Reflections

I found the literature provided so powerful and authentic. It’s like it was written just for me. I am learning that developing professional identity is a process that can be filled with tension and conflicts within oneself when confronted with realities in the education context. However, it is through the process that the identity can be formed. I learned that the history of the institution and student’s backgrounds play major role in my identity as a trainer. Any reconstruction around curriculum and pedagogical strategies must be responsive to the needs of the students and the environment thereof.

Appreciative inquiry is “must be adopted” in the process of becoming train the trainer. The model taught me about the importance of doing the walk with your people and appreciate every little milestone achieved. The emphasizes on the openness through the process helps me to understand the importance of creating an environment where everyone will be free to make an input and as a community, we look at it in line with our vision, goals, and standards.

I like the emphasis on focusing the change of mindset as the key then develop processes. This reminded me of how often I would challenge colleagues about the importance of pedagogy/theory behind every click.

Ai goes in hand with transformational leadership as the style to inspire and motivate followers by means of carrying and presenting this vision of a re-imagined future educational landscape. This leadership style encourages genuine concerns for the needs and feelings of the followers and helps leaders empathize with those on the ground (Amanchukwu, Stanley & Ololube, 2015)

On the Ai summary stage, I would have loved to see how they answered their WHY?

To be honest, I didn’t get any opportunity to observe two academics as instructed however having been worked with Academics in almost every day of my practice & also from my previous teaching practice and observations during Haaga-Helia programme I can share one or two things. In this case both experiences are what I observed from experienced teachers

One teacher used simulations to demonstrate an audit modified and unmodified report process. From my observation, the process helped the students to visualize and engage with the process. Since I didn’t interview the teacher for more details, I think the strategy was to accommodate different learning styles. The practice speaks to what Lectures reflected on in terms of reconsideration of how things are done in the field and avoid reproducing taught to them (Hugo & Morris, 2018 p33).

The second observation was an experienced teacher yet new in the faculty. The teacher used the clicker strategy to increase participation, active learning, engagement with content, self-evaluation with immediate feedback. The strategy was well-received by the student however the admin that comes with can be too much for a lecturer as she had to hand-in the clicker device to more than a hundred students and collect them back when the class finished. I learned that the strategy has a mobile app version however our classroom is not Wi-Fi enabled. As part of developing my trainer identity, it is my big interest in what do I do in cases where academics are ready for a change however the learning environment is not conducive and responsive to their needs?