Summaries of the Discussion Questions: Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Final Thoughts

World Café

Summary prepared by Heather Gross,
Administrative Assistant, Center for Work and Learning

Café Recorders:
Courtney Bickford
Melissa Danek
Amy Delorme
Brian Steele

Introduction:

The World Café was the culminating session at the Second International POE Conference. The Café was held on Saturday, April 12, 2003. The purpose of the session was to integrate knowledge that had been shared during the previous two days and, in particular, to address some of the critical questions that had arisen at the conference.

The café questions were developed by table facilitators whose role it was to engage each table in a stimulating conversation on two of the four questions that had been chosen for the café. These questions were, in turn, based on input from designated ”knowledge brokers,” who attended and recorded the key themes from the previous day’s concurrent sessions.

At each table, participants discussed their two questions with a group of 6-7 others along with their facilitator. The table dialogues were followed by a community dialogue, with facilitators from each table serving as panelists and representing their tables’ conversations. Four café recorders, who are sixth-year PharmD students at Northeastern University’s School of Pharmacy, took notes on the dialogue. Please follow the links to read summaries of the responses to the four questions and the concluding dialogue:

1. What is the role of the learning guide (teacher, trainer, consultant) in facilitating learning from practice? What about his or her personal point of view?

2. In the organizational setting, in what ways should learning from practice be intentionally formalized?

3. What are the enabling conditions in the organization/ institution/ community that promote learning from practice?

4. What are practical ways that reflection can be introduced as a concurrent rather than just a retrospective practice?

• Final Thoughts