Facilitation
Encyclopedia
The term facilitation is broadly used to describe any activity which makes tasks for others easy. For example:
A person who takes on such a role is called a facilitator. Specifically:
- FacilitationFacilitation (business)Facilitation in business, organizational development and in consensus decision-making refers to the process of designing and running a successful meeting.Facilitation concerns itself with all the tasks needed to run a productive and impartial meeting...
is used in business and organizational settings to ensure the designing and running of successful meetings. - Neural facilitationNeural facilitationNeural facilitation, also known as paired pulse facilitation, is a concept in neuroscience where an increase in the postsynaptic potential is evoked by a second impulse....
in neuroscience, is the increase in postsynaptic potential evoked by a 2nd impulse. - Ecological facilitationEcological facilitationFacilitation describes species interactions that benefit at least one of the participants and cause harm to neither. Facilitations can be categorized as mutualisms, in which both species benefit, or commensalisms, in which one species benefits and the other is unaffected...
describes how an organism profits from the presence of another. Examples are nurse plants, which provide shade for new seedlings or saplings (e.g. using an orange tree to provide shade for a newly planted coffee plant), or plants providing shelter from wind chill in arctic environments.
A person who takes on such a role is called a facilitator. Specifically:
- A facilitatorFacilitatorA facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion...
is used in a variety of group settings, including business and other organisations to describe someone whose role it is to work with group processGroup dynamicsGroup dynamics refers to a system of behaviors and psychological processes that occur within a social group , or between social groups...
es to ensure meetings run well and achieve a high degree of consensus. - The term facilitator is used in psychotherapyPsychotherapyPsychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
where the role is more to help group members become aware of the feelings they hold for one another (see Group psychotherapyGroup psychotherapyGroup psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group...
) - The term facilitator is used in educationEducationEducation in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
to refer to a specifically trained adult who sits in class with a disabled, or otherwise needy, student to help them follow the lesson that the teacher is giving (see DisabilityDisabilityA disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
) - The term facilitator is used to describe people engaged in the illegal trafficking of human beings across international borders (see Human traffickingHuman traffickingHuman trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
). - The term facilitator is used to describe those individuals who arrange adoptionAdoptionAdoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
s by attempting to match available children with prospective adopters. - The term facilitator is used to describe someone who assists people with communication disorders to use communication aids with their hands. See Facilitated communicationFacilitated communicationFacilitated communication is a process by which a facilitator supports the hand or arm of a communicatively impaired individual while using a keyboard or other devices with the aim of helping the individual to develop pointing skills and to communicate...