Designing and conducting workshops
for in-service training

Leader: Kathy Schneider
Time: July 20th, 04 1.30 p.m
Place: Smith 221

Kathy Schneider opened up the workshop with a brainstorming on what the participants expected when they attended a workshop. The participants came up with a lot of enriching ideas. To mention only a few, they stated that they expected of a workshop to be active, task and experience-based rather than theory-oriented. It should also allow them to share ideas together, learn something new, and should provide them with some food for thought, etc.

Then, the leader distributed a handout on designing and conducting workshops and explained that the leader of a workshop might need to set up the room and think of food to break. She elaborated on the idea of the importance of the interactive relationship between the leader, the participants and the content. The leader has to assess where the learners come from and what they know about the content to adapt his/ her workshop. He/ she has to build on the expertise of the participants. The participants have to respect the leader, too. The handout also suggests different assumptions about learning, among which the importance of risk-taking, sharing responsibility, respect, reflecting on our practices, etc.

Moreover, the leader shared with the participants two different models of conducting workshops that they might use in their application workshops and final conference. She also provided the group with a workshop design checklist with eight different stages that can be of some use to the participants for the preparation of their own workshops.(see handouts). Finally, the participants had the chance to talk about the equipment and supplies checklist, mentioned in the handout, and add others of their own.

The workshop ended in a kind of debate on a possible evaluation form, and Kathy Schneider suggested that the participants could adopt one of the two models provided in the handout or use their own.

Reported by: Abdelouahab Senhaji
Nezha Belkachla