Experiencing Classroom as Organisation (CAO)

Abstract: this workshop is designed as a opportunity for participants to "walk a mile" in learners’ shoes to experience the journey of being a student taking responsibility for their own learning.

CAO requires learners to take up the burden of ‘being responsible for’ their own learning. Conversely it requires that educators accept responsibility for guidance not direction, and for advising not telling. At one end of the spectrum of responses to CAO, is the perception that it enables sharing a journey towards appreciating learning as a lifelong process. At the other end of that spectrum, it is seen as a challenge to unquestioned assumptions that equate ‘learning’ with ‘being told’ - and position the educator as possessor of knowledge and the learner as receptive vessel to be ‘filled’ with said knowledge. This experiential workshop will explore that spectrum in sufficient detail for participants to decide whether CAO is a teaching/learning process that suits their needs and personal approach to the tasks of education.