Critically analyse, through a reflective process, the relationships between teaching, learning and facilitation as applied in the context of practice.
Facilitation is a form of teaching in that it is focused on the learner taking the lead and the teacher enabling the student to learn the information in the way best for the student. Harvey et al (2002) define facilitation as ‘enabling others’ varying from providing help and support to achieving a specific goal, to enabling others to analyse, reflect and change their attitudes and behaviour.
One of the eight domains of mentorship produced by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2008) is to encourage self-management of learning opportunities and providing support to maximise the individual’s potential.
As it is important to know oneself before teaching I completed the VARK (which stands for visual, aural,read/write and kinaesthetic by Fleming and Mills 1992) (appendix 1) and the British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC) questionnaire (appendix 2)The BBC s questionnaire showed I am an adaptive learner, with a good balance between planning my work and getting it done, it also showed as does the VARK questionnaire, that I have a kinaesthetic preference and I use both sides of my brain, which is interesting to bear in mind when I am mentoring as this style shows I learn best from doing, this may or may not be the same preference as my students and an ability to be flexible with my learning method (which the questionnaire also shows that I am able to do) will be beneficial to the student. I completed a strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats ( SWOT) analysis (appendix 3) on my mentorship skills in order to ascertain my own qualities and tendencies. I found areas that I need to improve on and areas that I am proficient in. This examining of myself helps me to become more self-aware, a factor that is important when