Course Evaluations of Introduction To: Community Development Work/Playwork

May - July 2009

This report is a summary of the evaluation session carried out on 15th July 2009; we asked the participants to evaluate this session, the whole course as well as tutors competencies etc.

Evaluation Target

Q. Would you recommend this course to anyone in the future? Bulls eye is a strong yes and outer circle is no.

bullseye

Everyone would strongly recommend the course to others in the future. No one said they would not recommend the course as all. ‘Post it’ notes were marked with a Y for yes and no one put a N for no

session

Q. Why would you recommend or not recommend the course to others?

Comments included:
  • It has been informative and useful in my work
  • It gives you a great insight into community development and aspects that are involved in community development
  • Gives you an insight into community groups and how they work, in an easy and friendly manner
  • Recommend as it gives good information on what the course subject involves.
  • Excellent, very informative and useful in the future
  • Both Play work and Community Development Work courses provided very good introductions to the fields with follow on information for those who wish to pursue the courses further

Web Evaluations

Tutor gives verbal comments to the learner holding the string about their contribution to the course or their ILP

web evaluations

Adie:

Generally a quiet character but when she does speak it is clear she knows her stuff and has a good understanding of people, communities and how they work. Adie has grasped the principles of group work and will be able to use these within her paid role. Believe in yourself Adie, you have a lot of positive people skills and knowledge

Alison:

Quietly confident member of the group who understands the needs to share her views, opinions and ideas and can explain her reasoning eloquently. Alison can see the bigger picture of community development work and how groups/ activities/ processes work. She uses her past experiences to understand how people work or how they are feeling and adapts her approach to meet the needs of each individual.

Amanda:

A very able person who is comfortable to let other people take the limelight. Amanda is a gentle person who tries to understand both sides of the discussion/ debate before making her opinion heard. Amanda is also a true reflector and naturally carries out reflection on everything she does or has been involved with, which is an essential and positive skill for community development work.

Anita:

Anita is a good team player and one of her strengths is in listening to people and being honest with them. She understands the values and principles of community development work and has been a strong contributor to the group debates and tasks. Anita has a lot of transferable skills and her life experiences will make her a knowledgeable and an understanding community development worker.

Barry:

Barry understands the process of community development work and this is apparent in all of his group work. He has grasped the practice principles of and uses his previous life experiences to ponder on the aspects of what will work and what could cause issues. Barry has a hidden sense of humour which is dry and is very funny and he uses this to turn negative aspects into positive aspects.

Donna:

Donna has excellent listening skills and is a natural problem solver. She is the thinker in the group and considers things in great detail before speaking her views/ ideas aloud. She considers what other people have stated and gives her view in a positive way which encourages people to consider her views and understand her reasoning, which will often win them on side. She has a wealth of life skills from previous work which she is using to inform her practice as a community development worker.

Rob:

Rob can see the humour in many situations and uses this to draw in people’s attention before stating the serious aspects of his views/ ideas/ opinions, which is a refreshing approach. He has many skills and experience from other jobs which he is using to enhance his community development work practice.

Peer Feedback/ Concertina Style:

We asked the group members to fold their piece of paper so it resembled a paper fan and then they passed their piece of paper containing their name at the top to the person to their right. Each person was then asked to write something positive about every other member of their group onto the concertina, which they could then take home with them.

Concertina style


Stones In A Pond:

Everyone was asked to write on a stone what they would do as a result of today.

stones in a pond


What will you do as a result of today?

  • Be more thoughtful and mindful of different community groups
  • Move onto community development NVQ
  • Look into working with younger kids
  • Use ideas in our group work
  • Go away with a good knowledge of the basics of community development work and I will used some of the activities in future work
  • I have applied to study my PGCE at Sunderland College to teach Skills for Life. Hopefully my placement will be at ETEC
  • ave incorporated some of the play activities into the volunteering sessions that I do on a weekend
  • Better understanding of how a group works.
  • How to put ideas into action and to be effective

Further training you would be interested in:

  • Youth work
  • Child Development
  • NVQ level 2 in community development work
  • Training on how communities can work with the disabled

Tell Me What You Think:

Each learner was asked to put comments onto post it notes and add these to the cut out of each tutor. Each post it note was colour coded so we could match up the answers to each question

post it notes on tutor cut-outs putting up post its

What did you like about the tutors style?

Playwork:

  • Fun learning
  • Very engaging style and made the sessions fun and enjoyable

Community Development Work:

  • Friendly, good sense of humour, gave information in a simple manner
  • Fresh, bubbly approach
  • Very clear and is always helpful
  • Makes things clear and easy to understand
  • Very friendly and informative; makes it easy to join in discussions
  • Introductions at the start of the course helped everyone; feel welcome and ground rules established were also a really good idea. Liked the way personal experiences were used as examples

What do you think the tutor could do differently?

Playwork:

  • Not much, pretty much perfect, 9/10
  • Use ongoing evaluation methods e.g. post it notes asking what went well in that session and what didn’t go as well

Community Development Work:

  • Can’t think of any changes
  • Nothing
  • Fine as she is
  • Nothing
  • Nothing
  • Honestly can’t think of anything

Are there any topics or information we could have included within the introductory course?

Playwork:

  • No: lots of topics and everything covered
  • Maybe more theory based sessions although the practical elements were really fun

Community Development Work:

  • No fine
  • Nothing extra in this course, however I would like a course on youth work
  • Could have looked at 1x real life community development project from start to finish to illustrate the topic
  • Conflict – acting out the situation
  • Full range covered
  • Facilitation course to be held

What was the best part of the course for you?

Playwork:

  • The activities
  • The sessions with parachutes and jumping beans. It was awesome (getting to know new people)

Community Development Work:

  • Hearing everyone’s personal experiences. Found this very engaging and interesting
  • The group activities
  • All of it
  • Getting to meet different people
  • Informal style, meeting everyone and practical learning
  • Group discussions

Is there anything you would change about the course?

Playwork:

  • A room on the ground floor
  • Think maybe play could be done over 3 sessions and community development over 5 weeks

Community Development Work:

  • Room on the ground floor
  • Some of the sessions had a lot of theory – maybe should be over more weeks
  • Change nothing - It is a very enjoyable and informative course
  • Nothing
  • Longer course – more weeks
  • Nothing – a very friendly course

E-Voting

Each learner was given a handset and verbally instructed as to how to use it. Each person was asked to input their answer to the questions on the whiteboard and the total number of responses were collated and summarised for each learner to see.

e-voting taking place

1. Did you enjoy the course?
graph of results

2. Was the course what you expected it to be?
graph of results

3. Was the course useful?
graph of results

4. Did you learn anything new?
graph of results

5. Did the tutor give you clear instructions?
graph of results

6. Did you understand the instructions and information given by the tutor?
graph of results

7. Were a range of resources used during the course?
graph of results

8. What methods of teaching did you enjoy most?
graph of results
a = practical games
b= group work / discussions
c = quizzes
d = role play

9. Which of the following methods would you have liked to use?
graph of results
A = videos
B = interactive white board
C = visits
D = guest speakers
E = something else

10. Were you happy with the venue
graph of results

11. How easy was it for you to reach today’s venue?
graph of results
A = very easy within walking distance
B = easy as it’s on my bus route
C = easy as I drove here and am familiar with the route
D = easy as I drove here and the directions were good
E = difficult as it in not on a bus route
F = difficult as I had to come by metro
G = something else

Individual Learning Plans:

Everyone was asked to complete their ILP from today’s session and also concentrate on the overall course. I agreed to photocopy each of these and then send copies to Sunderland City Council as part of the evaluation.

completing ILPs

Presentation of Certificates:

learners with certificates