Vella book analysis

Introduction

The purpose of this analysis is not to discuss Vella’s vast 30-plus years’ experience with ‘dialogue-education’; but to look closely at what she proposes as the framework to her acclaimed twelve principles. Vella’s life work as a community education and staff development educator is a good read in Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach (2002). You are certainly transported to the settings she uses as case studies to illustrate and explain her work; but it can certainly be difficult for some to identify and apply the principles and action to their own work as an educator. I’m seeking a ‘take-away’ from this book; I am the learner seeking to learn.
The true test is putting learning into practice. It is one thing to passively read and at times cognitively reflect; but it is the embodiment of Vella’s ideas into practice. Vella is very deliberate and structured in her delivery; which is somewhat a misnomer because the structure ultimately leads to flexibility within the learning event.

Twelve Principles

Vella presents twelve considerations when designing a learning event – they are known to be called ‘principles of dialogue education.’ For my own analysis, I will review and discuss those I needed a bit more understanding.

Needs Assessment: Vella states, “Doing an adequate needs assessment is both standard practice and a basic principle of adult learning …” (p. 5). The nugget I take away from this discussion is the WWW question: “Who needs what as defined by whom?” (Vella, p. 5).

Safety: Is much more than creating a physically safe environment, Vella on pages 10-11 offers five considerations to create a feeling of safety for the learners:

1. Trust in the competence of the design


2. Trust in the feasibility and relevance of the objectives


3. Allowing small groups to find their voices enhances the power of safety


4. Trust in the sequence of activities


5. Realization that the environment is nonjudgmental

Sound Relationships: Personally, this principal was initially very abstract; although establishing a connection between the educator and learner for enhanced learning is within my realm of understanding. I do like the way Vella succinctly describes on page 85, “…for learning involve respect, safety, open communication, listening, and humility.” Tall order – big dividend.

Sequencing and Reinforcement: Arrange the content from simple to complex and allow for reinforcement of the learning. Vella states, “The more competent the teaching (with sequence and reinforcement), the more capable [fill in the identifier]…” (pg. 232).

Praxis: Learning by doing and reflection. I’d never heard this word until Fall Semester 2008; now it’s emblazoned on my brain. Vella describes praxis as “a collage of efforts: psychomotor, cognitive, and affective” (p. 232). As Vella discusses on pg. 233, praxis is vital in the design of learning tasks, it’s a combination of inductive and deductive learning, and it’s when learners begin asking questions and thinking critically not just about the content but also about the process.

Respect for Learners: Recognize learners as subjects of their own learning. Vella makes two points that I take away from this discussion especially in my work with disadvantaged/low income populations:

1) “Healthy adults desire to be respected as subjects and resist being treated as objects” (pg. 129).

2) “showing … our respect for them as subjects or decision makers of their learning.” (pg. 233).

Ideas, Feelings, and Action: Incorporate the three domains of cognitive (ideas), affective (feelings) and psychomotor (actions) in the learning event.

Immediacy: Design the learning tasks to have immediate usefulness to the learner. In a perfect world this would be the ideal. But as an example of myself as the ‘learner’, I am not in a ‘situation’ to immediately apply my learning; but I am gathering tools and strategies.

Clear Roles: It could be Vella’s word choice – she uses varying descriptors in different sections of the book. I need a few additional ‘cues’. Vella does offer very good examples with this principle in practice, one being of Freire and what I describe as the ‘banking’ concept. Vella also states, “…stresses that the roles must be clear and ambiguity must be avoided” (pg. 237).

Teamwork: Involve all the learners by using small groups. Vella states on page 238, “when you invite learners to find their own voice and not listen to only yours, you invite a quantum leap in learning.”

Engagement: Involve the learner in the educational process. Vella states on page 238, “Without engagement there is no learning.” This is the linchpin for me, “In dialogue education we design programs based on a competent learning needs and resources assessment that is engaging.” (Vella, p. 238.) Points directly back to principal #1.

Accountability: A mutual principle – teachers teach what they say they will and learners do the work of learning. If #11 is the linchpin, #12 is the show stopper and Vella provides two excellent quotes to sum up: “Accountability is a synthesis principle—it is the result of using all the other principles (p. 25) and “Dialogue education is as accountable as the design of it.” (Vella, p. 239).

Conclusion

After this process of reading, reflecting, and determining my ‘take-away’ of these twelve seemingly logical principles – I’ve gained some additional strategies to my ‘educational’ toolbox. Though at this time I am not actively able to engage in the application of these twelve principles, this paper has provided me just one more piece to that on-going journey of reeducating Linda. I can envision a time in the near future when Vella’s framework of dialogue education will serve my career endeavors well.

References

Vella, J. (2002). Learning to Teach, Learning to Listen. Revised Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.