Overwhelmingly, the feedback from AWAL Workshops is positive. Participants value the experience and are eager to apply what they have learned in their own teaching situations.
However, even the best programs can be subject to criticism. Here are some scenarios and questions that could arise and possible suggestions for addressing them.
1. The “perfectionist”
“I don’t want to give you this activity; it doesn’t reflect my best work.”
The two most common responses in the AWAL feedback forms are 1) Great PD!, and 2) Not enough time! Be sure to acknowledge in your opening remarks that this will be a long intense day – that there is a lot of material to cover. Also remind participants as they work that while we want the instructional ideas to be as full as is possible, there are practical limits. Try your absolute best to leave with an activity from everyone. Not surprisingly, past experience confirms that while the intention to submit something at a later date is good, the “perfected” activities rarely arrive.
1 When AWAL began in the late 1990s, the project used to ask everyone to simply hand write the context and their activity in the boxes on the forms. Not surprisingly, people would write enough to fill the boxes and then they would stop. In August 2002 there was an AWAL session in Quesnel, BC that was held in a learning lab. It was a place where adult learners, in this case, could drop in and work one on one with an instructor or do their own work on the computers. As we got to the idea development part of the session, one of the instructors asked if it would be ok if she wrote up her idea on the computer. Several others followed suit.
In looking at the activities developed in that session, a number of things emerged. Without exception all of the activities developed using word processing were not only longer, but they were fuller and more detailed than those created previously by hand. The theory that emerged is that as educators of a certain generation, many of us have become more comfortable writing with a computer than with a pen and paper. We are more likely to edit ourselves when word processing than we are if it means we have to scratch something out, have an ugly blot on the page and then rewrite it. Using the computer also allows for the creation of supplemental resources. For example, an activity might include a table with the headings included where learners would write their findings. That table can easily be created in Word and become an instructional handout. It is also possible for freehand sketches or diagrams to be included. Another advantage to working on computer is that the Internet can be open providing access to samples already on the AWAL database, and to permit the search for input from other sites to incorporate into the activities.