Office practice courses usually involve practice of repetitive skills, such as typing, and the development of a fairly low level of familiarity with a range of office equipment and practices. They often lead to externally set professional tests which establish levels of competence. Such courses are often provided for the 'less academic' at school or college. Teaching methods are commonly highly teacher-centred. The class moves at the pace of the slowest. Learners are usually assumed to have little or no relevant experience. Learners come to rely on the teacher for all decisions about how well they are doing, when they should move on, and so on Almost all learning time is spent watching demonstrations and undertaking practice drills. Almost no time is spent in discussion or in reflection of any kind. Almost no time is spent on 'homework' outside class. One of the most striking things on entering a room in which office practice is being taught is that it is silent (except for the sound of typewriters) and that everybody appears to be doing exactly the same thing.
One such course at a technical college was provided for retraining. The learners on the course were not, however, 15 year olds, but mature people, most of whom had a variety of work experiences. They were also fairly independent people, used to organising their own time and establishing their own priorities. We have seen such learners submit passively to a conventional course and being treated as if they were inexperienced 15 year olds. However, in this case, the teacher used experiential learning theory to devise a different way of running the course.
The teacher wished to:
The methods the teacher used included:
| 1 | At the end of a session, each member of the group made a 'contract' with another member to undertake a particular task in relation to the course, e.g. some shorthand practice. At the start of the next session some time was put aside to report back on what had been achieved. Anything of interest to the whole group was then briefly shared before the session got going. |
| 2 |
There were frequent discussions in which progress was reviewed. In small groups, individuals took turns to say what they thought they had learnt, what they were having problems with, and what this indicated about their immediate learning needs. These needs were shared in the whole group, and decisions made about the immediate plans for the development of the course in the light of these expressed needs. This frequently led to requests to move on from a topic faster than the teacher had planned, or to spend more time on a topic which a number had found difficulty with. |
| 3 | Immediately after drill and practice exercises there would be a brief discussion in small groups in which learners asked each other for help in identifying and solving problems they were having. Learners were expected to be reflective about, for example, which T-line shorthand symbols were giving problems. |
| 4 |
Learners were encouraged to discuss their experiences of learning. Tips were swapped: for example the idea of taking frequent breaks when practising motor skills such as typing or shorthand. |
| 5 |
Frequent tests were offered. The purpose of these tests, however, was to provide the learners with more information with which to diagnose learning needs upon which decisions about the progress of the course were based. Many of the tests were marked by other learners. In this way they learnt to recognise errors better and came to identify these errors in their own work. |
The two features which these methods share, which are almost entirely missing from many office practice courses, are:
Experimentation. Learners were frequently involved in planning what to do next: what 'homework' to set themselves, what topics to cover next on the course, when they were ready to move on, when they wanted to be tested, what to do about learning problems, and so on.
Reflection. Learners reviewed their performance and progress, and that of their peers, at every stage. They reflected on the fine details of the execution of skills as well as on their overall progress and ways of learning .
To bring about this active involvement in learning involved the teacher handing over much of the control of, and responsibility for, learning to the learners, and establishing an open atmosphere of trust and mutual supportiveness.
There were side-effects of these innovations: the room became noisy, learners progressed at different rates, sessions were relatively unpredictable and prearranged plans could not always be executed, some 'irrelevant' material tended to get introduced into discussions and less time was spent on straightforward drill.
However the commitment of the learners to the course, and to their own achievement, was tremendous. Progress was extremely rapid in some areas, especially those where previous experience was involved. The learners 'taught' each other a good deal. Much work was done outside formal sessions. The learners developed as learners, discovering all sorts of ways to increase the effectiveness of their efforts.
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