Ptlls_Assignment_4

Assignment 1 Task 4 (3.2) Ground Rules As managers, trainer or teachers, we are concerned not only with getting the work done, but also how the work gets done. Whenever individuals meet together, it is helpful to develop guidelines for positive participation. Meaningful guidelines, often called ground rules, provide a framework to ensure open, respectful dialogue, and maximum participation. They are an important tool for helping individuals function together as a team and they reflect what is important to the members about how they work together. Using ground rules to build a safe learning climate is especially important in the field of education where many teaching practices are strongly linked to personal values and experiences. Ideally, a set of rules is discussed and implemented at the first meeting allowing them to become second nature to the group. Discussing ground rules after problems arise would prove much more difficult. Ground rules articulate a minimum standard of behaviour and, depending on the context to which they are applied, can help foster a culture of honesty, collective responsibility and can enable systematic learning patterns. However, they should not anticipate situations or try to cover all parameters, but rather prevent situations from taking place while serving as a light behavioural guide to the teacher and the group. In a context of teaching employability techniques to a group of people referred by the Jobcentre, where the group is more challenging than the usual eager to learn students, ground rules help create a safe learning environment and can provide a cushion for the shifts in thinking and practice that new knowledge and skills may require. The first method of setting ground rules to such a group would be to facilitate a conversation around it, giving students a ready-made list of rules, discussing the most relevant ones and once most of them agree, ask them to sign the paper. Another method would be dividing the group into three and asking them to write down what their expectations are from the course, the teacher and themselves. After approximately 15 minutes get them to present the rules that they came up with while adding to it if anything is left out. At the end, ask them what they can do to ensure these goals are achieved throughout the course, print the rules and hang them up on a wall so that they can be referred to later on if needed. As an employability trainer, I would use the second method to set ground rules because it would give me a chance to interfere and negotiate with the group while keeping them focused on the task. This is a relaxed way where the trainer does not come across as dominant but does not seem to be too cooperative either. Also, this method, as opposed to the first one, gets everyone involved and provides the group with more time to express their concerns and clarify what is on the lists. Method one would be too short and it would reduce the meaning of the exercise in this context. There is no right way or wrong way of setting ground rules, they need to be set according to the situation and the group they refer to.