Diverse interests
Even where learners don't share a bond based on where they grew up, their faith, their ethnicity, their gender or a common cause, you may still be able to take account of their interests outside your course or workshop.
Some examples of taking account of diverse interests in a group
Both of the examples involve e-learning. For more ideas on how to improve the learning experience for learners through the use of ICT, visit: E-learning and E-assessment.
I go to a language class on the estate. We are a really mixed group. There are one or two from Somalia, Kurds and Afghans and someone from Bolivia. Myself, I'm Hungarian. There are computers in our room. We have our own bookmarked news sites. Every day, at the start of the session, our tutor encourages us to open them up, so we can read something in our own language about what's been happening back home before starting our English session. Sometimes we talk about what we have read in the news. You can learn that things look very different in other parts of the world.
Janos, learner, English for speakers of other languages (ESOL).
Stanley was a pigeon fancier, really obsessive. The other people in the group were interested in hearing him read out stuff he'd written about breeding and racing pigeons once or twice, but enough was enough. Then I introduced him to the Internet.
First he wanted to use it to check weather conditions up and down the country and as far away as North Africa ready for races that were coming up. He got the hang of that, and then moved on to a pigeon-fanciers' chat room. This meant he was in touch with people from all over Northern Europe about racing conditions, birds that had got home against all the odds and so on. Recently, we've been having a look at pigeon fanciers' websites, and Stanley has decided he can improve on them, so he's thinking about designing his own site.
Lauren, tutor, Skills for life.