The Yellow Group. Trainer’s Portfolio

The aim of the yellow group was to share teaching experiences, to learn more about various adult education techniques and methods and to produce a portfolio of best examples.

During the project, yellow group members participated in the following events:

• Training session in Rovaniemi (Finland), where future steps were agreed upon and future plans made. Members of the yellow group decided that during the meeting in Rovaniemi it should start working on the final portfolio;
  
• Training session in Riga (Latvia), during which participants demonstrated examples of the following methods: problem-based learning, language teaching methods and project method;
  
• Training session in Tallinn, during which participants were introduced to the concept of trainer’s portfolio and methods of how to assess the learning process.

What is the Portfolio Concept About?
It is a document, or rather an organised collection of documents, relating to the training process and assembled over a period of years, the purpose of which is to record qualifications, results and experience, and also containing samples of personal work.
The outcome of the yellow group was a set of examples of methods, which were presented by every member of the group. The collected material could serve as a handbook for adult education practitioners and a starting point for the development of our own personal portfolios.

What is the Learning Process Like?

Learning is a self-regulated process. If we are to develop and ready to accept everything new, we learn not only in the classroom but also in all everyday situations. The experience gained during the work in the yellow group was very educational. We had the opportunity to visit different adult education institutions, to participate in several training sessions and work with the audience by ourselves.
Ona Stašaitienė says: “Paul R. Sundar’s lecture gave me the idea of preparing the topic about the Project Method. Firstly, I found a lot of materials and had to group them. My aim was to prepare a seminar for adults. During the Learning 4 Sharing project, I had heard some lectures on how to prepare a seminar, how to work with adults, what the criteria of a good adult educator are, etc..
It was a very good experience. The more seminars I led, the braver I felt. Initially, I was very afraid of this responsibility and also nervous about my English. Although I knew how to cope with the stress, it was so difficult to do it. The first part of the seminar was very difficult for me, but I felt that with every minute I became more and more confident about myself. Now I can say that everybody should try to do something that seems impossible to begin with”.

Words Make a Difference

It is of great importance to define your concepts very clearly and distinctly so that we are talking about the same things when discussing pedagogical matters. This is hard enough when we speak our own language and of course even harder and more important when we try to communicate in a foreign language.
This was made clear when a representative from Estonia talked about methods and what a method is. We all, of course, had so-called “backbone knowledge” of what a method is, but we used different words to describe it. So my conclusion is – be careful with pedagogical words and concepts.

Variations

There is no one and only “salvation method” or “best for everything” method. The key word we should bear in mind is – variation! The more methods you master, the more you are able to vary.s

Be Careful with Methods

In some way all of the methods are about manipulation. However, some of them are more manipulative than others. The adult educator has to be sure to have his/her “ethical compass” turned on.

Conclusion

It was good that we had an opportunity to visit many different places and see different styles of teachers. It was very positive that we had enough time to discuss our impressions, so that talking things over helped to memorise and structure them
We would like to thank everybody for having been able to participate in such a wonderful project. It was very educational and we learned a lot. In addition to that, it also followed the social part of adult education. So we can say that it was real edutainment – education and entertainment together.

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