Facilitation

"A facilitator is an individual who's job is to help to manage a process of information exchange. While an "expert's" role is to offer advice, particularly about the content of a discussion, the facilitator's role is to help with HOW the discussion is proceeding. In short, the facilitator's responsibility is to address the journey, rather than the destination." [1]

In the PBL environment the role of the teacher is to faciltate. Facilitation of the unit is done according to the Flight Plan (Organizational Time Line). Specific facilitation for each activity can be found in the Curriculum Overview.

Facilitation of the Unit and Questioning Strategies
Introduction and the facilitation of investigations can be done via activities. After an activity, questions; carefully designed for higher order thinking skills, can be forwarded to students for answering. Such questions can be subjected to discussions in order to construct answers.Questions raised by students can also be directed to other students for collaborative learning.

For certain inquiries, it may be necessary to provide more structured guidance. Such guidance may be facilitated either through experts or as resources made available to the students, which the students still have to refine to find the answer to their quest. This method is more meaningful than trying to provide a ready made answer for all the students. Each student has a unique way of abstracting and quantifying information, which is mainly depending on prior knowledge of the person. This type of learning (student centered investigations) is empowering for the student.

Students will also be given a[2] that will help them develop questions for the beginning of the unit. This is a tool they can use throughout the unit to help keep them on track during their investigation as well as facilitate student self-questioning.

Questions related directly to the activities we have planned are incorporated into the worksheets we've created. A suggested teacher calendar, along with the links to worksheets can be found here.

Facilitating Student Collaboration
Grouping is the Key to Facilitate Collaboration!

Therefore a careful attention must be paid in grouping the students and overseeing how the set groups pick up their tasks and continue with the process. There are many ideas about how to group the students in a classroom and we understand it is not possible to claim one way is superior to other. Therefore, we suggest a teacher should try to come up with a preferred way to do the grouping.

Once grouped students are made to sit in a way the members of each group can sit close to each other. This can enhance the communication among members. Students who are familiar with group work may have a better idea about sharing responsibilities and collaboration among members. But, if we are making students work in groups for the first time, it is good to use team building activities to teach students recognizing tasks and sharing responsibilities etc. The first day in the class can be used for several team building activities. It will help teacher to identify groups and also groups, when given the opportunity, to understand the roles of the members.

Goal setting can be facilitated by means of deadlines. A series of dead lines can impose after introducing the driving question, guiding the groups to quantify the work and organize within the quantified sections. In order to meet the deadlines students will organize within the structure of the group and collaborate to achieve the goals within the time frame.

Deadlines can also be considered as a way to enforce effective group work and also to enforce effective usage of class time. The group work can be assessed and evaluated via reflection activities. Equal participation among members can be ensured by guiding to have individual responsibilities for each member in the group. At early stages more attention should be paid to oversee the functionality of this process. Making resources available is another way to ensure effective usage of the class time.

Some possible ways to group students:
 * 1) Colored Sticks or Balls (same color same group) should have at least 5 colors
 * 2) Deck of Cards (Poker Cards - group by high and low and suite or Uno Cards by color and face value)
 * 3) Your Value such as observation of students or by mixing high or low or quiet and talkative
 * 4) Picking from a bowl with different pictures or numbers

Non-Directive Strategies
 * Facilitating Expert Advices (Arrange Local waste management engineer to visit the school for a talk)
 * Arranging Field Trips and Lab Activities (a field trip to local waste management/ethanol plant, a trip to "Fair Oaks Dairy")
 * Making Resources (list of websites, equipment and work area etc) available for student use

Promoting Inquiry and Engagement
For each activity (labs, expert talks, field trips etc.) students are given a problem (or a couple of problems), where students need to collect information to construct an answer. An example of this can be found in the Biofuel Film Activity. A properly arranged classroom layout will enhance the engagement among students. The following classroom layout was proposed as we thought it gives student groups a sense of privacy to work on while having the opportunity to attract the attention of the teacher to their requests when and where it is necessary.



Reflection and Debriefing
Reflections will take place each Friday. Students will record their responses to prompts (related to content knowledge, skills as a team player and problem solver, as well as classroom procedures) in their journals, which can be electronic or paper based (give students the choice if you don't mind having these reflections in different places). These reflections will help students develop and reflect o their skills as team players and problem solvers. Feedback should be given to students individually by the following Monday. For example, if a student is struggling with a particular issue, give them a suggestion as well as a check point date (i.e. "I think this XYZ could help you with this issue. I'll check in with you on Wednesday to see how you're doing). Reflection debriefing is done each Monday to address issues that three or more students have in common. This can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the issue (use your best judgement).

Self Monitoring the Development as Team Players and Problem Solvers
This is a process whose success is depending on the recognition of individual roles within a group. When responsibilities are divided, each member has an ownership to the piece of work performed by one self. Reflection prompts will help students develop and realize that they are developing these skills.

[1] Facilitation : http://www.wghill.com/facilitate.htm [2] KWL: http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/kwl.pdf