Ptlls Assignment 4 Ground Rules

City and Guilds 7303 PTLLS Award Name of candidate: Lynne Shelley
Theory Assignment 4: Analyse different ways in which you would establish ground rules with your learners, which underpin behaviour and respect for others
In all teaching and training sessions ground rules are necessary to ensure that all learners have the same expectation of what they will learn, how it will be taught, what is expected of them, the environment it will be taught in and any necessary health and safety aspects. Gravells (2008:50) suggests that “A suitable learning environment is crucial to enable your learners to learn effectively. This involves not only the venue and resources used but your attitude and the support you give to your students.”
Ground rules can be set in various ways and it may be fitting to apply different methods to suit the group being taught. Francis and Gould (2011:23) suggest that “the nature, size and maturity of the group may make one approach more appropriate than the others”
Rules can be teacher/institution/ awarding body led, others are student led and some are negotiated between students and tutor.
Some rules will be legislature imposed, such as any Health and Safety ones for example where the fire exits are or the wearing of safety equipment. Some will be as laid down by an awarding body e.g. City and Guilds to lay down the standard of work or teaching required. There is no room for negotiation on these and a clear delivery of them by the teacher / trainer is vital.
Some students or even teachers may feel these are too rigid and that they have not been able to contribute to them; however these rules affect far more people than those in the class and will have strong justification (legal reasons or national laid down standards) for them.
Other rules will be teacher imposed such as punctuality, handing in assignments on time, turning off of mobile phones, one contributor at a time, confidentiality. Students could feel that the teacher is being dictatorial. If there is strong opposition to any of the rules, particularly with adult learners, then the teacher should be open to discussion and maybe negotiation.
This leads on to the third category of negotiated rules which would be put in place by the class following an agreed form of consultation exercise. This could take the place of a discussion about what the class has experienced with good and bad rules; a form of brain storming or they could be noted on a board or flip chart and then voted on. The advantages of these are that the class has ownership of them and there has been a consensus of agreement. A disadvantage could be that the students who voted against them will not be happy to have them imposed. As Knowles suggests adults are capable of self-direction and some may not see the need for ground rules as they consider that they have the maturity to behave appropriately.
The importance of allowing students to contribute to setting the ground rules is further emphasised by the QIA (The Quality Improvement Agency for Lifelong Learning 2008) in an observation made by a teacher at City College Manchester who found that “everyone felt ownership of the ground rules because they were not imposed by the teacher” following a class exercise to set them.
Although I am not in a professional teaching environment at the moment I understand the need for ground rules and would ensure all teacher/institution/ awarding body led rules are fully understood and imparted clearly by myself at all sessions. I will endeavour to ensure that my teacher imposed ones are fair and justifiable for example: mobile phones turned off, work submitted on time and prompt attendance at all sessions. If the students feel the need to negotiate some rules then I will agree to a fair way by using some of the methods I have covered above.
The fundamental points of the need for ground rules are: clear delivery of legislative ones, firm delivery of teacher imposed ones and collective agreement of negotiated ones. Ground rules can be published in the classroom as a reminder and they can always be revisited if considered necessary. This will make certain that the learning environment is calm; everyone knows what to expect and what is expected of them and will go a long way to ensure effective co-operative learning.
References:
Francis Gould (2011) “Achieving your PTLLS Award” Sage Publications London p23 Gravells A. (2008) “Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Sector” 3rd Edition Exeter: Learning Matters, p50 (copied from PowerPoint presentation on website below) http://www.cpracc1.plus.com/ptlls/04-TheoryTasks/T4%20Activity%202%20Learning%20Environments%20and%20Ground%20Rules.htm
QIAwebsite http://tlp.excellencegateway.org.uk/tlp/pedagogy/assets/documents/agreeing_rules_cl.pdf

References: Francis Gould (2011) “Achieving your PTLLS Award” Sage Publications London p23 Gravells A. (2008) “Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Sector” 3rd Edition Exeter: Learning Matters, p50 (copied from PowerPoint presentation on website below) http://www.cpracc1.plus.com/ptlls/04-TheoryTasks/T4%20Activity%202%20Learning%20Environments%20and%20Ground%20Rules.htm QIAwebsite http://tlp.excellencegateway.org.uk/tlp/pedagogy/assets/documents/agreeing_rules_cl.pdf