Taken from http://www.glogster.com/shivg/resume-glog-by-shivg/g-6ll6hp1v75pulvjk088o3a0
Teaching the Working Adult Student in Virtual Classrooms A Nonviolent Communicative Approach to WASs By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed. School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Friday, October 21, 2016 Post 302
As stated by Laureate Education (2016c), the most challenging situation one as a faculty member can face in a virtual learning scenario is WASs’ “expectation of adaptation to the modality of study or to the suggested methodology, especially in cases where the new technologies are needed.” However, in spite of the challenge this may represent, teacher leadership plays a transcendental key role to encourage learners to be functional in a virtual Classroom and embrace the changes. “Transformational oriented teachers provoke changes in their students by making them conscious of the importance and value of results obtained after carrying out assignments” [ CITATION Edund \l 1033 ]. A transformation is sought
by the instructor in every single WAS or traditional student in a course; this transformation implies that any learner will work on the course projects either to be submitted in print or to be delivered via the institution’s LMS. However, there will be WASs may look like failing in adapting to new and required technologies in a course. As Marshall Rosenberg (2005) suggests, “allowing others the opportunity to fully express themselves before turning our attention to solutions or requests for relief” is a better idea than simply jumping into a solution. If this is moved into a virtual classroom, let our students speak up their mind for us to show them our empathic trasnformational leadership. As posed by Rosenberg (2005), “when we proceed to quickly to what people might be requesting, we may not convey our genuine interest in their feelings and needs.” Empathy for what they may be experiencing with new methodologies and suggested methodologies for online learning environments cannot be demonstrated properly if we leaders simply rush to finding a solution for the learner. Students “may get the impression that we’re in a hurry to either be free of them or to fix their problem” [ CITATION Ros05 \l 1033 ]; they need to understand that we instructors are here to help them out when these feelings of impotence arise, and they do not know exactly what to do and how to mange the amount of stress they are suffering. Transformational leadership in education needs to be directed towards, as pointed out by Rosenberg (2005), offering learners “a chance to fully explore and express their interior selves” and discover that they are fully equipped to learn in a virtual environment in a more autonomous way while being guided by their instructor. The transformational leadership instructor can perfectly prepare his/her learners for the new learning scenario once the initial “negative” feelings in their “interior selves” have been soothed. WASs can be highly adaptive learners when a bit of nonviolent communication is established with them, and we faculty members
are not supposed to underestimate their capability for adapting to new learning situations if we have not offered them to speak up their minds (“explore and express” their feelings). With a bit of transformational leadership aided and boosted by nonviolent communication, WASs can face online, hybrid, or blended education willingly, especially when they discover the flexibility this allows them to organize their working and personal agendas along with their studying tasks. And we can be certain of this when our students have “received adequate empathy,” and “we sense a release of tension” or when “the flow of words comes to a halt” [ CITATION Ros05 \l 1033 ]. What’s the advantage of this learning scenario for WASs? Since by means of some nonviolent transformational empathic leadership, the faculty member can motivate learners to be autonomous and work on their personal, professional development beyond the class and course content, and then see the practicability of what is being learned in their working lives. The true transformational leader is not that individual “who have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain [his] own position or feeling” [ CITATION Ros05 \l 1033 ]; on the contrary, this is an educator who is willing to empty his mind of any kind of preconception towards WASs in an online environment and who is ready to listen to show his empathy with the students who may find a virtual environment and suggested methodologies difficult to follow and to adapt to. Then after having explored and expressed their emotions and realized of their own potential, what happens to the WASs when they comprehend their autonomous learning role and the importance of developing themselves beyond the classroom boundaries? They understand the geographic dispersion is a way to cope with course learning tasks and schedules; they can feel freer in this respect due to the flexibility of calendar that a virtual environment offers them. Due to the nature of
virtual learning, the syllabus the WASs are exposed becomes personalized and more diverse in its content and scope due to the intrinsic variety brought by each learner and endorsed by the professor. Higher education for WASs turns into fully learnercentered; the student becomes the transformational agent of his/her own education and skill, competency developer due to its also intrinsic capacity for reflection and re-elaboration of his/her own knowledge for their working life. And all this can be simply achieved with the aid of nonviolent communication channels where the students feel the empathy coming from their instructor. “Bass (1998) believes that transformational teachers help their students to successfully face conflictive or stressful situations by providing self-assurance and tolerance before uncertainty� [ CITATION Edund \l 1033 ]. Is virtual learning seen as a way to lose control over WASs’ attendance to class? Many faculty members do believe this is so. But is this really true? The fact is that just because you do not see a learner sitting in a classroom, it does not mean that learning is not taking place. Learning is not linear or geographical, and it does not mean that we must have students in class for them to learn linearly and chronologically. Education and its resulting process(es) have nothing to do with a linear, geographical, and chronological cognitive process or phenomena; it does take place beyond the bricks of a classroom and in schedules we may not really consider for ourselves, but that are needed by people who cannot be with us inside a classroom. And once these learners have overcome their virtual scenario stage fright, we can allow them the chance to fully express themselves and tell us whether the virtual experience has become rewarding and freeing for them; then we can continue being empathic, nonviolent, transformational leaders and teachers who can take students to the finish line: success.
References Laureate Education. (n.d.). Excerpt from “A las aulas con liderazgo�. Retrieved from Laureate Faculty Development: http://global3.laureate.net/ Rosenberg, M. (2005). Nonviolent Communication A Language of Life. Encinitas, CA: PuddleDancer Press.