Ask no questions tell no lies

Stardate 6^th Feb 09

I got a good grade 2 for the inspection, Could I have got a grade 1? What were the criticisms? Well it was levelled at me that my questions could have been more what’s the word probing open. This is a difficult area. If a learner is doing a task a stage a competency step and they understand the nature of the task and just need to work through it to progress to the next stage. As a teacher I’m expected to see each of the learners in a workshop session to check learning. What do I ask them? Normally I would ask them how they feel it’s progressing and if they have encountered any problems. If they say there fine and its moving forward well should I proceed to test their learning on an area that we both know they understand or should I leave them to get on with the task. I questioned the inspector on just this issue and he (somewhat surprisingly) seemed to agree that letting them get on with it is an acceptable solution. Interestingly he also suggested that I let the learners fail. This is something I have thought about and raised a range of interesting questions relating to the workings of the course. We are constantly told that retention is important in my experience learners who are left to struggle and fail at a task leave, and as a rule don’t tell you beforehand that they have become disillusioned with it, they just don’t return. The nature of stained glass is that a project can become quite expensive. Whilst I understand that a learners own ability can reduce the technical quality of a piece, I am willing to compromise with the learner in such a way where the project will be completed. The phrase there is nothing we cannot fix is banded about. I do encourage the learners to reflect on their projects and discuss with them ways they can attempt to improve weaker areas in their next project. I continually strive to push the importance of accuracy in each of the stages. Rightly or wrongly the method I use is to explain that basically I’m a lazy person. I have found if I cut the glass accurately in the first instance then it needs much less grinding. Any grinding required if done meticulously means the leading up stage can be completed much easier, the same goes for the soldering process. Neatly cut lead cames solder faster .Lazy does not equal sloppy prefer to get the project done with the least amount of effort accuracy achieves this.

For the 3^rd week in a row we have had a new late starting student on the course. This means each week I have had to bring a new person up to speed. I would have expected this to become a nightmare but weirdly has proved beneficial. It has allowed a practical way to recap for the other learners and interestingly the new students have all been helping each other passing on little tips and tricks, I do like this kind of learning. I have bumped the soldering demonstration for both classes until their projects are nearer to that stage as we would have become out of step with their actual progression but i believe it is good to be flexible with this.