Appendix 7.2 - An outline for an introductory workshop
The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Introduction
This is a rough outline for a one-day workshop, aimed at facilitators.
If you are facilitating this workshop, ideally you would be familiar with the present programme (ideally through practice). Also refer back to OER4Schools/How to use this resource.
The structure of a workshop session
Observing, thinking, reflecting (15 min) on the structure of a session Go through the structure of a workshop session:
- Review of follow up activities. At the beginning of each session, you should review the previous session (if you are running more than one session).
- Session activitiy 1: e.g. Brainstorm on interactive teaching (new topic)
- Session activity 2: Brainstorming in the classroom (new topic)
- Session activity 3: ICT-based activity
- Session activity 4: Planning
- Discussion of LfL or MSC
- Connecting with overarching goals of the programme
- Agreement of Follow-up activities
An example session (2 hours)
Various activities (120 min) on reviewing a workshop session Go through session 1.1, paying attention to
- the facilitator notes,
- the general structure of the session (see above),
- modelling,
- and using the activity listing at the end (helping with keeping time).
Lunch break
Exemplary activities
After lunch do a range of exemplary activities, that illustrate how the workshop progresses.
Workshop participants take turns in facilitating the activity, and after each activity there's a reflection on how this went. As you do the following activities, you may not need to do all activities or all parts of the activities, but only do the activities / parts which participants find most challenging.
Examples of interactive teaching in Zambia
Many African teachers aspire to be interactive teachers. Yet, interactive teaching is not common in the African classroom. However, it can work in this context!
The following clip shows Eness, a teacher in a community school near Lusaka interacting with a Grade 3 class. Watch the clip of her class discussion about Is a bat a bird?
Observing, thinking, reflecting (5 min): Watch a video of a whole class discussion.
Watch video:
VIDEO
Whole class discussion
Whole class discussion of ‘Is a bat a bird?' Teacher sets unresolved problem as homework
Video/Eness vertebrates 12.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Eness_vertebrates_12.mp4,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Eness Vertebrates folder. Duration: 4:19 watch on YouTube, local play / download options / download from dropbox)(Series: Eness Vertebrates, episode 12)(Transcript available here or via YouTube captions.)
(Clip shows whole class discussion of ‘is a bat a bird?', set unresolved problem as homework)
Whole class dialogue (10 min): Whole group discussion on the whole class discussion video.
- What have you noticed?
- How are the learners taught?
- How do you think they will react to the homework task?
- Is this classroom different from yours?
- What is interactive teaching?
Issues to discuss
- Noisy but productive - A classroom can be noisy and productive at the same time
- interactive = inter-action (with view to sense making; i.e. purpose of inter-action is to make sense)
- Children making sense of ideas for themselves, developing their own classifications, relating to what they already know...
- Teacher not telling answer, asking students to investigate for themselves
Facilitator needs to know how to deal with criticisms (such as too noisy, too much chaos, not productive)
The road is long. But it can be done!
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Practitioner reflection on interactive teaching
Observing, thinking, reflecting (5 min): Practitioner reflection on interactive teaching. The key to interactive teaching is teachers shifting “from telling to listening” and learners shifting from receiving information to making sense of it for themselves.
How can we “listen” to learners? What does that mean in practice?
Facilitator describes own experience of shifting to interactive teaching and how it is different in his/her classroom now…
Evidence for impact of interactive teaching (optional)
Generally we have experienced that teachers welcome interactive ways of teaching. However, it is possible that teachers may object or have major concerns to the interactive teaching shown in the videos as well as what has emerged from this discussion. For instance, they may say that this just will not work in their classroom, that it may not work with large classes, or perhaps that such styles of teaching would not be welcome by parents or head teachers for various reasons.
At this stage, you could introduce interactive teaching as an international trend. Research evidence from different countries shows that this kind of active learning is both motivating and far more effective for learning than direct instruction (“chalk-and-talk” or lecturing). In particular independent, collaborative or oral work, as well as questioning and whole-class discussion that encourage pupils to grapple with ideas are effective. They lead to long-term and deeper learning rather than memorising facts (resulting in short-term, superficial learning).
The following video clip may help to reinforce the point.
Observing, thinking, reflecting (5 min): Watch a video on one Zambian teacher’s experience of interactive teaching.
VIDEO
Agness Tembo speaking at eLearning Africa 2010 in Lusaka, Zambia
Agness Tembo speaking at eLearning Africa 2010 in Lusaka, Zambia
Video/Agness Tembo at eLA 2010 Zambia.mp4, https://oer.opendeved.net/wiki/Video/Agness_Tembo_at_eLA_2010_Zambia.mp4,This video is available on your memory stick in the video/Talks folder. Duration: 12:34 (Series: Talks, episode 02)
This two minute clip features Agness Tembo, a Grade 2 teacher from Chalimbana Basic School located in a rural area of Zambia. She is presenting at the e-Learning Africa Conference 2010 her own experiences of participating in Phase 1 of the OER4Schools research project. She talks animatedly about the challenges she faced in introducing both ICT and interactive pedagogy into her (mathematics) teaching for the first time, the benefits to students, and the qualities she needed as a teacher to make the shift successful.
Introduction (5 min) of Think Pair Share. This is a technique that encourages cooperative learning by peer interactivity. Here are the steps:
- Think - Students listen to a question (this may be an open-ended question to which there are many answers) or a presentation and are given ‘think time’ to formulate their responses.
- Pair - Following the ‘think time’, students work together with a partner, sharing ideas, discussing, clarifying and challenging.
- Share -The pair then share their ideas with another pair, or with the whole class. Students should be prepared to share their partner’s ideas as well as their own.
You will now use this technique to help you to formulate your ideas on interactive teaching.
Think-Pair-Share(a):
Teachers should cue the progress from one step to the next. In the primary classroom, hand signals for each step can be developed with the students and these can be used along with verbal cues.
Allowing students time to think, sometimes referred to as 'wait time' has been shown by researchers to improve the quality of their responses. Talking through ideas with a partner first before sharing them with a wider audience allows for those ideas to be elaborated on and refined.
Model the think pair share technique in the following activity, remembering to tell the participants what step they are on, what they should be doing and for how long.
Think-Pair-Share (10 min) your ideas on the differences between interactive teaching and traditional teaching
We mentioned that interactive teaching involves moving from “telling” to “listening.” What other words do you feel might describe the difference between traditional approaches and interactive teaching? What are the two kinds of classroom like? Think on your own for a minute and then pair up and discuss your ideas with a partner. Write your ideas on the board for all to see. Aim for each person to write a word or phrase for each approach perhaps under the headings 'traditional classroom' vs 'interactive classroom'.
Some contrasts people might make (let them suggest their own terms):
- passive - active
- quiet - noisy
- individual - collaborative
Note: these are not value judgments - they can be positive or negative in different circumstances!
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Brainstorm on ICT
Whole class brainstorm (5 min) on ICT Consider the following questions:
- What does ICT mean to you?
- What different types of ICTs have you heard of?
- What ICTs have you used?
- Which ICTs would you like to use in the classroom?
ICT = Information and Communication Technology
Remember to record the brainstorm on the board or a large sheet of paper. Things that may feature are: PCs, laptops, netbooks, tablets, mp3 players, mobile phones, games consoles, web content (images/maps/), software applications etc.
Introducing cumulative talk - creating a story together
Cumulative talk is talk in which all participants agree and add to the previous talk (or sentence).
Cumulative talk (10 min): Creating a story together All the participants get up to rearrange the seating. Arrange the group in a horse-shoe seating arrangement(a) if there is room. If not choose another arrangement allowing participants to see each other. Facilitator starts a story by saying one sentence. All participants then contribute to the story by adding sentences.
A good story would:
- be contextually appropriate: for example, use common names of characters and a setting familiar to participants.
- have a theme relevant for participants such as education (girl-child receiving schooling later supports family), importance of forests and wild-life (saving a snake later becomes useful for invention of new medicine), treatment of diseases (steps taken by a family to treat an ill person) etc.,
- be short and have few characters, and
- have a problem which is collectively resolved in the end.
For instance, you could create a story about welcoming a new child to the school, perhaps a child with an impairment or some kind. Tthe facilitator starts by saying: "The other day, I heard my neighbours talking about whether their child should be starting school, because their child has difficulty walking, and they were not sure whether children like that should go to school." (Relates to Index for Inclusion, A1.1 Everyone is welcomed.)
Facilitator can introduce the notion of Talk Rules during this activity if needed. Some examples are: “everybody listens when one person talks” because they have to add to that sentence, “respect others’ ideas” by adding to rather than changing their idea, “make sure everyone in the group understands”, “try to reach consensus in the end” – participants don’t need to actually come to agreement but the process of trying gets people to listen to each other. You may want to ask participants to generate their own examples of Talk Rules.
The activity we just did is example of “cumulative talk” where participants build on what the previous person has said (“cumulative talk” is one example of whole class dialogue).
Same-task group work (10 min) in pairs: Planning cumulative talk in the classroom Now pair up, and come up with ideas for cumulative talk in the classroom.
- Consider that when this activity is done in the classroom with pupils, themes should be chosen from the curriculum.
- Also consider that the seating arrangement can be modified according to teachers’ classrooms such that pupils see each other. Pupils can leave their tables and just move their chairs (or sit outside if the grounds are suitable).
As you are planning this activity, ask youself the following questions:
- Do your students find it easy to talk?
- How can you encourage students to talk?
- Are some students likely to laugh at other students contributions? How can you create safe environments that enable students to take risks?(Relates to: LfL, 2.4)
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Reflecting on current questioning practice
The idea behind this activity is to make the need for this session explicit.
You will need mini-blackboards and something for display (blackboard/flipchart).
Choose some topics that they are teaching this week (from the curriculum), and display the topics (on blackboard or flipchart). Some examples are:
- the importance of water(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.2 ),
- living together(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.13 ),
- transport(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.5 ),
- types of fertilizers (organic and inorganic) and their advantages or disadvantages(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.1 ), e.g.
- uses of different parts of a plant(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.8 ), and
- health(Relates to Index for Inclusion, C1.6 ).
Same-task group work (5 min) in pairs: Coming up with some questions. Choose a topic from the board. Write five questions on mini-blackboards or paper that you normally ask/would ask the pupils in class?
Allow only about 3-5 minutes for this activity so that spontaneous questions are recorded.
After 3-5 minutes, explain the types of questions below and ask the other participants to suggest examples from their mini-blackboard that represent these types. Write these examples on the blackboard or flipchart or ask a volunteer participant to do so. Explain one type of question, ask the other participants for examples, record examples on the board and then mention second type.
Observing, thinking, reflecting (5 min) Facilitator talk on open and close questions. Briefly state what open and closed questions are.
Ensure that participants do not feel less motivated if their questions are more closed or surface type. To ensure this:
- Refrain from judging questions. Record questions factually without expressing any emotion.
- Mention that all types of questions have value and can be used for different purposes. Closed and surface questions are also important to some extent.
- Maintain positive body language by listening attentively.
Before the session, prepare the workshop room by marking OPEN on one side of the room and CLOSED on the other side. To keep it simple, draw a line on the floor with a chalk and write OPEN and CLOSED!
Game (5 min) on open and closed questions. Categorise your questions as closed and open questions. For each question, you move to the side of the room marked OPEN if their question is open or to the side marked CLOSED if their question is closed.
Make this activity interesting by asking participants to run to their side (OPEN or CLOSED) at the sound of clap and ask the participant who gets there first to clap for the second question, and so on.
Whole class dialogue (10 min): Reflecting on current practice. Where are you standing? Is your current practice of generating questions more open or more closed?
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
Whole class dialogue (10 min) on the previous activity Because we have done the above activity as part of this facilitators workshop, now come back together as a group and discuss how the activity went. You could e.g. use PMI to say some plusses, minuses, and interesting things. What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What questions can you ask, to find out whether the activity was conducted in an interactive way?
