ABSTRACT
As a facilitator on a social work education course which is designed to enable students to become self-directed learners, I am constantly confronted with the question of what it means to' facilitate' the learning of another. This question regularly arises with an immediacy and urgency in a way which it is possible to avoid in the conventional teacher role. As a teacher on a conventional course I can remain in the monological, didactic role of expert, dealing with material at a theoretical level, objectifying both the material and the students, treating the material as if it is private property (Belenky et all986). This approach to teaching creates a distance from students which can provide relative immunity from student responses to the effectiveness of teaching. In contrast, in a course which is designed to encourage self-directed learning, in addition to supporting students to learn the knowledge, sldlls and values required to qualify for practice, my role as facilitator is to help them learn how to learn, an essential skill for lifelong learning. This requires me to be clear about the process of learning and to model that process in my role as a facilitator where both my acts and my words are very visible.
