Safety is a principle linked to respect for learners as decision makers of their own learning. But it has added connotations that relate to;
a. the design of learning tasks (a concept of Vella’s teaching method)
b. the atmosphere in the room
c. the design of small groups and materials
They convey to the adult learners that this experience will work for them. The context is safe.
Safety does not obviate the natural challenge of learning new concepts, skills, or attitudes. Safety does not take away any of the hard work involved in learning.
Should learning be designed to be challenging or to be safe? The answer is yes! Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and teacher, suggests a pattern for addressing such dilemmas: hold the opposites! In the new science the question arises: Is light a wave or a particle? The only response is yes! It is seen as either a wave or a particle depending on the context, the state of the observer, and the kind of equipment used.
I suggest that in all our efforts, and certainly in regard to the presence of challenge and safety in our educational designs, we celebrate the opposites. Safety is a principle that guides the teacher’s hand throughout the planning, during the learning needs and resources assessment, in the first moments of the course. The principle of safety enables the teacher to create an inviting setting for adult learners.
People have shown that they are not only willing but also ready and eager to learn when they feel safe in the learning environment.
What creates this feeling of safety?
1. Trust in the competence of the design and the teacher through written materials that learners have read beforehand or through introductory words with them.
2. Trust in the feasibility and relevance of the objectives. Review the design with the group and point out how the objectives have been informed by the learning needs and resources assessment.
3. Allow small groups to find their voices. invite learners to work in small groups to name their own expectations, hopes, or fears about a learning event or norms they want to see established in the large group. Four learners at a table large enough for their materials, small enough for them to feel included, provides physical and social safety for learners.
4. Trust in the sequence of activities. Begin with simple, clear, and relatively easy tasks before advancing to more complex and more difficult ones can give learners a sense of safety so they can take on the harder tasks with assurance. Sequence and reinforcement will be seen later as a corollary principle to safety.
5. Generate a nonjudgmental environment. Affirmation of every offering from every learner, as well as lavish affirmation of efforts and products of learning tasks, can create a sense of safety that invites creativity and spontaneity in dealing with new concepts, skills, and attitudes.
How can safety be endangered? One great danger to safety is the fatal moment when an adult learner says something in a group, only to have the words hit the floor with a resounding “plop,” without affirmation, without even recognition that she has spoken, with the teacher proceeding as if nothing had been said. This is a sure way to destroy safety in the classroom. A “plop” destroys safety not only for the person who spoke, but for all in the room. Just as you can see physical manifestations as learners feel safer and safer, you can observe definite physical manifestations of fear and anxiety after such a “plop.” You can watch the energy draining out of learners. The rise and fall of learners’ energy is an accurate indicator of their sense of safety. Energy is another of our selected quantum concepts.
(Condensed and reformatted from Jane Vella’s book Learning to Listen Learning to Teach 8-10)
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