Finding the Sweet Spot: Creating Learning-Centred Workshops

The question about what the centre of learning should be – either the teacher, the learner, or learning itself– seems like an easy one for people immersed in Dialogue Education or other similar approaches to adult learning. Indeed, the topic for this summer’s Voices in Dialogue e-journal initially struck me as a closed, (even rhetorical) question, with a “right” answer. (For shame, Jeanette!). But as I swing in the front porch hammock and listen to my children playing on the street, I think back to when I played tennis as a kid and I discovered how the middle of a tennis racket is the best place to hit the ball. It’s called the “sweet spot”, that place smack dab in the centre of the cat gut where the tension is juuuust right. When you hit the ball there, your shot is powerful and the ball goes right where you want it to. But hit it anywhere else – on the rim, the yoke, the outer strings or the shaft – and there’s no telling where the ball will go. Similarly, finding the learning-centred “sweet spot” in a learning event involves negotiating the dynamic tension between the competing demands of the learners, ourselves as teachers/facilitators and the sponsors of a learning event. But when you hit it, you really experience the power of learning!

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