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Maryrose C. Mbanefo

Maryrose Mbanefo Post 1

• 24 July 2020, 9:54 PM

The Role of a Facilitator

The job of the facilitator is to help manage a process of information exchange; he or she addresses the journey rather than the destination. His/her role is that of assistance and guidance and not control. In activity-based learning, there is a wide range of interactions available in the learning- centred environment: Teacher – Pupil, Pupil – Teacher; Teacher – Material, Pupil – Material, and Pupil – Pupil, Material – Material.

All these interactions, engage all the faculties of the students, reduce distraction, and hence maximize learning of creative skills and management problem in the classroom. The facilitation technique allows integration of knowledge from diverse sources through the interactions. The teacher makes the students do the work or bring out the ideas while he provides non- directive leadership. Therefore, the teacher will let student/learners interact with environment (materials), the teacher and themselves, so that they can acquire the scientific skills of: observing, recording, asking questioning, inferring, participating in group work (collaboration), making discovery and conclusion.
I'm Patiboyou Kirong From Togo, west Africa. As teacher educator, i'm much interted in this program

Patibouyou Kirong Post 2 in reply to 1

• 26 July 2020, 9:26 AM

Nice as role. Through this the teacher also can learn from students. This reinforce their will and their committment t learn.

Halima Shuaibu Post 4 in reply to 2

• 26 July 2020, 6:33 PM

Exactly Patibouyou, teachers also lean from their students. 

Halima Shuaibu Post 3 in reply to 1

• 26 July 2020, 6:30 PM

The role of a facilitator is also to be able to build a community and also enable an atmosphere for learning. 

Michele Deane Post 5 in reply to 3

• 27 July 2020, 7:03 PM

Some really good points in your discussion. I agree, Patibouyou and Halima, learning together is really important, and we as teachers can learn from our learners!

Maryrose, when you say "[the teacher] addresses the journey rather than the destination", I think I know what you mean. We must be very clear though that, in most, if not all of our countries, there is a compulsory curriculum and that it is the responsibility of he teacher to ensure that children attain the objectives (in terms of attitudes, skills and knowledge) determined by this curriculum. So the teacher must make sure these objectives are attained, but she or he can have a real input in the choice of the journey to achieving the objectives.

Maryrose C. Mbanefo

Maryrose Mbanefo Post 10 in reply to 5

• 9 August 2020, 4:11 PM

Thank you Michele, the teacher addressing the journey is to ensure that the objective of the lesson is achieved.

Arthur Nzau Post 6 in reply to 1

• 2 August 2020, 6:04 PM

By engaging learners to be  actively in class a teacher can bring out the best from the learners .  

Aminu Rufai Post 7 in reply to 1

• 2 August 2020, 9:05 PM

True the facilitators are to  trigger the learners interest into the  discussion and make the environment favourable by providing the necessary  learning materials ,guide and moderate students interactions so that they don't go out of the focus in this way the learners discover and construct knowledge

Maryrose C. Mbanefo

Maryrose Mbanefo Post 11 in reply to 7

• 9 August 2020, 4:22 PM
That is it, the teacher moderates the students interactions. Now we are taking the teaching on line, the teacher's activity is limited. We are to think of inclusive learning, where the parents are involved in the learning to ensure, that the students are not distracted by back-channels.

Felix Olakulehin Post 8 in reply to 1

• 8 August 2020, 12:16 AM

Sometimes as facilitators we need discipline to ensure that we give our learners the chance to freely express their thoughts and allow their ideas to develop as they try to cobble them together in conversations. The tendency to interject and clarify may lead to them bottling up important ideas of prevent great insights from being drawn out.

Michele Deane Post 9 in reply to 8

• 8 August 2020, 4:09 PM

Aminu and Felix, yes! Being a facilitator is really playing the dual role of supporting and challenging. Supporting so that all learners can attain what they are capable of attaining and challenging (gently without putting the bar too high) so that they can all push their understanding/thinking/learning just a little further...

Doris2020

Doris Njoka Post 12 in reply to 9

• 9 August 2020, 10:15 PM

I am excited about the role of a teacher as a facilitator, because he/she involves learners in knowledge creation, sharing, evaluation, etc. My main concern is how one can facilitate effective learning in large classes. Take an example of 200 or more students in a skills course/unit at the university. 

Michele Deane Post 13 in reply to 12

• 10 August 2020, 9:14 AM

Doris, if you weren't able to attend Webinar 2, have a look at the recording. Patricia, our colleague from Kenya gave examples of how she manages LCE in large amphitheatres where some 500 students are present.

The recording of Webinar 2 is available at the following link so that those who want can review and those who missed it can engage and catch up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W29eTKMZ_TM 


Franci Mureithi Post 14 in reply to 1

• 11 August 2020, 4:11 AM

Points well put, Maryrose. The teacher is not neither the owner of knowledge nor the sole controller of the learning process. Theirs is to support. guide, clarify and moderate the content and the process, thus giving learners the freedom to engage and explore their potentials.

Michele Deane Post 15 in reply to 14

• 11 August 2020, 1:22 PM

I do agree that in LCE, there is a significant shift in the role of the teacher, and this is crucial. It is still the case though that the teacher is responsible for learning to take place, and that this learning should enable students to meet the objectives and attainment targets of the curriculum. Knowing her/his students, their strengths and needs, the teacher will define SMART objectives and select teaching strategies / learning activities that will match the strengths and needs of the students for the objectives to be met and for  the required standards to be attained.

Chimdiebere Joseph Post 16 in reply to 1

• 27 August 2020, 11:18 AM

This is a good one. The facilitator ensures that information exchange is been managed properly, to the right channels. When this is done, teachers and learners play their roles effectively.

ERIC Wangila Post 17 in reply to 1

• 19 September 2020, 7:02 AM

a good teacher need to manage, arrange and rearrange to create a suitable learning environment for students.