What
is the Winter Institute Philosophy?
-
The Winter
Institutes embody a learning assistance philosophy
of enhancing new learning experiences while providing
support for the individuals involved. The Winter Institute
philosophy evolved as a way to enhance the learning
experiences of Institute participants as they come
together in a common location for:
- scheduled presentations,
- mentoring activities (group and individual),
- impromptu SIGs (Special Interest Group) meetings,
and
- hands-on computer activities and technology support.
Winter Institutes
are significantly different than most conferences. At
most conferences, participants do not have time for proactive
listening, periodic review of notes and sharing with colleagues,
time to review their notes to effect closure of their
learning, time to crosstalk with colleagues at a presentation,
and time to pull together their notes and write action
steps. But if these activities are not scheduled into
a learning experience,there is a high probability that
very little learning or behavior change will occur for
participants even though much time has been alloted for
the delivery of information primarily through lecture
presentations. At a Winter Institute, since the focus
is on learning and sharing to make an observable difference
when participants return to their institutions,these participant
activities are an integral part of the Winter Institutes.
They can be understood as program corollaries to the Winter
Institute philosophy.
A series of ten
phrases that exemplify the learning opportunities that
are offered during this weeklong professional experience
for learning assistance directors and practitioners:
The actions associated with the ten phrases
are consistent with research findings on efficient and
effective learning. These ten learning enhancing opportunities
set the Winter Institute apart from most professional
conferences.
Item
# 1: Structure with Freedom
-
From the start of the Institute, participants are
reminded that the Institute is the cooperative responsibility
of both staff and participants and that as adult
learners they have the right to come and go as they
wish and to use their time and energy for the good
of their professional careers and usefulness to
their institutions. Although there is structure
in the scheduling of Institute activities, the freedom
also exists to modify this structure when it appears
to be in the best interests of participants or when
participants decide modifications are in their best
interests.
Item
#2: Collegiality/Networking/Ongoing Dialogue
Everyone at the Institute
is a learner including Institute staff, mentors,
and presenters and all participate equally in
the week-long dialogues. For many participants,
the Institute is the beginning of a collegial
network that will continue to expand throughout
their lives as they dialogue on the Internet,
through visitations, and at professionals conferences.
Item
#3: Collective Intelligence
-
The 60 to
70 participants, presenters, and mentors that make
up each Winter Institute represent a cross-section
of learning assistance directors, practitioners, and
developmental education specialists from community
colleges and four and six year universities. The synergy
that evolves from the Institute's week-long, live-in
interactions creates a dialogue that is very different
from conversations that go on at most professional
conferences.
Item
#4: In-depth Common Learning Experiences
-
Unlike professional
conferences where participants are deluged with hundreds
of concurrent presentations having little time between
sessions to question the presenters and to explore
implications and applications of a session, the Institute
schedules all presentations as general sessions and
schedules time after each session for participants
to reflect, question the presenter, and dialogue with
their colleagues from a common experience.
Item
#5: Mentoring
-
Mentoring is a special component of the Winter Institutes.
Mentors are chosen for their experience and expertness
in learning assistance as well as for their collegial
enthusiasm and empathy for the concerns of Institute
participants. The Institute ratio of participants
to mentors is maintained at six or seven participants
to one mentor. Mentors are equally divided between
men and women, and represent a multi-ethnic diversity
that reflects a similar student diversity that Learning
Assistance serves. Participants choose or are assigned
a mentor for the five-day Institute. Mentor/participant
activities include daily overviews at breakfast
meetings, feedback sessions at the end of each day's
presentations, and scheduled consulting sessions
with an individual or an institutional team. Frequently,
mentors are also presenters, session chairpersons,
or Special Interest Group facilitators.
Item
#6: Presentation Readiness through Proactive Listening
- Each
day, participants meet with a mentor at a scheduled
group breakfast meeting to preview the day's schedule
and to consider presentations in view of each participant's
institutional and professional needs. Based on the
title and an overview of each presentation, participants
are encouraged to make up questions that they would
like the presenter to answer, hopefully at the presentation
or later in the week at a private consultation with
the presenter.
Item
#7: Presentation Learning through Feedback and Closure
- After each presentation,
participants have many opportunities to "talk
back" to the presenter's ideas both publicly
at the scheduled follow-up session and at the group
feedback meeting at the end of each day. In addition,
participants can meet privately with the presenter
during the week.
Item
#8: Currency in Research, Methods, and Technology
- Institute presentations
focus on the latest information and practices in learning
assistance programs and services. Bibliographic handouts
complement each presentation.
Item #9:
"Next Steps" as Institute Follow-up
- Another of the features
that sets the Winter Institutes apart from almost
all other conferences is the "Next Steps"
session that is scheduled on the last day of the Institute.
Two "Next Steps" that participants are asked
to put at the top of their list involve sharing their
list with their staff and with their immediate supervisor.
At this two-hour session, participants are first allotted
quiet time to look over their Institute notes, edit,
and summarize them with special emphasis on listing
specific actions that they will initiate when they
return to their campuses. Next, in pairs, participants
share their notes. Then in small groups, participants
are asked to share these actions and prepare one or
more large wall charts that list the combined "next
steps" for each group. When all the groups have
made up their charts, a spokesperson for each group
then shares its wall charts with the other groups.
After all groups have shared their "next steps,'
everyone is encouraged to move around the room and
read all the wall charts, adding any relevant "next
steps" that they consider useful to their own
list. Two "next steps" that participants
are asked to put at the top of their list involve
sharing their list with their staff and sharing their
list with their immediate supervisor.
- Example: "Next
Steps" of the 1998 Winter Institute
Item #10:
Unfinished Business, A Life-long Learning Process
- The Institute dialogue
that evolves from presentations, consultations, and
group discussions does not end with the Institute.
In addition to conventional post-Institute interaction
by telephone and mail, participants can also continue
to dialogue with each other and with their mentors
and presenters through individual email, on LRNASST-L
, the listserv created by the Winter Institute at
the University of Arizona and now hosted by the University
of Florida, and on this Winter Institute web site
pages.
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