VIGNETTE 6 – DEVELOPING STRATEGIES 1 Context

Still burning from the terror of touching raw memories with the walk and talk activity, I organised for the students to go on a guided tour of the library. This gave me the space I desperately needed to clear the swirling guilt from my head and to contemplate how I would move out of the hole of intrusion I had dug for myself. The students sat uncomfortably at their desks either occupying themselves with hollow actions or peering at me questioningly, scanning my face for clues. They remained respectful and I apologised again, informing them I had organised for them to undertake a conducted tour of the library so they could find their way around the shelves of books and the computers available for student research. Their bodies moved slowly as they gathered their belongings, accentuating my haste in dismissing them. I needed to

concentrate on regaining control over my own anxious state. After lunch they would return to our classroom for an activity to introduce them to learning theories. We would be back on safe ground.

Explaining that evidence based research is knowledge based on actual research undertaken by a person or group of people and not just derived from someone’s opinion, I introduced the students to the concept of learning theories. They interacted with my discussion asking many questions. They had not heard of any of the theorists or theories but their interest in the concept was encouraging. I regained some equilibrium.

5.7.2 Anecdote

Handing them a sheet of paper containing instructions for the activity I say:

“I am now going to give you time to go to the library in pairs to research a learning theory and prepare a presentation to the class for tomorrow. Your presentation is also to include a learning activity which demonstrates the use of the learning theory assigned to you. There are twelve of you so I have selected six learning theories. You will pair with someone who is in your apartment to make it easier for you to work together. You have a computer each and you have internet access in your apartments. You will have tonight and two hours tomorrow morning to prepare. We will commence your presentations at 11.30am tomorrow. Does anyone have any questions?”

Blank looks. Silence. I understand it to be their culture preventing them from reacting. I convince myself I am launching them straight into student centred learning from which they will ultimately benefit. Sink or swim, and they will learn to swim, over time. I dismiss them, lock up the classroom and return to my office exhausted.

The following morning at 9am I worked from our classroom so I could be of assistance to any students in need. None came until the appointed time of 11.30am. Presentations commenced. The most assured volunteered to go first. Their presentations regurgitated information from websites verbatim. They showed great interest in where theorists were born, their year of birth and their upbringing. I surmise this is because it is relatively easy information for them to relate to. Some aspects of the learning theories have been comprehended resulting in some

interesting though simple learning activities (e.g. learning how to skip).

The last presentation was by two female members of the group on Carl Rogers’ theory of experiential learning. Rogers distinguished cognitive learning (memorising facts) from experiential learning (doing and experiencing). Cognitive learning relates to rote learning and academic knowledge whilst experiential learning relates to applied learning where the student is involved in their own learning through experiencing the learning by doing.

As they arise from their seats the two women’s eyes meet nervously. They approach the front of the room and commence their PowerPoint presentation. The first student addresses the slides in a quiet, hesitant voice struggling with pronunciation. The second

student stands aside, a look of consternation clouding her expression. We are informed about Carl Rogers’ life and given a brief, sketchy account of his work. At the conclusion of the slide presentation the first student announces that her colleague will lead the learning activity. The second student steps forward as a slide appears on the screen with what looks like words of a poem or song written in Tetun, the indigenous language of TL.

She starts singing in a melodious voice and encourages her co-students to join in. It appears that the song is well known to all the students as their voices rise in unison. The student leading the song becomes animated, smiling, clapping her hands and moving her body in rhythm. She looks happy for the first time since I met her. In an explosion of understanding I realise this student is not speaking English. Memory flashes of other students speaking to her in whispers and her puzzled facial expressions during my explanations of our activities astound me. I recognise a simplicity in her activity which besieges me, making me question the task I have embraced in bringing these students to a post-graduate level of academic learning in one short year, nine months of which will be achieved through email correspondence. I clap along and put a veneer on my face of a smiling, encouraging participant, but the smile on my face masks my despair. I wonder in amazement that I have been duped into accepting this role with mere promises of support from the university. My university colleagues already have full teaching loads and I wonder at how I thought this promise of support would materialise. I have no English as a Second Language (ESL) training and I have no experience of teaching ESL students.

5.7.3 Emotional Response

I feel alone, polarised and despairing. My sense of feeling polarised stems from my own overwhelming feeling on the one hand that I might not be capable of the task before me and on the other, the compelling compassion I feel for these students upon whom there are great expectations. Not only am I being tested here, these students have been given the task by their own government of learning enough in Australia to return to TL to assist in building the infrastructure of their TVET system. I hear myself congratulating the pair on their presentation and call for a ten minute break.

When I visited TL just one month before with the university’s PVC with responsibility for our TL relationship, I had asked for and been supported in achieving funding for one day per week of English language tuition with the university’s English Language Institute (ELI). At the time, I had viewed this as a helpful achievement, a lifeline. However the enormity of my task had been hidden from my consciousness until that scaringly potent moment of recognition. One day per week of English language tuition over a twelve week period loomed as insufficient to deal with the lack of English language skills I had just identified.

5.7.4 Reflexivity

I understood in the midst of my despair that I had twelve students feeling their way in a foreign world, some of whom might feel more despairing than me. We were in this together. My approach to teaching is to use the Socratic Method where I pose questions rather than giving students answers. I am the facilitator of my students’ learning using their intrinsic desire for discovery as our guide. The learning outcomes within the GCVET allowed an approach to learning which incorporated transformational learning, student-led learning, and discovery learning. I was their guide and I could not perform miracles, however I could enthuse them with a desire to learn which could transcend the cultural and linguistic barriers which had just overwhelmed me. When they returned after their break, I led them in a questioning exercise to identify what they felt they needed to learn. I wanted to give them control of their learning and to involve them in designing their own learning. Writing their suggestions on the whiteboard, they provided us with a comprehensive list which I came to recognise as being able to sit within the learning outcomes of the GCVET. When they had exhausted their ideas of what they felt they needed to learn, I began grouping their ideas to fit under headings identified in the learning