I facilitate for transfer of learning.
Parents and family professionals are developing adult learners. My instructional design and facilitation approach focuses on transfer of learning and conceptual change rather than knowledge acquisition. I don’t just teach to add knowledge and skills. I teach to empower adaptive expertise that guides real-world decision making.
The following is the story of how Mary transferred her learning from an online group coaching session to a meltdown moment with her granddaughter.
Facilitating for Transfer of Learning
Mary (bottom right) is a parent educator who participated in a Reflective Dialogue Community event where I facilitated a discussion using the method they are learning to implement.
To explore our theme of cultivating connection, we viewed a clip from the Disney + Pixar film, Inside Out. I then used Hourglass Questions to facilitate our reflective dialogue.
The result was not only engaging experiential learning but also a deep, embodied understanding of what it looks feels like to connect and to foster that experience for others, as well as the lived experience of feeling and fostering disconnection.
Transfer of learning to life.
Two months later I met with Mary during a co-planning consultation. She shared a personal story of how she connected with her granddaughter during a meltdown over potato chips.
Her granddaughter quickly regulated, and focused on her healthy dinner.
In the video below, we notice how Mary naturally transferred her learning from our previous reflective dialogue session.
While Mary’s story is personal, her transfer of learning experience is not unique. It’s what my facilitation approach is designed to do, and I’ve witnessed similar experiences with parents and teachers since 2008. And it’s thrilling every time.
Transfer of learning to teaching.
Through engagement with the courses, curriculum, and community learning sessions, Mary has quickly and effectively implemented a new teaching philosophy and approach into her work with parents.
“Using RDPED early on in my scope and sequence really opened up my parent groups. When we did the hour glass discussions, I could not write fast enough to capture all of their amazing thoughts. Revisiting our group work when we did insight mapping allowed parents to do some reflection as individuals. I will always include RDPED lessons in my work with parents.”