YOCOMO - Facilitating learning behaviours - European Training Strategy

Facilitating learning

…means facilitating individual and group learning in an enriching environment, as well as establishing dialogue and ensuring cooperation with individuals, groups and communities. This requires youth workers to have the attitudes, knowledge and skills to support young people in identifying and pursuing their learning needs and to then choose, adapt or create methods, methodologies and digital tools in residential and online environments accordingly. Ideally, youth workers and the young people they work with trust each other. Youth workers actively support and enhance young people’s learning processes, self-responsibility and motivation and empower young people to improve their personal situation, stand in solidarity with others, and encourage their peers to do the same.

The single behaviours are summarised in different headlines that illustrate what “facilitating learning” means for youth workers behaviour-wise. The “cluster headlines” do not name behaviours as such; these can be found through clicking on the lists.

Supporting young people in their learning processes means above all to motivate and empower them. + -

In doing so, youth workers:

respect ethical boundaries
acknowledge the experiences of others
raise awareness of the ‘power of change’
generate trust, maintain confidentiality, and respect (data) privacy
are honest, respectful and transparent
recognise their own feelings and values and role-model this process to others
create a supportive environment to act on values, both in residential and online settings

Youth workers encourage interaction within the group. + -

Therefore, they:

foster democratic behaviour and encourage participants to actively engage and share their critical voice
support young people in dealing with crisis situations in a fair and constructive manner
encourage and actively support collective actions
confidently and constructively challenge a ‘them and us’ mindset

Youth workers develop an approach to reach the aims and objectives of the learning process. + -

This means they:

are target-oriented, wanting to reach educational aims
use ways and methods that specifically encourage creativity, problem-solving and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking in different learning spaces

Learning environments need youth workers to show a certain flexibility to adapt to the learners’ needs. + -

In doing so, youth workers:

recognise the importance of improvisation and experimentation
have the courage to improvise and experiment
address factors that support and block creativity
are OK with imperfections, failures and mistakes

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