Instructional Skills Workshop

What is it?

The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) is a laboratory approach to the improvement of the teaching and learning process. It is an intensive 3-day workshop conducted by university educators for university educators. Normally conducted over 3 consecutive 6 hour days, each workshop can accommodate from four to six participants. Participants review basic ideas about teaching, check current practices, and within the safe environment of the workshop, try new strategies and techniques.

Workshop Goals

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

• use instructional objectives to inform learners about what they are expected to learn
• write a useful, practical teaching plan
• evaluate what has been learned in relation to your performance objectives
• use simple techniques during your lessons to test teaching
• conduct a highly participatory classroom session
• use the common instructional aids (e.g. chalkboard, flip chart, overhead projector and screen, power point slides)
• use good questioning techniques during a classroom session
• give objective feedback

What Will I Be Doing?

During the workshop, each instructor prepares and conducts three 10 minute "mini-lessons". The instructor receives written, oral and video feedback from the other participants on the effectiveness of his/her lessons and then sets new performance objectives.

Participants are encouraged to engage actively as learners while the other participants teach, and to give and receive honest, helpful, non-judgemental feedback.

Participants are strongly encouraged to experiment with different teaching techniques and to teach from and to different learning domains--psychomotor, cognitive and affective.

What Will I Gain?

• the opportunity to work closely with my peers to improve my teaching
• the opportunity to practise a variety of instructional techniques
• the opportunity to receive valuable feedback from peers immediately following my lesson
• the opportunity to recharge my "batteries"

Who Can Benefit From The Workshop

• people who are committed to giving quality instruction
• people who would like to vary their teaching styles
• new instructors who would like to learn from others with more experience
• experienced instructors who would like to share their experience with others
• instructors from any content area (variety in a group generally results in a more valuable learning experience)

Registration

To register online or view the current workshop schedules, please visit PD Online Registration. For more information about this workshop, contact Gary Hunt, Coordinator of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at (250) 828-5461