1. World Café –
engaging learners
Mark Hetherington and Isobel Paterson
(Lecturers in Communication
and English)
www.stevenson.ac.uk

2. • Overview of the „World Café‟
• Stevenson College – applications and
event(s)
• Feedback from the event
• How it has / can work in the classroom
• A World Café session in Helsinki
• Feedback / plenary
www.stevenson.ac.uk

3. http://www.theworldcafe.com/
• TWC – innovative, simple methodology for hosting
conversations about questions that matter.
• Link and build on each other as people move
between groups, share ideas, discover new insights
into the questions or issues most important in their
life, work, or community.
• As a process, TWC can evoke and make visible the
collective intelligence of any group.
• To increase people‟s capacity for effective action in
pursuit of common aims.
www.stevenson.ac.uk

4. www.stevenson.ac.uk

5. www.stevenson.ac.uk

6. Stevenson College - EWC
• Why? Learner engagement a constant
challenge
• Attempt to build a clear learner engagement
strategy
• Led by students – their views central to any
decision making
• The start of a process
• Held in Edinburgh Zoo – 15th September
2009
www.stevenson.ac.uk

7. About the event
• 60 participants – very few had attended a
World Cafe event
• Risky?
• Aim – to create a relaxed opportunity for „cafe
style‟ conversations on key issues
• Innovative and participatory methodology with
a focus on creative solutions
www.stevenson.ac.uk

8. Practical arrangements
• Nine tables (students, lecturers, senior
management, student guild)
• After discussing issues (recorded on table
cloths), everybody, apart from the „hosts‟ at
each table moved to another table
• Different people discussing different issues
meant facilitators could pick up themes
• Outcome – collective sense of priorities for
engagement
www.stevenson.ac.uk

9. www.stevenson.ac.uk

10. www.stevenson.ac.uk

11. www.stevenson.ac.uk

12. Types of questions (student led)
• Communication – technology, ways of
communicating effectively?
• Staff performance – student involvement in
recruiting staff, introduction of student voted
good teaching award?
• Management – what do you want to know
about how SCE is run, how are students
supported on committees?
• Facilities – how is the canteen used, do you
get good service from the Advice Centre?
www.stevenson.ac.uk

13. Types of questions (student led)
• Class rep system – how can that be
improved?
• Feedback from lecturers – do you get any,
is it enough, how is it communicated?
• Learning resources – adequate library,
computers?
• Learning and teaching – teaching methods,
should students be involved in course
design?
www.stevenson.ac.uk

14. Agenda for future...
• Develop better communication systems (intranet,
VLE)
• How can students feel more secure when
complaining about lecturers to other lecturers?
• How are tutors chosen?
• How do we develop a buddy scheme to support
students?
• How do we improve social spaces for students?
• Can students pay before starting?
• How do we prepare and support students for
participation in college groups? www.stevenson.ac.uk

15. Feedback
• “A great way of engagement. By
switching tasks, ideas could easily be
turned on their head”
• “Really interesting to have all this
interpreted by an outside eye and
displayed so vividly”
• I liked the dynamic nature of this – I
think students found it straightforward to
contribute”
www.stevenson.ac.uk

16. www.stevenson.ac.uk

17. www.stevenson.ac.uk

18. www.stevenson.ac.uk

19. www.stevenson.ac.uk

20. www.stevenson.ac.uk

21. Cross Faculty Approaches
• Two faculties: Creative Industries and
Science, Sport and Engineering joined
together for a World Cafe event in October
2009
• HMIe inspection in November 2009
• Theme – „Who‟s afraid of the HMIe?‟
• Feedback on this event was excellent
• (The College performed very well in the
review by the way!)
www.stevenson.ac.uk

22. Classroom approaches
• Encouragement to students of literature to
encourage them to take responsibility for their
own learning:
• Having studied a novel: divide the class into
groups where they are asked to discuss
these literary techniques:
• Plot, Themes, Setting, Structure, Narrative
techniques, Characterisation, Key
incidents, Symbolism
www.stevenson.ac.uk

23. How is this done?
• Students write down their collective input on a
communal piece of paper.
• Half of the group move on to the next group
and add their ideas to the original written
document.
www.stevenson.ac.uk

24. Discussion after the World Cafe Event?
www.stevenson.ac.uk

25. Today’s World Cafe!
• Questions to stimulate discussion for today‟s „World
Café‟ workshop:
• What does your College do to encourage student
input into learning and teaching?
• What factors result in your students ‘dropping
out’?
• What does your College do to promote social
inclusion?
• How does the culture of your College promote
discussions that result in systems to encourage
retention?
www.stevenson.ac.uk