What
is provided?
- Support
and encouragement to take risks that will enhance growth.
The nature of support and risk is sensitively gauged and
balanced to
meet the needs and aspirations of the individuals and groups
involved.
- A
process that is guided by agreed objectives, but
which also provides opportunities for open-ended curiosity,
exploration
and discovery.
What
is experienced?
- Experiences
of moving beyond what is safe, known or familiar.
- Experiences
that are fulfilling and intrinsically rewarding.
The sense of fulfilment and reward may arise mostly from the
experience
itself, or may arise mostly from the process of
reflection/review (e.g.
through positive feedback - perhaps following 'unfulfilling'
experiences).
- Experiences
that are 'missing'.
For young people these experiences will generally involve
crossing new
thresholds and new ways of learning. For older people these
experiences
may include rediscovering 'the child within'. What is
'missing' could
be guided by a curriculum/checklist of experiences to which
everyone
has a right, but what is 'missing' is something that is
essentially an
intuitive judgement made by the individual - perhaps in
discussion with
trusted others. For many young people the 'missing' experience
of being
in a supportive developmental group is the starting point from
which
other 'missing' experiences can be 'found'.
What
are the outcomes?
"Some
learning is now part of me, some I will need to remember."
(quote from a development training participant)
- Growth
("now a part of me")
'Growth' outcomes are sensed but they may be hard to describe
and
measure. The person has changed
(typically more confident - but perhaps only in certain
situations)
- Learning
("I will need to remember")
'Learning' outcomes are achieved more consciously and are
easier to
describe and measure. The person is empowered
(typically more in control, but does not necessarily choose to
apply
what they have learned).
- Interdependence
The ultimate outcome is not independence
in which the learner no longer needs support and
encouragement.
Lifelong learners need continual support
and encouragement, but may learn to source these things in
different
ways (e.g. through mentoring, developmental supervision or
special
personal relationships).
More
development training links:
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