On Saturday, Ken, Mitch, Ian, Joan, Dawn and I took a wonderful tour around the Island. We met Lorne who told tales of the war, the great white north, working in the states and his great venture of harvesting a vineyard on the island.  Then we met Lorena who told us the history of the only vineyard in the world owned 100% by a native tribe. Their teaching styles were very different and so was the impact.  Lorne started each chapter of his life story on the vineyard with something to the effect of “I’m not gonna sugar coat it for ya, I’m gonna tell it to ya straight” and ended every chapter with “and that is the way it is God damn it!” Lorena, on the other hand gave us the fact without the flavour. She delivered the history of the purchase, the trials of keeping the birds away and the types of events the hold in their beautiful meeting center.

Lorne used more of a Personal Model/Expert/ Formal Authority which Mackeracher says is used by 22% of faculty. He was illustrating what he had learned about wine making by sharing personal stories, coaching and guiding. As it turned out, he had been a university professor at one time….by that’s another story.

Lorena’s style, on the other hand, was more of a Formal Authority who gave us a tour, rhyming off her pre-meditated lecture by rote.

Guess which teacher this group of adult learners paid more attention to after a couple of glasses of wine…