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_ A self-study-group in a non-universitary institute
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_ _ Concluding Report
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A self-study-group in a non-universitary institute

Stand:


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Balance between autonomy and structure:

A balance between autonomy, the freedom of making choices and self-determination has to be realised on the one side and offering structure on the other side. Because how do you prevent the participants making absolutely wrong choices, due to their lack of experience and resulting in blindness to certain elements in the project? The coach has to manoeuvre carefully here. He or she has to search for a balance between respecting the autonomy, letting discover and at the same time guiding in a certain direction. Do you give the participants the opportunity to take the wrong track, in the hope that they will make corrections themselves? Or do you manoeuvre the participants from the wrong track, because of the time pressure and to prevent frustrations?

Attention to relational aspects

Autonomy means making choices and that implies joint responsibility. This is joint responsibility for self-expression, as a independent individual within the self-study-group. But it is also joint responsibility for interaction in smaller working groups and eventually also for the function of the whole group. The co-ordinator / coach can stimulate the participants from the start by giving attention to relational aspects.

Ask for the following experiences:
  • Do you still enjoy it?
  • Is everything going well?
  • Are there issues in which you feel uncomfortable?
  • Do you want clearance concerning co-operation or just the lack of it?
  • Are there uncertainties about certain agreements?

Not everyone will have these aspects in mind in a self-study-project. But the benefit of participation in a project is not primarily enlarging your knowledge of a particular subject, it lies in the possibilities offered by meeting other people. This asks strong efforts of the institute to work on a learning environment which is safe and full of respect, acceptance and appreciation. This learning environment has to do justice to the personality of the participants, their characteristics and their knowledge and experiences. The coach is not a teacher who decides what the participants must do. But he or she must offer conditions for a stimulating development.

The self-study-group compared to a time-team-race in the Tour de France

A practical example for co-operating and joint responsibility is the time-team-race in the Tour the France. Some explanation for the laymen: once in the three weeks during the Tour de France a time-team-race is being held. Every five minutes starts a team of nine cycle-racers. The purpose is to start and to end as one team. A time-team-race demands from the members to pay attention to each other: always being aware of each other. Who’s going well and who’s not? Who is tired or had a puncture? Can the speed be increased a bit or do we have to ride not so hard, so that everybody can keep up? This has to be the same way between participants and workgroups in a self-study-project. It is about their relation and attention to one another with the same questions as in the team of cycle-racers in the Tour de France.

Does it have to be perfect?

It cannot be perfect. As well as the co-ordinators, the participants join the project with the characteristics of their personal qualities, their potential and their limitations and vulnerabilities. So perfection is an utopia. But it is about understanding each other. That you can trust a fair and sincere handling.

Keywords: transparency and respect

Transparency

Transparency means that everyone during the whole process continually exposes what is happening. This concerns policy choices, finance or division of tasks: always make the choices clear for the participants and ask if it is clear to them.

Respect

And respect, it is the basis of inter-human, social intercourse, inside as well as outside of a self-study-project. Sadly, the present-day worldview shows that respect isn’t always that evident.