DSOC 2210

Designing and Facilitating Learning for Development

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

In Designing and Facilitating Learning for Development, we look for commonalities across a variety of venues and settings where people meet together to learn, deliberate, and act. From professional development to social change, town hall to union hall, or citizen science to workplace training, adult and community learning is everywhere. Yet, for many, the design and facilitation of meaningful learning experiences can be as mysterious as an unopened black box. How does one go about creating inclusive educational experiences for diverse learners in our increasingly interconnected context? In this course we open the box to become better leaders of learning and action. A democratic and socially just society should enable all of its citizens to develop their potential to the full and to have the capacity, individually and collectively, to meet the challenge of change. Through learning, people can come to make a real contribution to their own communities and participate in local and national democratic processes. Two of the most ubiquitous formats of adult learning are 1) the workshop, and 2) one-on-one mentoring. As a backwards design approach and interactive facilitation principles can serve each application well, we will learn and practice both! In this course you will a) design and facilitate workshops, and b) mentor a Cornell employee as they pursues a learning goal, and do both by learning and applying design process and facilitation arts. Meaningful. Practical. Fun.

When Offered Spring.

Distribution Category (D-AG, KCM-AG)
Course Attribute (CU-CEL)

• Through the studio and field components, participants will: in wrestling with the why, what and how of teaching, (further) develop a sense of self as an adult educator, inquirer and learning -- centered leader.
• Learning -by - doing through multiple means, create lesson plans and workshop designs.
• From reviewing classic and current thinking about adult and community learning, gain familiarity with key concepts and ideas.
• By experimenting with "design thinking" and "backwards planning," increase facility in: clarifying purposes to be met through design, scoping design parameters and constraints and understanding the learners' contexts and conditions approaches to designing lessons and workshops, increase facility in 1) to be taken in consideration.
• Through learning and trying different types of purposes, formats and activity structures for working with groups and individuals, develop proficiency in facilitation.
• As both workshop content and process, explore and demonstrate arts and skills of democratic leadership for inclusive, collaborative learning with diverse groups and individuals.
• Serving as a Learning Partner, practice cross-cultural educational mentoring for mutual growth.

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