Facilitator TrainingSubject Learning Communities

Friday 5th March 2010

What are the desired outcomes from the day?Snowball activity:

Write your own desired outcomes on post-it notes (use a separate note for each outcome).

Come together as a group of 5/6:Share your outcomesRemove duplicationAgree on one set of desired outcomes

Come together as a large group of 11:Share your sets of outcomesRemove duplicationAgree on one set of desired outcomes for the large group

We will have an idea of where the learning community will be based: e.g. edubuzz/anew site. Will it be a common format?

Set up an online network. To discover more about the proposed learning communities model. See what AifL is going on and get some consistency. Work with like minded people. See who else is interested from my subject area. For each subject specific group to have a focus for the development of the curriculum. Establish a group of like minded people to produce quality materials. To know what area(s) to focus on within my group. Roles & expectations of being a facilitator, and what help/resources are available to help? To learn about the role of facilitator. Facilitator roles? To get a better understanding of the roles of a facilitator. The role of a facilitator is made clear in terms of remit, timescales and priorities. To find out what backing I have from above. Funding – Where can I get funding from?Enterprise in Education? Will the pupils get access to the site? To establish better links between schools How will/can we share good practice better? Meeting other like minded people to share ideas. To share ideas, concerns and realistic possibilities of CfE in PE. To hear other people’s/subjects thoughts on moving forward with CfE. To make the transition to the new curriculum easier – shared practice. To have working examples of CfE Try to establish core activities that every school will complete.

The proposed model

Discuss the following in your groups of 5/6:

What is your opinion of the proposed model of Subject Learning Communities?

What would you change to improve this proposal? How can we make the model sustainable?

Summarise your agreed answers to these questions on flipchart paper.

Roles of a facilitator

Group task Review the various examples of the roles and

responsibilities of facilitators.Use these ideas and your own to develop a

guide/framework which could be used by Facilitators of Subject Learning Communities.

Principles of learning communities

Starter questions for group discussion:How do the changes needed for embedding Formative

Assessment relate to Curriculum for Excellence? How can we achieve Wiliam’s five principles of teacher

learning communities?What do you understand by the terms 'reflective practice',

'action research' and ‘professional enquiry’? Could your subject learning community be an opportunity

for collaborative professional enquiry? Is this desirable? Why?

Principles of learning communities

Group task: How could communities operate to improve learning?Imagine your group is a successful Subject Learning

Community which has been working collaboratively for two years.

What does this look like? What have you achieved? How does this feel? What impact has it had on you and your pupils?

Outline the steps/processes your community have been through over the past two years to become successful.

Starting a Subject Learning Community

Group task: How do you start a community?You will be given a scenario as a group.Decide as a group what steps the facilitator in

the scenario should take to set up and run the Subject Learning Community over the first year.