Do You Expect Discomfort When Learning?
I get so frustrated when attending events that are packaged in a way that says, “we never expected you to be here.”
I recently attended a series of professional development events. They were produced and facilitated by a group to which I belong. In the opening of each module, the host would present a slide titles Agreements. The listed statements to which were asked to agree were (along with my thoughts on those statements):
Stay Engaged - (I’m thinking … I’ll try. But, there are things that the host can do to help me engage with the materials. Some of those things, like pre-event access to the materials so that I can process the verbal load, think of and craft responses to questions, etc., require me to email Disability Support … who took two days to get back to me … and didn’t actually support the majority of my needs …)
Experience Discomfort - (… umm … I’d rather not if it’s all the same to you … Learning something in a space that requires me to be uncomfortable is not something that I’d prefer to do … It’s not like this is football or Krav Maga, where I’m going to be physically exhausted and a bit bruised up after training. This is a series of professional development modules for teachers. When I’m experiencing discomfort, my thoughts are around how to not feel that way … I don’t learn well in that kind of mental atmosphere.)
Speak Your Truth - (This is me speaking my truth …)
Expect and Accept Non-Closure - (… actually, I expect professional development from my professional development time. I don’t accept the bait and switch of a very poorly conceived and delivered series of training modules that have me struggling to access resources, understand what’s being said when spoken by people who are obviously reading from the speaker notes that aren’t shared in an accessible way …)
Having gone through the week’s exercises, I’m left with a few impressions.
No instructional designer touched these modules. I was never sure what were were to learn, or what I would be able to do in my teaching practice with the information that was presented. In other words, there was no “at the end of this event, students will be able to …” learning goal for any of the modules. No one thought about the diverse set of learners who would be in attendance, or the fact that some might be disabled. No one anticipated the needs of the group and had solutions built in - you know, like