Revision of Training Practices

The Training Practices section of the Facilitator website thoroughly delineates the responsibilities of the mentors during facilitator training under the theory of Third Spaces. However, since the Writing Studio is working to include Self-Regulated Learning Theory into its model, I suggest Training Practices be revised to include activities that allow facilitators to examine their own ways of self-regulating.


Self-Regulation key points:

-According to Schnuk and Zimmerman, self-regulation refers to process by which students attain, develop, and apply modes of thinking, attitudes, and behaviors to meet learning goals.

Self-Regulation involves an:
-emphasis on incremental theory-the belief that intelligence is not fixed but can be expanded through the implementation and adaptaion of learning strategies
-emphasis on the role a student's interest level plays in meeting proximal and distal goals, increasing knowledge, and deepening cognitive abilities
-understading of the relationship between high self-efficacy and deep learning, attainment of personal goals, and higher performance


Since Writing Studio now incorporates theories of Self-Regulation into its framework, it is essential that facilitators have opportunities to not only reflect on their own attitudes, perceptions and behaviors regarding learning , but also to be trained in practices and language that will students in recognizing, developing, expanding, and adapting their own self-regulatory beliefs and practices.

To this aim, facilitators will engage in activities that:
-allow them to assess their own learning goals, conditions for optimal learning, and self-regulating strategies
-develop language to support students as they reflect on their learning process
-identify resources students can use to optimize their learning
-help them recognize (their own and students') self-handicapping attitudes and behaviors as well as strategies to overcome them
-develop strategies for helping students to identify their learning goals and to establish strategies to meet them

I also suggest that the language of the Training Practices be reworked to emphasize the role of the facilitator, as opposed to the mentor, during the training. The training should be (mainly) facilitator-centered, with facilitators (who have most contact with the students) being able to imagine scenarios, develop language strategies, plan activities, etc.

We can add a component that looks something like the following:
By the end of Facilitator training, facilitators will have:
-reflected on their own SRL
- participated in mock studio sessions
- developed language strategies to promote incremental learning, goal-setting, reflection (on perfomance, attitudes and behaviors)
-identified characterisitcs of "effective group dynamics" and developed activities/language/practices to promote/maintain such in their groups
-discuss/categorize high order concerns/low order concerns-develop language to prioritize high order concerns
-discuss multiple discources and develop language to promote audience awareness for students