MASTER WORKER

Overview

The purpose of the Master Worker Project is to assist underrepresented students to develop sixteen "21st Century" workplace competencies that were defined collaboratively by local employers. A Learning Facilitator team presents Bootcamp, Apprentice, Journeyman and Master phases, and assesses the students inside and outside the classroom. Students are responsible for demonstrating their competencies throughout the curriculum, and are certified as achieving self-mastery by a Board of Directors composed of Business, Industry, Government and Education representatives.

Implementation Philosophy

Special Services Foundation
The success of the Master Worker Project rests on the foundation of the Special Services Program. In addition to classroom interaction, each Special Services Master Worker student is assigned a family-like support system team to fulfill the combined missions of each categorical program (DSPS, EOPS, CARE).

The End of Education as We Know It

No walls-learning everywhere anytime. We focus on learning and assessment in and beyond the classroom, 24 hours a day.

Learning Facilitator Teams. The Learning Facilitator team is composed of administrators, support staff, faculty, and students. We facilitate classes in teams of two or more facilitators. This approach provides several benefits:

• A broader perspective on individual and class performance and issues.
• Training opportunities for new facilitators, including previously certified Master Worker students.
• A larger variety of experiences and perspectives are shared with the students.
• An opportunity to assess and improve our own facilitation techniques.

Guides versus sages. Our approach to teaching, which we call learning facilitation, involves the gradual transfer of leadership and resultant responsibility from the facilitator to the class. We as facilitators, strive to be "guides on the side," versus "sages on center stages." Facilitators are learners too. Modeling the development of our own self-mastery is critical to the empowerment of our students. Thus, we do our best to be real, in the moment, in and outside the classroom.

The Experiential Learning Process. We usually apply a four-cycle learning model that includes the following elements:

1. Experience
2. Debrief
3. Learning
4. Application

We use energetic exercises that engage the students on multiple levels: physical, mental, and emotional.

Limber Lesson Planning. Planned exercises follow a general pattern but must be left flexible. We address behaviors and learning, in the moment. Allowing the class to get stuck offers the class the opportunity to "repair" itself. Often the facilitator will have to sit back and let the natural consequence of ineffective behavior be the teacher. We have found it to be a far more effective strategy than lecturing students "about" real life.

Future Plans

We're offering a three-unit course for educators, managers, and business people entitled, "Introduction to Facilitation," which begins November 18, 2000 at Cerro Coso College. The curriculum includes two weekend workshops, one in November and one in March, and a three-month period of independent study via telephone bridge line, email (cyber coaching), and workplace observation. For further information, please contact us.

We plan to provide California Community College faculty, and staff with a Toolbook to help them deliver the Master Worker facilitative learning processes to their students. This Toolbook will make the success of the Master Worker curriculum more accessible, transferable, and replicable in other courses and institutions.

We also plan to offer the Master Worker skills and approach to a wider audience that includes facilitator training at other institutions, training employees and employers in their workplaces, and follow-up personal coaching via telephone and internet.

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