Facilitation Theory Essay Example

as acceptance facilitate the learning process. 3) Empathy: the facilitator should be able to see things from different perspectives and can understand students point of view (understanding not evaluation or judgmental).

There are other duties which the facilitator are expected to be perform as per the facilitation theory such as creating a safe environment for learners to learn without being exposed to negative effects or other external factors, openness to new ideas, attaining a good listening skills and building a good relationship with all learners. The facilitator is expected to promote pedagogic learning style and encourage students to take responsibility of their own learning. Feedback is also primary for further improvements. Roger also suggested in his facilitation theory that the earning effectiveness is not just dependable on the facilitator, learners have their own share too. Learners should be aware of the benefit of learning and how it is relevant to them and should be motivated. What is the practical use of facilitation theory? Facilitation theory provides very good advice for teachers, educators and tutors who are engaged in learning process as it suggests that educators should try to build the right positive environment for learning and work on building good relationship with students.

Educators should be real and caring, accepting and rewarding students not for their positive contributions but because they are valuable human beings and their experiences, thoughts, ideas and contributions always enriches the learning process. Moreover, showing empathy and trying to understand students perceptive is very important as with this, educators can understand why students behave in certain way and can work on eliminating barriers of learning if any. Creating the

right atmosphere and eliminating the external threats which could interrupt the learning process is very important.

Students should not be threatened or criticized for their marks. This act would interfere with the positive outcome which learning is all about. Feedback is another important element which has been raised by the facilitation theory. Feedback as a corrective measure and not as evaluation measure is important to put students on track to enhance their learning experience and takeaways. How facilitation theory is relevant to our learning event? In our learning event -6 hats, the blue hat is very much representing the chairman or the facilitator of the event.

The blue hat will be facilitating the session by introducing the learning outcomes, creating the positive atmosphere, interacting with students to facilitate their learning and encouraging students to share their ideas, thoughts, suggestions, feelings, etc. The 6 hat is very interactive session which heavily depends on the facilitator and trying to build the atmosphere which is comfortable enough to share ideas and opinions without risk. In fact one of the benefits for using six hats in organizations is for encouraging sharing ideas, opinions, thoughts and feelings without being exposed to any risk (De Bono, 1995).

The facilitator (blue hat representer) will be the key contributor to learning process, as he/she will be the organizer and the time keeper or the whole session. From my own perspective, the facilitation theory is very relevant to the 6 hats due to the importance of the facilitator/blue hat in the learning process and in the success of the learning event. Students/participants are very important too. Their ideas and contributions are

very much encouraged and for that reason, the facilitator should work really hard to build the right relationship with the participants and create the needed atmosphere.

The focus and the success of the 6 hats is not by evaluating the participants’ contributions but get into agreement on the best way to solve the issue at hand. Therefore, all inputs from participants are perceived as important and valuable which is aligned with the facilitation theory principals of valuing participants their contributions rather than the quality of these contributions to enhance overall performance rather than being judgmental.