I’ve now successfully finished the first year of the MSc.

The vast relief of receiving a pass for my seminar paper means that I’ve now successfully finished the first year of the MSc. And that means – to my amazement – that we’re now pretty much exactly half-way through the two year course. That milestone, and my relief in getting my essay passed, has made me reflect on the importance of balancing freedom and structure when you are learning.

On the one hand, having the structure of the MSc deadlines, standards, and feedback requirements is crucial. Without these, I certainly wouldn’t have got round to reading, critically questioning, applying and really reflecting on the different organisational and people development theory I have encountered so far on the course. On the other hand, having to complete the fiddly bits of a written piece, and really pin down your learning on paper can feel a bit like a distraction from the (often more fun) process of actually learning.

This balance of freedom with structure is of course not a new dilemma for those of us involved in designing and delivering adult learning and training. So as with many things about the MSc, I feel it does me, and hopefully my practice, a lot of good to be on the side of being the learner again!

Some of the structure on the MSc comes from the shape and requirements of the pieces we need to complete, and as such the second year feels as though it is shifting a bit more towards application. All pieces have to demonstrate some degree of application, but there is a difference in the degree you are able to do this in say a review of the field of O&PD (fairly limited) versus an applied action research project (pretty much essential).

Our set took the opportunity of the halfway mark to the course to give each other ‘feedback on our feedback’, at our last set meeting. This was really useful, as while being able to give feedback well is an important part of most development work, perhaps paradoxically it’s not something that often tends to get fed back on. Overall, I am really looking forward to the next year, albeit with a certain amount of trepidation as to how I am going to manage to fit everything in.