On November 10-14 and 16-20, 2016, the 3rd module of the Educator School Training Program was held in Festivalny Country Club (Valožyn Raion, Minsk Voblast) held for two groups of beginning adult educators from Minsk, Hrodna and Brest voblasts, as well as from Viciebsk, Mahilioŭ and Homiel voblasts.
The Educator School was organized under the Learn to Act Project implemented in Belarus by an international consortium of the Representative Office of Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband e.V. Registered Company (Federal Republic of Germany) in the Republic of Belarus in partnership with the Association of Lifelong Learning and Enlightenment (ALL&E, Republic of Belarus) and Folk High School in Cham (Bavaria, Federal Republic of Germany) with financial support from the European Union and DVV International. The overall project objective is to support realization of the right to lifelong learning and civic engagement.
The third thematic focus of the workshops for attendee groups from all districts of Belarus were the Methods, Communications and Group Dynamics of Informal Education. In the course of the theoretical and hands-on workshop programme, the participants learn the adult education method typology and selection criteria, group dynamics basics; they work in groups during the educator hands-on training. The attendees can also benefit from a theoretical and hands-on unit by Ms Anna Stania, a German expert and professor of Bielefeld University (Germany) – “Effective Communication in the Informal Education of Adults", "Group Dynamics in the Informal Education of Adults", "The Use of Flipcharts, Techniques, Visualization Methods and Media Means in Educator Operations".
Thus, this Module offers hands-on answers to the most common questions about the use of the adult education methods, and some concrete examples of individual aspects of the adult education theories, in particular, concerning the relations between an educator, an adult learner and a group.
The workshop is also conducted by Mr Sergey Laboda and Ms Veronika Sadovnikova, trainers of the Association of Lifelong Learning and Enlightenment.
Upon completion of all four modules of the Educator School, the participants are expected to develop and discuss the concepts of their own educational activities (target groups, activity goals and objectives, performance evaluation criteria, etc.); they will acquire knowledge and skills necessary for enhancing the quality of the educational programme content, management and performance evaluation; they will also acquire new contacts and expand the circle of like-minded people for popularizing the adult lifelong and informal education in their regions.
