Learning With and Learning From

During the past two weeks I’ve enjoyed running workshops on learning theory with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Junior Fellows, 40 university students who will be spending their summers volunteering in one of Ghana, Burkina Faso, Malawi, or Zambia. One of my goals in these workshops is to shift the idea of learning from a teacher-student relationship to peer-to-peer learning, or co-learning. These volunteers will be learning with and learning from their counterparts in EWB’s partner organizations overseas, and I try to model learning with and from as I lead these workshops with them.

A good development worker… or facilitator… or coach… always remains open to learning with and learning from.  Development workers who are open to learning write blog posts like this or this. A facilitator open to learning adjusts to what participants bring to the room, and brings a willingness to be surprised and a willingness to deviate from plan. A coach open to learning with and learning from is relentlessly curious about her/his coaching clients, and committed to a journey of co-discovery.

What have you already learned today from the people around you? What might they have learned from you? What learning are you thirsty for? 

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