Developing the Pilot

This section briefly describes:

  1. how the key elements were incorporated into the structure of pilot
  2. how other important features were built into the pilot

Voluntary participation, time scale and group size

An e-memo was sent out to all colleges inviting the participation of practitioners (minimum of 3 per college) in the pilot and determining the best time slot for it. The rationale was that the small group at each college would provide an additional forum for sharing ideas and act as a means of support for one another. The first 8 colleges to respond would be selected to participate. See Appendix 1 for the Memo.

Practitioners’ responsibilities identified in the memo included:

  1. reading an eighty-page document on issues related to classroom management and student retention during a one-week timeframe (with guiding questions )
  2. participating in a subsequent two-week long electronic discussion group on AlphaCom, and
  3. completing an evaluation of the pilot by means of a short survey

The pilot was designed to be process-oriented rather than product-oriented, although it was understood that participants wo uld ultimately decide this question. The intention of the pilot was to focus on practitioner participation and discover the strengths and weaknesses of e-PD using AlphaCom.

Professionally meaningful issues

The document chosen for discussion was Classroom Dynamics in Adult Literacy Education, by Hal Beder and Patsy Medina of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (Harvard University Graduate School of Education). It provides a detailed and comprehensive description of classroom dynamics in adult literacy programs in the United States. It was identified as a must-read for practitioners by the CSC student commitment project (2003) as the only study since 1975 to address issues related to classroom behaviours and classroom mana gement.

The study takes the reader into 20 adult literacy classrooms and shows them how instruction is structured and delivered in these classrooms. It also links classroom management to student retention which is an issue of ongoing concern to LBS college programs. Finally, it highlights three critical issues for the programs involved in the study – issues that similarly affect LBS college programs.