a session?
- What to wear? - Preparing for the session
- How to get to know the people in the group?
- What happens when people bring their children?
- How to get people to talk? And to shut up?
- How to listen?
- How to manage time?
- What to eat during a session?
- How to manage boredom?
- What kind of technology to use?
- How to evaluate the session?
- How to report on the session?
- What kind of follow up and other activities to close on a positive note?
Author : Vidyaratha Kissoon email vidyak1 (at) gmail (dot) com
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