2. Classroom procedures

Application of standards: One of the recurring themes of classroom management of both practitioners and learners is the need for the practitioner to be clear in the expression and consistent in the application of expectations around learners’ rights and responsibilities, confidentiality of information and behaviour and performance. While it is ideally a shared responsibility to develop these expectations, it is the practitioner who is expected to see that they are carried out. This uniformity does not negate the importance of seeing adult learners in the classroom as individuals; rather it offers an up-front approach to everyone’s recognition of each learner’s unique situation and an opportunity to develop the understanding necessary for learning success on the part of every member of the class.

A best practice around application of standards:

Expectations around rights and responsibilities of all participants in the LBS classroom should be clearly articulated and uniformly demanded

Approach: The importance of this ‘best practice’ was identified by most LBS administrators through the survey. In Helping Adults Persist: Four Supports, Comings et al see this as part of one of the four main goals that every program must strive to achieve. The clear posting of agreed-upon rights and responsibilities and expectations around performance and behaviour makes a uniform application more visible and defensible. The continued review of these rights, responsibilities and expectation through focus group meetings, ‘town hall’ meetings or other inclusive means will keep them relevant and known by everyone in the class.

3. Communication

a. Communication in instruction: Communication between practitioner and learner, is a vital part of the power relationship and central to management in the classroom. Johnson-Bailey and Cervero in Beyond Facilitation in Adult Education: Power Dynamics in Teaching and Learning Practices, identify the extent to which these power dynamics impact learning. This study shows that everything from tone of voice to voice level affects this power relationship. Pat Campbell, in Participatory Literacy Practices: Exploring Social Identity and Relations, demonstrates that it is through this communication that power is shared between learners and practitioner. If the type and amount of communication that occurs between practitioner and learner leads to this shared power arrangement and is predicated on the learning style of the learner, it acts as a motivator toward the successful completion of learning outcomes and contributes to the feeling of satisfaction in the process that the learner experiences.