I asked my colleagues what I should know before doing my first teachers' workshop, and their most significant responses were:
Give teachers time to talk to and learn from
each other.
Use the teaching methods you want them to use.
Give teachers time to talk to and learn from each other
Teachers need to construct their own knowledge, just like everyone else. I try to give them time to interact, discuss what they're thinking about, ask questions, and basically do all the things you want their students to be able to do in class. Also, teachers are often isolated, and teacher workshops give them the opportunity to learn from their experienced colleagues -- this kind of teaching experience and insight is something I don't have. I want them to stay focussed on the workshop topics, however, and I'm learning ways to do this.
When doing hands-on activities, let them construct the things their students will construct (starfinders, color analyzers), in groups. It doesn't take their full concentration, so they have time to interact, yet the activity tends to draw them back.
Make lists with them -- ask them to list relevant concepts, or ways of dealing with a situation, or questions their students might ask -- and list them on flip-charts or a board (with or without groupwork first). Ask them for feedback and suggestions on the activities you present -- how would they work it into their curriculum?
Assign groups to different parts of a task, and then have them share the results.
Give them breaks. Food is good, too.
Nametags are important; be sure their schools and locations are included. If you can possibly manage it, prepare a participants' address list so they can make notes on it and maintain the contacts they make at your workshop.
Use the teaching methods you want them to use.
There's so much I want to tell them, so many resources I want to share with them, and such a short time in which to do it, that it's always very tempting to deliver it in an efficient lecture. Fortunately, I've experienced enough workshops to know how ineffective this truly is. My stacks'o'stuff get used only a little if I don't have time to learn and appreciate what's in them. "Less is more" applies to teachers, too, as does active learning.
One approach is to do activities with the teachers, but then augment them with discussions of how to use them in the classroom (along with information on variations and expansions), and also give them related science knowledge beyond the level you'd expect of their students. I think a lecture or slide show is okay for the latter, if it's lively and the teachers get involved in questions and discussion, and it follows (rather than precedes) the related activity.
For those occasions when the large numbers or room layout cannot possibly accomodate regular activities, try some of the techniques others have used with college classes. These involve individual or partner activities (give them a diffraction grating and have them look at light sources at the front of the room), short breaks for mini group discussions, and homework (or breakout sessions).
Another approach is the theme. Instead of presenting an eclectic assortment of activities and information, try presenting one coherent whole. Choose activities and information that are strongly tied together -- a linear progression, or a circular one that returns to the starting point from a different direction, or a central idea with many offshoots (interdisciplinary ties, multiple activities with a common subject), or a tool (CCDs, classification systems) or model (life cycles, conservation of energy) with many uses, or two themes that enhance each other (colored filters and spectra, solar system formation and the search for life elsewhere).
I know the thematic approach works in the classroom and in some other situations, but I haven't seen it really applied to a teachers' workshop yet. Stay tuned -- I may get the opportunity shortly. I suspect that more material can be presented when it's all related and hangs together.
To be continued...
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Created 14 March 1995, last revised 15 June 1997
by Elizabeth E. Roettger, roettger@ix.netcom.com
URL: http://www.nthelp.com/eer/AENworkshop.html