Possibilities of coaching in learning communities

Educational context

When dialogic competence is systematically practised in learning communities, the development needs of their activities are revealed. When the coaching has started and everyone has become involved in the development of dialogic competence, people can discuss weaknesses and give feedback openly. Dialogic work during learning processes ought to be continuously strengthened. Depending upon the situation, more time is given to the work with each method card. The results in the group are observed. A certain amount of time, for example, a day / a week / a month is used to gain proficiency in a certain dialogical action. When the participants gain proficiency in this action, another method card is chosen and used as a basis of work for another day/week/month. After this, the participants focus on yet another action. As the practise on a daily/weekly/monthly basis continues, previously learned methods are combined. The methods can be applied to learning and knowledge creation in various ways. One example are the methods ”Let ideas bud and flourish” and ”The art of inquiry” which can be used, for instance, in solving mathematical problems. Mastering even a single dialogic method already advances collaborative thinking and work and produces something new and unexpected.

Meetings and conferences

During various meetings and conferences, the dialogical method cards enable the participants to behave and act in new ways. With the help of the method cards, the participants are guided towards acting and talking to one another in a dialogical manner. They can be, for example, guided to employ symmetry, to make undeveloped thinking visible, to ask open questions and inquire more about the thinking of others; they can be asked to use compact expressions, and be guided to become aware of their preconceptions and to suspend them when necessary. The participants learn to work in the aforementioned ways so that the dialogical actions that define their work clearly change the work culture and the products of collaborative thinking.

Learning games in learning communities

Coaching can also be based on a learning game. When this idea is used, the dialogical method cards function like playing cards. Each card represents a certain dialogical action. Each participant in the community picks a card which will then be the basis of their work for a certain amount of time. Their task is to work in the situations of collaboration as determined by their card. When a certain amount of time has passed, the cards are circulated, the participants pick a new card and start working as determined by this card. When a participant has picked a certain card, they engage in dialogue emphasising the behaviour and actions described in that card; for example, they ask open questions, take and give turns, listen in a word-for-word manner, make chains, share their undeveloped thinking, suspend their preconceptions or begin to build a new perspective through positive wondering. The recipients of each card could also work as guardians of a certain dialogical action during learning and knowledge creation processes. This means that by giving feedback and instructions, they ensure that the dialogical action defined by their card is prevalent in the dialogue and collaborative work.

Creating a dialogical learning process

A dialogical learning process is created together with the participants with the help of unbiased open questions; the themes of learning are chosen together, the contents of these themes are defined together, the inquiring open questions related to each theme are formulated together, and the questions are reformulated together into learning tasks which are then organised into a process where various environments are utilised. The themes that are chosen for the focus of collaborative work are important from the perspective of the learning goals.