Facilitation and L&T Professional

Facilitation of Learning

My work as a facilitator or HE specialist follows the same focus of helping individuals or teams to establish a base from which to chart their course. The methodology differs according to what the project or workshop requires. In this area I work with proven models of learning and the frameworks that inform best practice in higher education.

I have been facilitating and training teams and groups since 1996. I am experienced and, dare I say it, excellent facilitator especially in the soft business skills. I can offer workshops and training in the following:

Difficult Dialogues ^{T (DD)} Difficult Dialogues | Academics | University of Alaska Anchorage on topics such as:
- Civil discourse as a way of communication, Diversity, gender issues in business/classrooms, privilege and prejudice, minorities, discussion as a way of teaching (Brookfield and Preskill 2005)
- Although DD was initially aimed at university campuses, it has also been applied in numerous indigenous and international initiatives and lends itself to the issues of business communication.
The Art of Facilitation (Train the Trainer).
Critical Thinking in business or academics.
Conflict Management via Restorative Circles.
Leadership as a moral imperative.

Lecturing/Teaching Competencies

The presentation of material appropriate to the context and the various learning levels;
The design of my own lesson plans and the management of a pre-set curriculum;
The creation of assessment strategies to ensure learning;
Setting up my own formative and summative assessments and designing marking guides
External moderation of scripts

I am qualified to teach/lecture in the following areas:

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
Curriculum Design and Development
Assessment design and development
Teaching Portfolio Development
Human Resource Management
Education Management

Policy Development

Facilitate the content of Policy with an appropriate group
Design/Write Policy documents
Facilitate the introduction of new Policy to employees

Teaching and Learning Competencies

I have 15 years of experience in the field of Learning and Teaching. During this time, I most enjoyed and excelled at the facilitation of the development of tutors and academics in the skills of

Discussion as a way of teaching (Brookfield & Preskill 2005) using the methodologies and philosophy of Difficult Dialogues^T .

I have also run various other academic skills workshops such as:

Curriculum Review and Development and alignment with Graduate attributes
Instructional Design in a blended learning environment
Marking and designing marking rubrics
Formative and Summative Assessment design
Student Engagement techniques both for large classes and for small groups
Presentation Skills
Academic and Curriculum Advising
How to teach Critical Thinking

I also have extensive experience in working one-on-one with academics to redesign their module assessment processes to criteria-based assessment.

As the L&T manager in the Faculty of Humanities my work included a more strategic focus and I have been involved in utilising systems to track key performance indicators of quality teaching, student success and at-risk students. Using the research from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into the assessment of quality teaching I have set up peer review systems that are reflective and efficient.

I have written study guides, book chapters and am skilled at qualitative data collection and report writing.

My involvement in CHE and other external peer review processes has honed my ability to align systems to policy and prepare for such reviews.

Consulting and Project Management Competencies

Research design, data gathering and data analysis of qualitative data;
Measurement of the value added by projects and feedback to client;
Qualitative interviewing skills and focus group facilitation;
Team building facilitation;
Programme/project design;
Project management and delivery;
Report writing;
Proposal writing;
Implementation of Performance Management systems for clients using either productivity or competency measures;
Design of Performance Management contracts at team and individual levels, and
Client Relationship Management