Learning collectively is vital to addressing the shared challenges we face around the globe. A Community of Practice can be a powerful vehicle for collective learning. But it’s not straightforward, and there are many challenges to enabling and sustaining a learning community. From 2013 to 2016, I was the convener of a Community of Practice […]
Do you sometimes feel alone in your work? Do you often wish you could share your big achievements and your tough challenges with someone else? Do you sometimes wish you had someone who could give you the right tool for a specific problem? Do you wonder how you can have regular professional development with like-minded […]
Talking circles have long been used by Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the US and around the world. They are also known as ‘sharing circles’. They are used to ensure each individual who has gathered in a place has a voice and is fully heard. It is used at the start of a gathering, in the […]
How do you turn a concept into a useful visual to teach and reinforce that concept over time? How do you take that visual off the page so that people can interact and learn from it? Here’s a story to illustrate how you might do just that. We hope it inspires you with its simplicity. […]
Neurodiversity acknowledges that all learners interact with and perceive the world differently. This means that there is no right way to learn, which provides validation and support for establishing equitable learning environments. As I reflect on my time in higher education, I must recognize that the standard ways of presenting information are outdated and exclusive. […]
In the early years of Global Learning Partners (GLP), our consultants often worked solo on projects with our clients. It seemed like the more efficient thing to do and may have saved our clients a few dollars. However, we’ve learned a lot since then about the many advantages of fielding two or more team members on a single […]
Just as many of us finally settled into our virtual meeting routines we found a new challenge: hybrid meetings. A hybrid event is where some of the participants are online and some of the participants are in-person. As my colleagues and I prepared for our first hybrid meeting we realized that many of the […]
As we reviewed the assessments coming in after the pilot of a newly developed training course, two words stood out: breakout rooms. Half of our team expected the feedback on these virtual discussion groups to be negative, the other wondered why almost every participant wrote about them in their responses. We pored over the data […]
“Remember that your authority over other human beings is an artificial construct.” [1] I’ve been asking people about their core values and characteristics when they are at their best for over 20 years. I was introduced to this practice through the field of restorative justice. I witnessed mentors help groups identify their core values in […]
Breakout groups – where small groups talk within the larger group – can help all learners participate more fully, engage with each other and connect to the content in a deeper way. In a virtual setting, breakout rooms help learners get that in-person feel, and can be used effectively to enable personal meaning-making. When to […]