In the first and second years of the CM course students had responsibility for their own learning but followed an outline structure of what has to be taught by the tutors. But it still came as quite a surprise to find that in the third year the tutor asked us what our agenda was. What did we want to get through? Very often it was business carried over from the board meetings, such as the board review process, and sometimes it was work on a particular subject i.e. the vision of the group.

So why did we have this responsibility? It gave us a unique opportunity to learn about managing change and conflict within the group, as this was a new experience and there were often varying agendas amongst the group members. Prioritising and working through these was a great learning experience. It also gave us a way of examining the roles we each take on within the group situation, enabling us to see the practical outworking of the theories we had worked with earlier on in the course. As well as enabling us to look at the wider group in the ways listed above, having responsibility for our own learning also enabled us to look at ourselves in relation to the course, to look at our motivations and the roles we took up individually.

So how did we deal with this opportunity? Each Monday morning we were asked what our agenda was for the session, which we would then write up on the board and prioritise. (Most important item: Break time.) Once this was done we would then work through the items. (Having it written up large helped us to stick to what we had identified rather than getting distracted.) If items were changed round then we had to deal with the conflict that sometimes ensued and take responsibility for our decisions and actions.

Taking responsibility for our own learning also taught us about planning ahead. If there was something on our agendas that would take up a large chunk of the morning then we would either move items around to fit it in or we would have to make definite plans to cover it in the next session. Also if there was a subject we wanted specific input on then we had to make sure that the tutor knew about it so that he was able to prepare, or else we would be disappointed with our lack of forethought.

One of the subjects we chose to cover as a result of having this responsibility was that of the group vision.