Thank you for the opportunity to feedback on my recent British Tree Identification training course. The tutor was very knowledgeable, clearly enthusiastic and genuinely interested in the subject she was delivering. I however felt that, for me, the course did not effectively cater to all learning styles. At the start of the course we were presented with a booklet of information that we didn’t really get a chance to read through before being taken outside. As it had been raining heavily before we left the classroom she advised us not to take our note books out with us in case it started again. I am not an aural learner and find it difficult to retain information without being able to write it down. I will admit in this instance I should taken my notes out anyway as others did.
At the start of the course there was some form of structure in place; we were going to start by looking at trees with Catkins. As we explored the grounds however the tutor would jump to another ‘family’ as we were passing certain trees so that we ‘didn’t have to come back to this area again’. I found this very hard to follow as I had no notes to help me re-enforce what was being said. I found it very hard also when the tutor would spot a tree whilst explaining something to us and walk away so I was unable to hear some of the information. Most people at the start of the course had stated that they were beginners and knew nothing about trees, this however seemed to often be forgotten as we walked around the grounds when the phrase ‘but you obviously knew that’ was used on several occasions. This made me feel that I was unable to ask questions in case they were seen as silly.
I recently attended a wildflower ID course where we were given a key and taught how to use them. We then had the opportunity to go out and use the key to identify a selection of Wildflowers ourselves. I feel that I would have been far more comfortable with the information provided if we had had a key to use instead of just being told what tree it was. I came away from the Wildflower ID course feeling confident that even though I didn’t necessarily know more wildflowers that I could identify them with the new skills I had learnt.
I appreciate that others on the course may have a different view and I want to stress that don’t feel that the course was a bad one but I wanted to point out that it did not work for me and my learning style. I look forward to attending other courses in the future.