THE BIG AWAY:
Using the 4 A’s in a Continuing Education Setting

by Kathy Hickman
Education Manager ~ Alzheimer Society of Ontario
Toronto, ON

Teaching in the Dementia Studies program within the Continuing Education department of a city college has provided me with an opportunity to apply the Principles and Practices of Dialogue Education in a way that has assisted my learning of the approach and, I believe, the learning of the students in my class. The learners in my classroom generally work as personal support workers (health care aides) and are hoping to improve their ability to provide the specialized care that persons with dementia require. I have found the fact that students are working while studying to be both a challenge and a rich opportunity. A challenge in that their schedules are busy and time for class preparation is thin, and an opportunity in that the potential for the use of learned skills (Away) is enhanced.

Before using the Dialogue Education Approach, I felt the need to present, in some form, the information within the text (as many teachers in my experience do) and throw in some experiential activities to bring the content home.  Now using Dialogue Education, the syllabus is used on occasion during class, but most often it is an Add done between classes. In this way, class time can be maximized by focusing on other formats and types of Adds and on Applying the Add. Having recently completed the Advanced Learning Design course, I now recognize the need to refine this further by ensuring that this Add task of reading is ACTIVE. In other words, invite learners to be conscious in the process of reviewing the materials within the text.  For example, I may ask, “As you read, consider what stands out to you as most important for your current work?”

What I have also noticed is that my general query about whether there are questions or comments about the past week’s readings become more focused and intentional in order to better invite dialogue. This will tell me that students are prepared to interact with the content through an Apply task or to tackle the content from a different perspective through another Add task. An interesting twist that I have discovered about using the 4-A’s when the Add is in-between classes is that at times an Anchor may be required at the end of a class in preparation for the Add to be done during the week. The Continuing Education setting provides exceptional opportunities for Anchoring because learners come to the group with a wealth of relevant experience to drawn upon.

The greatest impact on my teaching has been the very relevant and immediate Away tasks that can be used in this setting. During the class, students develop a plan for how they will use what they have learned during the coming week. For example, if we have learned about communication challenges and strategies for interacting with persons with dementia, students may be asked to think of someone they work with and choose 2 or 3 of the strategies that they think will work for this particular person, given their unique communication challenges. This then becomes their “homework”, their Away. At the beginning of the next class, we hear a sample of learner experiences of using the new skill. When student attempts were not successful we together as a class try to assess how the new approach could be changed for a better result next time or what different strategies could be used instead. When student Aways are effective, as the saying goes, success breeds success. As students describe how they tried out a new approach and it worked for them the excitement and pride in their voice is apparent and they are eager to learn more. This in turn excites other students and invites them to try the same. By having this dialogue at the beginning of the class, students are engaged and the tone for the session of being open to new possibilities is set.

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