ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors answers a series of questions. First, ‘what is facilitation?’ Second, ‘why is facilitation hard?’, and third ‘how best to facilitate small group teaching (SGT)’? To facilitate is to abandon what Freire helpfully describes as a ‘banking’ model of education. The facilitator’s job is to recognize the fact that learners have different levels of knowledge, different expectations, different backgrounds and that this is pertinent to how well they learn. For successful SGT facilitation, the facilitators must be able to position themselves at an appropriate point on the spectrum of intervention compatible with the membership of the group and the overall aims of the session. In general, there are number of techniques that SGT facilitators should be aware of. Questioning skills are the simplest skill to facilitation. The facilitator should be aware of the various cognitive levels of questions and use them appropriately to encourage deep level thinking.
