A Review of the RILAE Advisor Education Program 2022 Graduation Symposium

Gráinne Hiney, University of Helsinki

Hiney, G. (2022). A Review of the RILAE Advisor Education Program 2022 Graduation Symposium. Relay Journal, 5(2), 117-122. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/050206

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Abstract

This brief review describes the main elements of the second online RILAE Advisor Education Program Graduation Symposium. Representatives of Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) described the history of KUIS and self-access learning centres, along with good teaching practices. Details of the learning advisor course and its teachers followed this introductory section. The main parts of the symposium involved three groups graduating and five experts holding speeches, each of which concerned relevant issues: language advising, well-becoming, sharing-and-caring, mindfulness, and ALMS.

Keywords: language advising, graduation, mindfulness, autonomy, wellbeing

The second online graduation symposium of the online RILAE Advisor Education Program on March 13, 2022 celebrated the graduation of learning advisors and advisor educators who had completed the program and began with a warm welcome by Jo Mynard.

The introduction to the symposium was continued by President Takahisa Miyauchi and Professor Yasushi Sekiya, who represented Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS). President Miyauchi explained his process of mapping business concepts to language learning. He highlighted how innovative teachers both lead from behind and adapt to constantly changing circumstances; these ways of teaching are mutually beneficial as they encourage all involved in the teaching process to participate and critically think about how their practices facilitate adaptation to various circumstances. Such critical thinking skills are needed more than ever now in post-pandemic times and with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Despite good intentions, however, some teachers lead from the front; that is, they stand at the front of the classroom, lecturing and organizing activities, essentially teaching in a one-way direction. This type of teaching, however, often results in students forgetting what they hear. Conversely, teaching from behind includes students in the teaching process, which encourages students to think critically, which in turn facilitates longer-term memory. President Miyauchi compared teachers to magicians, who give students the illusion of doing everything by themselves, although the teachers have guided them along their way.

Professor Yasushi Sekiya congratulated the achievements of the 19 learning advisors who had completed the Learning Advisor program and the 12 advisor educators who had completed the Advisor Educator program, along with congratulating the instructors and others involved on the success of the Learning Advisor Education (LAE) program. Professor Sekiya explained the history of KUIS and self-access learning centres (SALCs), likening the first SALC that was established at KUIS by Lucy Cooker to a seed that has grown and blossomed into the current SALC system, journal, and international online education program. He discussed the broader meaning and implications of learner autonomy, not just as a form of reflective learning, but a way of life that respects uniqueness and dignity and promotes peace and happiness. 

The Advisor Educator program teachers were Jo Mynard, Curtis Edlin, Satoko Kato, and Hayo Reinders. The establishment of the Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education (RILAE) in 2017 and the publication of Reflective Dialogue (Kato & Mynard, 2016) were essential to developing the program. The first version of the program took place in Ankara, Turkey; RILAE began their current version in 2020. Satoko Kato has also developed a Japanese version of the program, which began in July 2022.

Completion of the Advisor Education program results in achieving certified advisor status; participation in the program as a teaching assistant contributes to achieving advisor educator status. For more information on the program, see the KUIS website (n.d.). The increase in graduates from last year’s to this year’s graduation ceremony indicates the increasing interest in the field of advising and the success of the program. 

Hayo Reinders teaches course 5, ‘Teacher Leadership,’ in which teachers and advisors are encouraged to think beyond their own personal developments to the wider community by sharing knowledge with colleagues and others. At the end of course 5, each participant plans a project that they would like to carry out. In course 6, currently in development, participants will be able to implement these projects, working together to learn both with and from each other. 

Graduation Ceremony

At the beginning of the graduation ceremony part of the symposium, Jo Mynard and Hayo Reinders presented the three groups of graduates. Two groups graduated as learning advisors: those who had completed all five courses (11) and those who had completed equivalent courses or work (8). The third group graduated as advisor educators (12). 

Graduate representatives

As representatives of their respective graduation groups, Tim Murphey and Ebru Sinar Okutucu introduced topics relevant to language advising. Tim Murphey, a learning advisor graduate, introduced the concepts of interbeing and well-becoming, along with universal caring and sharing advising (UCASA), referring to Thich Nhat Hanh. In addition, when discussing consciousness, Tim encouraged us to move away from thinking about ‘your’ to ‘our.’ He explained the term ‘well-becoming’ in terms of living well, which develops the ability to become well and have well-being. Quoting Simon Anholt, Tim referred to ‘leadership-ing’ and UCASA. He highlighted that advising involves asking questions, which may cause a moment’s embarrassment, although not asking certain questions may result in a lifetime of regret. Such ideas are relevant in the current post-pandemic and Russia-Ukraine wartime world. Questioning the different tactics of countries to deal with the pandemic may help more effectively manage future pandemics. Questioning Vladimir Putin’s decision to go to war with Ukraine, and his strategies to cover up the damage caused during the war, may help prevent future wars.

Ebru Sinar Okutucu, an advisor educator graduate, quoted a question teachers are commonly asked: ‘Don’t you get bored teaching the same thing?’ Ebru pointed out that regardless of the content being taught, the people she teaches make the experience different each time. The variation in perspectives results in diverse teaching and learning every time. Ebru’s experience as a teacher, learning advisor, and teaching assistant in the learning advisor program has highlighted for her the importance of acts of kindness and caring messages. She emphasized the significance of a sharing-and-caring attitude, collaboration, sincerity, and honesty, along with their resulting positive feelings, enthusiasm, and joy. 

Featured Speakers 

Walkyria Magno e Silva, Federal University of Pará, Brazil

Autonomy, motivation, and language advising from the perspective of complexity theory are important issues to Walkyria, who identified essential tenets of advising as flexibility, listening, empathy, and awareness of the surrounding environment. She believes that the development of the language-learning process is best facilitated by focusing on management instead of content. Through her experience in teaching and research, Walkyria created her own advising system for her students, using ideas from both other countries and literature to understand the why and how of advising. Walkyria emphasized that an important element in developing an advising system is the director of the system meeting language advisors as well as language advisors meeting each other. In her research, as reciprocal supervisors, advisors shared their journals and experiences of using various advising tools and essentially taught themselves. Her continuing international collaboration with other institutions that have language advising systems further confirmed the centrality of advisors as agents and catalysts of change in the language learning system. Incorporating complexity theories helps in understanding the behaviour of both students and advisors. Advising is constantly evolving; each advisee is an individual with unique needs and experiences. Consequently, there is no ‘one size fits all’ advising session; rather, advisors must constantly shape and reshape their practices. Additionally, advisors must quickly adapt to changing situations, as demonstrated during the coronavirus pandemic, when advising moved online. The SiSAL and Relay journals facilitate linking advising practices to research, which enables professional growth. 

Micòl Beseghi, University of Parma, Italy 

Micòl focused on the centrality of emotions to the advising process. She underlined the need to combine practice and research to develop advising. She noticed that students’ anxiety and fear often cause struggles in learning languages and consequently prevents development in the language being learned. Micòl has discovered two main strategies that help students overcome their anxiety, namely the implementation of mindfulness on a one-to-one or group basis and the use of learning diaries. In her experience, any initial resistance to such practices usually changes to a realization of the consequent benefits to learning. Learning diaries help students to record work done and insights on learning gained, which has both therapeutic and pedagogic positive effects. Writing for themselves, instead of for someone else, can reduce barriers to writing in English; recording both what they do and their reflections facilitates learning from every experience. Micól reported that most students reported consequent growth, healing, and transformation. Focusing attention on what students can do instead of what they cannot do facilitates taking control over learning, focusing on the present, and increasing engagement in learning. This type of constructive approach to learning in a supportive environment connects advisors and students, increases student confidence and autonomy, and decreases students’ self-criticism and self-judgement. More benefits include increased emotional awareness and self-regulation. All of these benefits can be extended to other areas of life and empower students to deal with their emotions and language learning in a safe environment.

Fergal Bradley, University of Helsinki Language Centre, Finland 

Fergal described the Autonomous Learning Modules (ALMS) system that is implemented in the Language Centre of the University of Helsinki. In the ALMS system, students make a plan for their English studies, implement the work, and subsequently reflect on and evaluate their own work. Each student has their own counsellor (or advisor) to help them at each step of the journey. Counselling (or advising) is a type of exploratory or reflective practice undertaken by both the advisee and advisor; it is a form of autoethnography, which creates understanding and integrates research and pedagogy. Counselling (advising) sessions could be considered sites of inquiry, which enable research on advising, while advising journals could be considered field notes in the research process. The aim of advising journals is not to solve problems or provide answers as is typical for therapists, but rather to employ a type of negative knowledge, to listen and elicit students’ own ideas and help them find their own answers. Fergal highlighted the importance of being quiet, listening, and asking—not telling! The ALMS system involves support groups; students choose groups according to their aims and goals of learning. These groups facilitate social learning, and they highlight the importance of relations and interactions in language learning. Finding new perspectives and rich environments in which to learn increases engagement, motivation, and openness. Fergal talked about his research on mudes, which refer to the learning trajectories and narrative inquiry that facilitate the change from being a language learner to a language user. The term ‘muda’ (Patino-Santos, 2019) refers to a transformational period in a person’s life when language practices change. The diversity in learning trajectories is an identified process in the development of the identity or identities of a learner.

The Finale

The symposium finished with a few closing words, including more congratulations to the graduates, and an invitation to the ‘after party’ in Zoom breakout rooms, where various elements addressed during the symposium were discussed at length. The symposium finished with a positive attitude about the future of advising, regarding the graduates and the interesting topics of the speeches. I felt that during the symposium, we were a community, sharing common interests and beliefs. Hearing about other people’s experiences and research piqued my curiosity and strengthened my belief in the significance of advising in language learning. Reflective dialogue gives both advisees and advisors tools for deepening their understanding of themselves and their learning or advising processes. 

Notes on the contributor:

Gráinne Hiney teaches English in the University of Helsinki’s Language Centre. Gráinne graduated as a learning advisor in 2021 and advisor educator in 2022. Using advising strategies and techniques has helped Gráinne better understand students and subsequently help them to both understand themselves and discover how to develop their learning.

References

Kanda University of International Studies. (n.d.). Learning Advisor Education. Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education. https://kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp/rilae/education/courses/ 

Kato, S., & Mynard, J. (2016). Reflective dialogue: Advising in language learning.
Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315739649

Patino-Santos, A. (2019). When language mixing is the norm: Documenting post-muda language choice in a state school in Barcelona. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2019(257), 109–135. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2019-2022