Adult educators in Bermuda are being given a little coaching on how to make learning more inviting with the help of international teaching consultant Dr. Charlotte Reed.

She is on the Island this week to share her passion for education and to help train both the board and tutors at the Adult Education School on how to create the best possible learning environment for students.

As the director of Indiana University?s Urban Teacher Education Programme and the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, she is well versed on the invitational concept of schooling, where students are encouraged to accept the learning challenge, rather than being forced.

Her aim is to coach educators on how to make students love learning and have the right attitude to life, not just in the classroom, but at home and work, too.

However, she said in order for students to do that, the people that ran and directed schools first had to be trained in the importance of creating the right atmosphere, the value of having the right approach to people, and in reaching a common goal.

?We will be starting with the board at the Adult Education School and I will be talking to them about the importance of leadership with this theory in the forefront,? said Dr. Reed, who has been in education for more than 30 years. ?People have to know what invitational education is all about. It?s not good for the principal and tutors of a school to be pushing for of these invitational ideas if the board is not behind them.

?So, I will be explaining to the board how important it is to create an environment that?s both physically and environmentally inviting. When parents and students come, they must feel welcome. They must feel that we really want them at school, so they will also want to be here.

?Then, I will be doing workshops for the tutors.?

Dr. Reed said it was important to respect all students and to believe that they could achieve, in spite of their challenges, whether they be at home or academically.

She said if teachers did not believe students would be successful, then the pupils themselves would never do it.

And as part of her own teachings, she said she told students and tutors that just because somebody grew up in a ghetto did not mean that they could not succeed.

?I was brought up in a project, but my parents kept me away from that when I was at home,? she added.

?They protected me from that as much as they could and my parents were supportive.

?The message I want to send out is that no matter where you are from or what your challenges, you can find ways to get on. You just need to find your way of doing it, and there are people to help you.?

Head of the school Julia Beach said the alternative facility, which takes students 16 and above and enables them to study for their GED certificate after failing to reach their potential in mainstream schools, was busier than ever.

This year there are 127 students at the school, in comparison to its usual average of 80, and she said there was even people on waiting lists.

She said usually the school struggled to make ends meet, however, a financial boost from John Charman, president and CEO of Axis Capital Holdings, was to fund the three-year ongoing training programme in invitational education.

Mrs. Beach said if the concept was to be fully embraced by the school, it had to become a permanent way of thinking, and not just a flash in the pan, so follow-up consultants and conferences would be in the pipeline.

Dr. Reed, who has visited the Island as a consultant on many occasions, said she believed too many schools focused on test results, with little emphasis on the learning experience, and she said therefore problems went unresolved.

?We have to get results, but there is a better way of doing it than standardised testing,? she added. ?We never hear people saying that we have to get the learning level up ? just that we have to get the test results up ? but we believe that with invitational education you can do both.?

And she said part of the invitational concept was also getting parents on board.

?Parents don?t have to be the teachers, but they have to create in their home a love of learning, so children don?t spend all of their time talking on the street,? said Dr. Reed.

Dr. Reed will be on the Island until tomorrow, and the training week will culminate on Saturday with a retreat at Elbow Beach Hotel for the board and tutors.