Explore creating transformative learning spaces

The training course will take place in Restaurant Maksimir that is situated in beautifull Park-Wood Maksimir in Zagreb, capital of Croatia.

During afternoons and evenings we will “swarm” out across the whole city of Zagreb to the most attractive and suitable pockets and places to work and learn.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” We have all heard Gandhi’s thought so many times, they unfortunately sometimes flies by without really making us think. So let’s do that for a moment and look at people like you and me – the educators of the world. We decided to dedicate our energy to guiding people through a learning process because we believed in growth, in changing perspectives, in making a dent in the way our learners see the world.

Yet, many of us got so dearly disillusioned on the way. The rigidity of the system. The ever bigger pile of administrative work we have to do before doing what we are there for. The difficulty of capturing the interest for our subject in our learner. The challenge of bringing them deeper than just piling up the facts we need to tick off.

All of us – Jasenka, Marco, and Neža, the facilitators of this training – we have all been there. To stay devoted to changing the face of education we found a different way to reach our learner. A way that offers a deeper connection to them as human beings. A way that gives us energy and enjoyment for our calling on a daily basis.

We are, therefore, inviting you to join us as a whole person: that is, as spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical beings, curious to learn. We will help you build your leadership capacities and readiness to serve as role models for your students. Together we will be the change we want to see in education. Ready? Read on.

Knowing that majority of adult learners learn when they need new knowledge in their practice, adult teachers now need to learn student-centered approaches. This course is based on several methods which emphasize the notion of bringing the students’ existing knowledge to surface, question its validity, reconstruct ideas and practices that are not serving anymore and construct new frames. Our learning environment is experiential, ready to support the dialogue and deep-dive processes.

Participants will be actively engaged in content delivery, experiencing interchangeably facilitation and participation in different methodologies. We will host you as whole persons, that is, on spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical levels. You will build your leadership capacities and readiness to serve as role models for your students.

The ultimate aim of the workshop is to re-evoke your curiosity and enthusiasm for life-long learning as students and facilitators.

Today’s adult learners need to be equipped with more than notions: they need to be ready for a complex, volatile, uncertain world. They need to learn how to learn, how to solve complex problems, how to think critically, and how to work collaboratively. We believe adult education needs profound innovation and rethinking. With our workshop we aim to contribute in equipping you, the teachers, with inspiration, theories, and ready-to-test ideas for curriculum design.

We have been students and later faculty members of leading-edge schools in innovative teaching (Marco at MSLS, Neža at Knowmads, Jasenka at DOBA), and we all carry the fire for embodied, proactive, engaged learning. We share our passion with people and institutions wired in the network International Partnership for Transformational Learning (IPTL). The IPTL network provides context for peer learning, coaching, articulating newly developed and time-tested methodologies, and the most important for us, inspirational human contacts. All three facilitators of the workshops are also practitioners of Art of Hosting/ Art of Participatory Leadership or Genuine Contact, which deepen the learning through the process dimensions of collective intelligence, shared responsibilities for outcomes, and a deep appreciation for whatever is present. We meet our students wherever they are.

If you join us and each other with an openness to learn, we believe you will go home with these outcomes:

We believe there is nothing more practical than a good theory. The overall architecture of the workshop will be grounded on solid theoretical arcs that will make the foundation strong and support your ‘learning journey’. Some of our foundations are:

• The constructivist approach applied to both education and leadership development. We believe that people construct meaning to events (and learn new things) out of their pre-existing beliefs, values, and experience. Constructivist approaches emphasise the learners build knowledge on what they already know, and hence that “Teaching is not a matter of transmitting but of engaging students in active learning, building approaches their knowledge in terms of what they already understand” (Biggs and Tang, 2011). Applied to leadership development, this means that our workshop will both confirm and validate your existing frames, and at the same time stretch and challenge some of your models and beliefs that may not serve your work anymore. At once, we meet you where you are at, and stretch your boundaries, too.

• Frameworks for dialogue-based and action-based learning.

  We are social creatures, and we learn from meaningful conversations with others. But these conversations rarely happen by accident. Frameworks for dialogue to enhance peer-learning and critical reflection inform our approach: we will invite peer learning and use dialogic approaches to learn from one another. To deepen our reflections and tap into the intelligence of the whole group. You will not experience a traditional conference with expert panels but rather a highly interactive event with methods based on deep dialogue, learning from each other, and shared inquiry. You will learn a lot by doing in safe-to-try scenarios, and having structured feedback from your peers and mentors. Frameworks such as Genuine Contact™, the “breaths of design” and other tools from the Art of Hosting community will inform the design and running of the event, while action learning will inform your approach by doing + reflecting.

• Theory U.

  Educators like you face daunting challenge at work. You require not only new knowledge and skills but also new ways of seeing and acting in the world. We believe that the inner dimension of your own leadership journeys, personal resourcefulness, and alignment with purpose is of paramount importance for effective work in the world. A time tested framework developed at MIT and applied the world over as a process design and blueprint for transformational change, Theory U will inform the design and hosting of the stages of the gathering. We invite the whole human to the room as a learner: mind, body, heart, and hands. This process will invite all dimensions to show up and learn with us.

This workshop is for adult educators who are open and interested in learning new skills, for instance how to use deeply engaging learning methodologies for facilitating transformation for their students. If you work in adult education, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, and leadership, and if you build learning environments for lifelong learning, we believe this workshop is for you.

• Notebook (preferably without any lines),

• comfortable clothes,

• your favourite pen,

• open mind and curiosity

• Be prepared to bring topics that you are passionate about, where you/ your students struggle. Those will be the topics you will then design around. Furthermore, you will have a chance to facilitate the first version of your design in a safe-to-fail scenario with us.

Isoropia d.o.o. is a privately held company, established in 2007 to enable a balanced career for its owner and to promote an authentic way of living and working among those who seek their own way or are passing major transformational points in their lives. The company provides support in personal, organizational and community transformations by training, facilitating, consulting, and participating in projects which fulfill the deepest desires of individuals and groups of people.

Office: Strohalov prilaz 7, 10010 Zagreb – Croatia, jasenka.gojsic@isoropia.hr Tel: +385 98 452 134

Meaningful Meetings was founded in 2013 from the urge to create programs where people can step into meaningful connections with themselves, the society and the world. Now it is a vehicle for guiding curious women through career transformation processes. The company provides e-learning courses and leadership development programs. Additionally, it provides educational systems with knowledge on how to design and facilitate curriculums that stick.

Office: Van Leeuwenhoekstraat 108, 1222 SL Hilversum – The Netherlands, hello@nezakrek.com

Marco Valente is a sole trader private organization who works as a  freelance consultant, lecturer, and facilitator. He works in the field of leadership development, strategic sustainable development, facilitation, and pedagogy design for teams of learners.
Marco Valente is based in Sweden, and works at the intersection between development of leadership capabilities and strategic sustainability. He uses dialogic, experiential, and problem-based approaches in delivering his consulting offers, for the sake of heightening the collective intelligence of the teams and make them more able to solve complex problems such as sustainability challenges in generative ways.
Marco Valente’s consulting is active in three fields:

1. leadership capabilities development. He creates learning environments where leaders can develop the necessary skills to become more reflective, aware, and able to tackle complex challenges. This is delivered by tools such as dialogue-based organizational development, conversational techniques, action-inquiry;
2. facilitation of strategic conversations. Ad-hoc events where he acts as a facilitator of conversations to harness the collective intelligence of a team.
3. teaching and consulting on strategic sustainable development. He uses a scientific approach to sustainability to inform organizations on how to embed sustainability considerations into their strategic thinking, and also speak as a guest lecturers at training events;

Office: Högerudsgatan 18D, Limhamns, Malmö – Sweden, marco@plecter.com Tel: +4673155941