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What are we learning about...? Network facilitation: the power of protocols

Subject: School-to-school support
Audience: Local leader of education (LLE), Headteachers
Date of publication: June 2006   |   File format and size: PDF, 286 Kb

One of the challenges facing leadership learning groups is lack of time to meet face-to-face. But could taking a more disciplined and structured approach to meetings they do have enable them to gain more from the experience?

That's the premise of this thinkpiece which argues that using protocols - a structured form of dialogue and conversations - would enable networks to create a more energised approach to learning.

The first section of the document covers topics including:

  • the protocols for organising learning and the different types of learning which they support.
  • making practice 'visible' - bringing out the professional knowledge base of teaching.
  • collaboration to create new knowledge - how a group of professionals can move beyond exchanging experiences and work together to create new knowledge and understanding.

The second half explores eight essential features of network facilitation protocols, such as providing an organisational framework for learning, an atmosphere of trust, a commitment from learners to building shared understanding, and equity of voice.

It also includes a number of reflective questions alongside each point to help facilitators put the theory into practice with their own network.