Range of Teacher Experience Full Discussion
From LiteracyTentWiki
Hello everyone, Sometimes teachers leave professional development offerings feeling like the session or workshop was geared more for teachers new to the field. Teachers new to the field may find that the materials discussed are very challenging. (Can any teachers on this list attest to either of those points?) Session evaluations might reflect comments such as 'this was more appropriate for beginning teachers' or 'I feel like I've had this before, why can't the materials be covered in a way that affords experienced teachers new/more challenging information?'
How do you deal with the issue of offering professional development to groups of teachers in attendance who have a wide range of experience teaching adult literacy or ESOL? What strategies do you use to ensure that the teacher new to adult literacy or ESOL doesn't leave feeling overwhelmed or confused, while the experienced teacher leaves with new ideas, even feeling 're-charged'?
Thanks,
Jackie
Jackie and all
I try to be clear in describing the workshop/session/activity from the get go. Inevitably, though, no matter how clear I might think I've been, there will be a range of expectations and points of readiness/experience among those who participate in the session.
I try to build an ongoing assessment piece throughout the session/s and try, too, to model ways of including various degrees of expertise by hardwiring the sessions to include many places for participants to share their experience and to pose questions to one another, as well as to me. I also - especially in multi-sessions workshops, keep the agenda flexible so that we can take more or less time along the way and so that after the first workshop I can make changes to remaining sessions in order to accommodate both strengths and needs.
others?
Janet Isserlis
Hello All,
This may sound very "simple but not easy".....I have my goals for training clearly developed and present them to the participants at the beginning of the session. My next step is to ask the group if they have any additional goals that I have not included. Being a great believer in the collective nature of the classroom there invariably are participant goals and learning opportunities that need to be met. My preparation and understanding of the participant population usually can accommodate everyone's needs. This step opens the conversation. I have found this step very necessary and inviting for the groups of learners. Some may think that this is a "back to the basics" comment but sometimes that can be very affirming. Be well....
peace and love,
Chris Francisco
This question gets at the heart of "practice what you preach" in adult education (at least in my opinion): the art of facilitating multi-level classrooms, integrating the strategy of peer tutoring, review and reinforce of learning, building on learners' prior knowledge. These ideas that we suggest be a fundamental part of the learning environment for our adult learners in basic skills programs should be the same ideas that we build our PD around: build on participants' prior knowledge, network and share ideas, engage more experienced participants to extend dialogue, or challenge the more experienced participants to extend or reinforce what they know (or think they know). I think it's important to know your audience ALWAYS - and never plan an event so tightly that it isn't flexible enough to adjust to the varied experience of your audience.
Jeff Fantine Director, Literacy Center College of Education Ohio University 338 McCracken Hall Athens, OH 45701 800-753-1519 fax: 740-593-2834
“How do you deal with the issue of offering professional development to groups of teachers in attendance who have a wide range of experience teaching adult literacy or ESOL?” Ummm. . . how about doing a needs assessment before the "pd offering" so you base what you do on the expressed needs of the participants? (Which might result in a variety of different kinds of pd offerings, including those for large groups as well as those for small groups or individuals.) Vicki ----- Jeff and All,
I completely agree with your statements. Good on you!
peace and love, Chris
I just facilitated a workshop with 2 of my colleagues on 10/29. The subject matter was teaching reading effectively in the adult classroom. I do workshops often. Over time, I've learned to present my goals and objectives clearly from the outset of the workshop - including in what ever materials are mailed out promoting the workshop or training session. Also, I see the training sessions as no different from my classroom. As a facilitator/teacher, I need to be flexible and I need to be able to adapt to the environment presented. I come into it with my own expectations and goals but my "students" may well have other needs and goals. It's a lot like dealing with a multilevel classroom. I know at the recent training, all three of us, were constantly gaining feedback from the participants - letting them drive to some degree where we took the training. We also allowed for a chance for them to tell us where they needed/wanted more training and plan to plan for that in the coming months.
Additionally, before training we try to "listen" to the people around us to get a feel for what they want and need. I or my colleagues may make adjustments into how something is presented based on that. We've tried a needs assessment before - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the ppl that fill out the needs assessment end up being the same people that do not attend the training. Varying the way the "needs" assessment is completed is effective though - being sure to call, write, email or observe etc, tends to provide much more usable information.
Another thing to do when presenting is to be fully aware of who is attending. When we planned our recent workshop, we accounted for all the levels taught - ABE, AHS, GED And ESL. I've also noticed that "beginning" teachers are just as eager for ANY information as is the "Experienced" teacher. That as long as the beginning teacher has been trained and been in the classroom for any length of time prior to attending the training, they find information useful and necessary and appreciate it. I've not had anyone respond back on an evaluation that information presented was "not challenging" or "too challenging" for them to relate to.
Regards Katrina Hinson
OK - I'm going to play devil's advocate here. What about the following 2 scenarios:
1) We offer what is clearly labeled a course in "Excel Basics" or an "Introduction to the Adult Learner" - describing the target as "those new to the topic." And yet even with that we have a broad range of "skill levels" - one person who is competent in using a computer, but has never used Excel sitting next to someone who still has difficulty using a mouse - or whose keyboarding skills are extremely low. Or we have a participant with 20 years education experience, sitting next to one who came to AE fresh out of college, or one who has worked several years in Adult corporate training but has no formal Education training?
2) Funding is provided for only one "workshop/course/training" during this time frame or in this area of the state. We have a clear request from our statewide needs assessment for help with the topic of "multi-level instruction." How do we present this material such that the new folks aren't overwhelmed, but the more experienced AE folks feel challenged/get what they need?
[Please note I am truly playing Devil's advocate here - I know what *we* did to solve these issues, but would like to see if there are other ideas out there that we haven't tried or thought of]
Duren Thompson Tennessee State leadership Team Center for Literacy Studies
Duren and others,
One important piece that _is_ in our control as professional developers is to be sure that the course, workshop, presentation, study group or other PD offering is very carefully and clearly described. A good description might include:
1) intended participants' knowledge and experience (An "Excel Basics" workshop might describe the intended participants as those "who are comfortable using a computer and competent with basic word processing, but who have little or no experience using a spreadsheet") 2) what the PD offering is (and isn't) intended to do (e.g. "Enable participants to organize a set of numerical data in a basic spreadsheet, but not to use formulas other than those which involve addition or multiplication") 3) how the offering will be conducted: in a lab, a discussion group, as a presentation with opportunities to practice, as an online course, etc. 4) the presenter's name and experience 5) what is required of the participants (e.g. "Given a set of data, produce a functional spreadsheet with accurate labels and correct formulae.") 6) if credit or CEUs are available (or not). 7) referral to other related offerings, if available, which may be for more (or less) experienced participants
In addition, if the PD offering requires registration, the registration form could be designed so that it requires a signature after a sentence that says "I have read the description of this (course, workshop, etc.) and believe that it is intended for someone with my level of experience."
In the evaluation of the offering you could ask participants to say whether it was at the right level and, if not, to review the description and indicate how the description could be improved.
I wonder if others have suggestions or additions to what should be included in a good PD offering description.
David J. Rosen djrosen@comcast.net
I like all your strategies for writing a more accurate description - and we've used many of them. In particular, your phrasing "...who are comfortable using a computer and competent with basic word processing, but who have little or no experience using a spreadsheet" is almost word for word what we've used.
Our experience, however, is that folks attend anyway. We can only assume one of the following: - they don't know what "competent with basic word processing" is. They can type a letter and print it, but they always save to the default location, and use the spacebar instead of tabs or indents (for example). - They think of themselves as comfortable using a computer - but they've only ever worked on one computer, set up exactly their way, and are lost if the one at the training doesn't exactly match what they are used to. - are desperate to learn anything about computers and this the only thing they could find, fit in their schedule, or that was recommended to them - Someone told them they *had to come* - What they wanted couldn't be found, so they came to this instead
Lastly, we've found that a lot of folks don't read past the title of the session to see the description (and check boxes that said "I read this" without reading either). Some folks have indicated that if the description is too long - they won't attend, or simply stop reading after the first paragraph (like in a newspaper).
No matter how hard we try on the front end, we will almost *always* end up with a challenging mix of folks in a workshop.
What are specific strategies that you-all have found are helpful in coping with these "mixes?"
For computer classes, we do always try to build in some sort of "pre-assessment" task or question to get an idea of how comfortable people are with basic keyboarding and mouse tasks, and plan on at least one "helper" per 10 attendees (in addition to the facilitator). Some other strategies we've used are: ~ Have them rate themselves, on paper, as to how many years experience they have (or how "expert" they feel) with computers and then "line up" according to comfort level/experience and then the facilitator works to pair more experienced folks with less experience folks in class. ~ For face to face sessions on using the internet, have participants go on a short web-quest (even just "open Internet Explorer and go to the web site on your handout" can tell us a LOT about a user's skill and comfort level) ~ For sessions not based on the internet, simply having them insert a floppy or CD and open a file will tell us a lot - asking them to save a file can be especially informative. ~ For online courses, we request they register using our online form. Anyone who faxes or US mails us their registration is tagged as someone who will need extra support. As are those who have to call us to ask how to fill in or submit an online form. Those that register using someone else's e-mail address (like their supervisor or their husband) are likewise "tagged." ~ If we have concern that a particular topic or group will have difficulties, recruit teacher experts to attend sessions as extra helpers. ~ If we have enough helpers, and only or two people are *really* struggling, one helper simply hangs out with the "challenged" person(s) and the other helper works with the rest of the room. ~ Helpers quickly identify left-handers or those with visual impairments and make adjustments to the computer they are working on. ~ If using laptops in your presentation, ALWAYS have a mouse for every laptop. Touchpads are a real challenge for almost everyone. Some will also have trouble with the more condensed keyboard. ~ For those who have trouble using a mouse, helpers show them how to use keyboard shortcuts and arrow keys to move around on the computer. For those with trouble keyboarding, show them how o use the mouse to do as much as possible. ~ Avoid session tasks that require folks to do a lot of keyboarding - unless that is what you are teaching. Have a file with pre-prepared data for them to work with in spreadsheets, word processing or databases. They can create a couple of records, and then move on with the other skills for the session.
Whew! any other ideas for tech sessions? Ideas for non-tech sessions (like ESOL content?)
Duren
You have given us a great list of strategies, Duren. Here's another for computer training/professional development, which may be applicable in other PD areas too.
~ ask participants to complete a quiz (perhaps online) before coming to training that includes performing tasks that would be needed in the training (e.g. correctly typing or cutting and pasting a URL in a browser, minimizing a window, opening two windows and switching back and forth between them, etc.) If participants get below a certain % ask them to come to a one-hour pre-training activity where they will get special help with these skills.
I sometimes ask people to pair up at one computer in a lab (if they wish) so they can help each other. This doesn't always help. I wonder if you -- or others -- have suggestions about how to pair people up. These might have applicability to other PD areas too.
David J. Rosen djrosen@comcast.net
David, I've not had much luck with pairing people up. In pairs, the most experienced person does everything and the novice does nothing. It makes class go smoother, but the novice learns a lot less.
Bill McNutt IT Administrator, UT Center for Literacy Studies http://cls.coe.utk.edu
One neat *strategy* for "pre-assessment" I have seen was at pre-conference session at COABE 3 years ago. So simple and yet it changed my whole "take" on participating in the session.
After the facilitator briefly went over the Agenda for the course, she said (something like): "OK - that's the intent of this session - the information I planned to cover. Now I'd like you to think about *your* goals in coming to this session. Think a minute and jot down on a piece of paper *one thing* you want to get out of this session. *One thing* you'd like to walk away with."
We had think time, jotted our notes, and then she had everyone say what their one thing was and wrote it on Newsprint/Easel-sized sticky-note paper and stuck the pages up on the wall. When this was done she said (and this was the very important part):
"These are great - and some things I hadn't initially planned on covering. OK - now I want you to keep this goal of yours in mind during the session. It is your job to make sure that *you* leave this session with that goal met. Ask questions, remind me, the facilitator, to address the issue, work with your peers at your table, etc. *You* are responsible for ensuring that this session meets *your* needs."
She went on to explain that this was a great way to assist adult learners to take responsibility for their own learning as well.
Changed my whole approach to the session. At the end she went back to these pages and asked us to ask ourselves "Did I get what I wanted to get out of this session? If not, what can I do now/next to try to attain this goal?"
Duren Thompson PS (I'm working on digging up the presenter's name - she was high up in the NASSLN organization and the session was on LD - at Columbus?)
