Most of us are familiar with the notion of facilitation. Yet, there isn’t always consensus as to what facilitation consists of and its operational constraints. I personally have a preference for facilitation and whenever possible, have implemented this in teaching courses at the Law Faculty. What follows is my methodology regarding teaching by facilitation.

Of course, there is more to facilitation than just methodology and unfortunately, space constraints do not allow for a thorough exploration of these other aspects. For the purpose of this article, suffice it to say that teaching by facilitation operates on fundamentally different assumptions about the roles of the teacher, the student and the process and goal of learning than the more traditional form of teaching by lecture. Some, but not all of these aspects will become evident through the discussion of methodology. I would recommend a deeper exploration of these aspects for any teacher interested in teaching by facilitation. How then can one facilitate a class effectively? There are a number of steps to the process.

1. Pre-class preparation

There are two aspects of pre-class preparation. First, one must identify clearly the desired product at the end of the class. What content points should the class have obtained? What larger framework can be overlaid on these content points to aid understanding and memory? For example, in an action for negligence, what standard of care should the defendant be held to? What is the rule? What are the exceptions? Thus, this aspect of pre-class preparation provides the final design that the student is intended to see.

The second aspect of pre-class preparation is to identify a line of inquiry which will allow the student to think about the problem and to provide responses. Typically, I will use hypotheticals or analogies to help students relate to the subject matter. In this way, the subject matter becomes real for the students and their responses will come from being engaged in the inquiry as opposed to a theoretical one.

Following from the previous example of an action for negligence, a starting line of inquiry would be to provide the hypothetical of an accident happening during a sports event, and the injured party being a student. The students are then asked what they would do, who they think should be held responsible and why. These questions will engage their thinking processes in the direction of the design one already has planned.

2. Facilitation during the class

Having set the design and starting point, the next step is to implement them in class. There are a number of aspects to implementation, some of which happen simultaneously.

First, it is important for the teacher to set an appropriate frame for a facilitative class. Usually, this will happen in the first class and in particular, two process points need to be made.

1. The teacher needs to set and communicate his/her expectations to the class. The students need to understand that the teacher intends to run the class by facilitation, which consists of questions posed by both teacher and students and responses coming primarily from students. It is also important for the students to understand that the quality of the outcome of the class is dependent on the quality of responses provided by students. In other words, a class taught by facilitation is a co-creative enterprise.

2. A ‘safe’ environment that is conducive for discussion needs to be established in the class. In other words, the students need to be assured that their opinions count, and that they will not be subject to ridicule either by the teacher or other students, no matter how off-the-wall their responses may seem to be.

These two process points are vital to the success of a facilitative class especially in the Singaporean context, where students are used to having information fed to them and may feel uncomfortable or threatened by being expected to participate in the class.

Secondly, the teacher can begin the process of inquiry by presenting the hypotheticals and questions identified earlier. S/he then waits for responses. It is important at this point to remember that whatever response one gets from a student is a good response. Any student who ventures a response is often taking a risk and this should be encouraged.

3. Managing students’ responses

At this point, there are a number of strategies which a teacher can run on the responses received.

1. Expansion on a point.
   
   The teacher can use this to invite class discussion on a point made. Open-ended questions like: “Why is this important?”, “What is the logical consequence of this argument?”, “In what situations would this argument apply?” or “In what situations would this not apply?” The idea here is to flesh out the initial point made and to contextualise it. This is important as the initial response, though often vague and undeveloped, has scope for expansion.

2. Finding alternatives to a point.
   
   As mentioned earlier, it is important that any response, even one that is not right, be validated. However, when a point made isn’t ‘quite on target’, the teacher can respond by saying “Ok, this is one view, what other views or approaches might there be?” By seeking alternative views, the pressure to give the ‘correct answer’ is taken off the student. The teacher can then assist the class to build on the initial response and arrive at a more valid point.

3. Flagging a point.
   
   Sometimes, a point made does not fit in the present discussion but might be relevant in a later discussion. The teacher can flag such points for future discussions by saying “This is a good point and I’d like you to keep this point in the back of your mind and bring it up again when we address that issue later. However, the focus right now is on this topic.” By doing so, the teacher validates the contribution and leaves the loop open for future discussion and learning.

4. Linking points
   
   Typically, as a discussion progresses, many of the points raised can be relevant and related to one another. The teacher can choose to link these points together to reveal more of the final design. In essence, the teacher as a facilitator plays a critical role by creating linkages between the discussion points which will eventually form the framework of the students’ understanding. Of course, needless to say, the additional responses made by the class in relation to each of these strategies can also be subject to the reapplication of these strategies.

5. Completing the framework
   
   Finally, there comes a point in the session where many, if not most of the points have been brought up and discussed but the students may not yet see how these points fit together, or there may be one or two missing pieces which have not surfaced. The teacher can now fill in the missing pieces and pull the threads of the discussion together. This involves making explicit the framework from which the teacher has been operating. The students can then see where and how the points they have raised fit together. Furthermore, the students, having contributed to the construction of the framework, are more likely to remember the relevant points.

Facilitation as a method of teaching deserves much mention. Perhaps the most important aspect of teaching by facilitation is that it allows students to become actively engaged in the process of constructing their own learning and thereby increasing recall and understanding. Yet, teaching by facilitation is a challenging method for both the teacher and the students. It requires the teacher to shift away from the traditional ways of thinking about education and to treat students as peers. This experience can be equally strange to students who are used to a more tradtional form of teaching method. Thus, setting appropriate frameworks for the facilitative class is vital to its success. Despite these challenges, the benefits from teaching by facilitation make overcoming the challenges worthwhile.