Melissa Tomlin EHRD 630 Week: 12

Weekly Reading Survey: NWP 6-9

1. At what moment did you feel most engaged with the course materials this week? Please
describe what you were reading and tell me why you felt engaged.

The moment when I felt most interested during this weeks course material was when I
was working on my weekly role of the Engineer. The material being covered in the Non-
Western Perspectives on Learning and Knowing is very new to me. Therefore, I very
much enjoyed reading about different epistemological beliefs from around the globe. The
design of the Engineer role is to explore connections and disparities to the weekly
reading. Although I was met with great challenges in finding resources that highlight
disparities, I find the process intriguing. This allows me to review various articles and
journals to which I would have not been exposed to otherwise.

2. At what moment were you most distanced from course materials this week? What were
you reading and why was it distancing for you? Please describe your experience.

The moment when I was most distances was while reading Chapter Eight Liberation
Theology and Learning in Latin America. On a plus side, I really enjoyed how they broke
this chapter up into subheadings. This was a challenging read for me and I did not feel
any personal connections with the material as presented. Again, I must note that even
though I write this in the least engaging component of the week. I feel as though it was
educational and useful. I just felt more distant and disengaged than while reading the
other chapters.

3. Name one new thing you learned this week.

This week I have learned that the learning environment climate is a critical component to
adult learning. I had a training this week and the facilitator was very ill prepared and
negative throughout the training module. She did not foster a positive learning
environment. When anyone asked questions, she was outwardly agitated by the idea of
stopping her lecture. It was as if we were a burden of her day. This was not a voluntary
professional training therefore, we felt bound the follow the rules, so to speak. If I was
doing this same training on my own time there was no doubt in my mind that I would
have left because there was no learning actually taking place. The moral of the story is
delivery of content is equally as important as the content. Be mindful of your learners
needs and at the very least pretend to be excited to share your knowledge if you are in a
facilitator/trainer position.