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4 DECEMBER 2009
NO 1522
Contexts
Instructors, supervisors, and colleagues help one another learn to become competent in context by teaching and encouraging each other to consciously use several ways of knowing (Artz, 1994) and learning, and to become familiar with their personal learning styles (Kolb, 1984). They also help one another avoid the natural tendency to fall back on one or two learning methods so that their capacity for competence in context is not limited. For example, they can ask each other, How did you feel? What did your instincts tell you? What thoughts did you have about the situation? In hindsight, how might you do it differently?
The learning process is facilitated by exploring "real life" situations and learning, using dialogues, demonstrations, role plays, and problem solving exercises. During a shift, workers reflect on and analyze a situation to see how it might be enhanced or repeated. A supervisor or a colleague, helps a worker understand the meaning of a confrontation, or a moment of excitement, and how the worker handled the situation. Or, in a classroom an instructor explores a series of interactions with youth or designs a role play with an emphasis on "meaning, atmosphere, and the nature of the activity."
The youth worker grabs the soccer ball, holds it
on her hip until all the youth have gathered around her, then says,
"That was a good game. I thought you all put in a good effort. We're
going to dinner now. I'd like us all to go together."
"What are we having?" one youth asks.
"Lasagna."
"I love lasagna," a youth says.
"Not me," another youth says.
"We'll have some garlic bread and a salad also. The last time we had
lasagna, everyone seemed to enjoy the meal," the worker says.
A youth begins to run ahead. "Let's all walk together," the worker says in a firm, friendly voice. She waits. When they are all standing calmly, she moves at a leisurely pace toward the dining hall in the middle of a loose configuration where she can feel the presence of each youth, then holds the door as they pass into the building where they circle the table and stand behind their chairs. A couple of youths bump shoulders. She looks at them, waits until they are settled, then slowly sits down.
Like all transitions, this transition has multiple meanings. Each youth, for instance, has a different sense of the events (soccer, the movement from soccer to dinner, and dinner) which has been developed by his or her cultural and familial experiences. Change and movement from one activity to another can have one meaning for one youth and another meaning for another. The experience of meals, lasagna, is different for each youth and the worker based on their previous experiences of meals and the mealtime rituals and traditions of meals.
The transition includes atmosphere. As worker and youth move from soccer to dinner, the pace and configuration of their movement together sets the tone for the transition. The youth gather around the worker, jostle, rush off, come back. She waits, holds the ball on her hip, moves at a leisurely pace, speaks in a firm, friendly voice and positions herself in the middle of the movement. There is a sense that the game and transition to dinner are purposeful. The worker reviewed the nature of the activity and discussed what was about to happen. The activities, soccer, dinner, and the movement in between appeared to meet the needs of the youth.
MARK KRUEGER AND CAROL STUART
Krueger, M. and Stuart, C. (1999). Context and
competence in work with children and youth. Child and Youth Care
Forum, 28, 3. pp. 198-200.
REFERENCES
Artz, S.A. (1994). Feeling as a way of knowing. Toronto. Trifolium Books.
Kolb, D.A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as a source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Prentice-Hall Inc.
