Tip of the Month

March 5, 2007

Best Practice # 1 follows
Course Beginnings

I do something at the beginning of every course I teach to put everyone at
ease and to bring home the point that cohort learning takes all of their
combined knowledge. I go around the room and ask how many years of work
experience they have excluding paper routes and babysitting. As they go
around the room and shout out the years I write the number on the white
board. Then I add all the number up. The number is never less than 100 and
often is closer to 200 or more. My comment at that point is that my
expectation is that they will not be stingy and give to the cohort the
wisdom of their years of experience. I also make sure that those students
that have only a few years of experience are told that their fresh
perspective is as valuable as the person that has 25 years of experience.

Best Practice #2
Experiential Exercise

Get two packs of multicolored straws (usually there are 40-60 in a
package). Separate the group into two teams giving them only one
instruction, "Build the highest free-standing structure you can with the
package of straws and package of straight pins I am giving you.

Then let them go at it. I usually have one person from each group become
an 'observer'. After about 10-15 minutes, I usaully change things up a
little. For example, I ask them to remove 2-3 of a particular color straw
(after checking which ones would be the most difficult!). Watching the
dynamics is fascinating!

During the debrief, I ask each group what they observed about themselves as
individuals and as a group. After both groups have gone, I ask each observer
what they observed, and then and only then do I add my 2 cents! This
experiential exercise is something that is referred to throughout the
course!

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