Guidelines for
Conducting Workshops

This CD Rom and website has been developed to provide those responsible for teacher education - both initial pre-service teacher preparation and continuous in-service professional development - with resources for ensuring that today's teachers have a wide range of concepts, examples and teaching skills with which to share with their students the importance of coastal and marine studies.

The particular audiences for the workshops in this website are both students studying pre-service teacher education courses and experienced teachers involved in continuing or in-service education. Thus, the materials may be of value to workshop facilitators engaged in professional development activities through universities, professional associations, education systems, teachers' centres, environmental and natural resource agencies and departments of local, State, Territory and the Commonwealth Governments, community environment and conservation organisations, and schools.

The workshops have been written with the needs of workshop facilitators in mind. Thus, the activities have been phrased in terms of the things that the workshop facilitator needs to consider doing when planning and leading a workshop

Workshop Format

1. Introduction: Brief rationale and background information

2. Objectives: The objectives of the workshop

3. Workshop Outline: A brief overview of the major components of the workshop

4. Materials Required: Organised in categories, as below, as appropriate:
   1. Provided
      • Overhead Transparency Masters
      • Resources (handout masters to be copied for participants)
      • Readings (background for facilitators and participants)

   2. To be obtained by workshop facilitator, e.g., materials that need to be obtained by the facilitator and prepared in advance.
      
      

5. Further Reading: A Bibliography of materials used in writing the workshop and which could prove useful for facilitators seeking additional background information.

6. Activities: These are always written in the form of instructions for workshop facilitators. This section provides direct suggestions and refers the facilitator to the resources in the workshop module and explains how they can be used.

Generally, each activity is based upon a concrete learning experience which requires participants to work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to complete a task.

Thus, the workshops promote active experiential approaches to learning and model the sorts of learning experiences that can achieve the wide range of knowledge, skill, values and participation objectives of coastal and marine studies. Lecture-style input is kept to a minimum and is always referred to as a 'mini-lecture'.

The workshops are generally presented in three phases:

• an introductory 'icebreaker' activity which seeks to build group rapport and provide an overview of the objectives and sequence of activities in the workshop;

• a developmental phase which teaches particular concepts about the workshop topic and/or particular teaching strategies; and

• a concluding activity which provides an opportunity for participants to apply what they have learnt in the workshop either to their own teaching situations or to their own personal and professional growth.

Flexibility of Workshop Materials

However, two points should be noted:

• It is not necessary to use any or all the resources in the form that they are provided.

  Facilitators are encouraged to obtain or develop local variations of the materials or to adapt the provided ones so that the workshops and the materials are as relevant as possible to the cultural and educational contexts in which they are working.
  
  

• The level of available educational technology may vary between venues.

  The authors have prepared the workshops assuming that only overhead projectors and some form of printing or photocopying are available. Where facilities are available, workshop facilitators are encouraged to integrate various audiovisual resources such as computers, slides, videos and educational television programmes into their versions of the workshops. This will greatly enrich the experiences and learning of participants. Alternatively, instead of making overhead transparencies, some facilitators may choose to make charts and posters of some or all of the display material provided as overhead transparency masters.

Adapting the Workshops

The key word in the use of the workshop modules in this website is Workshops FLEXIBILITY. Workshop facilitators are strongly encouraged to use the workshop materials and activities as guides only. The more that facilitators adapt, change, revise and add to the prepared workshops, the happier the workshop authors and editors of this manual will be.

Indeed, it is vital to the success of the workshops that the outcomes, materials and activities be adapted to suit the educational contexts in which they are being used, the backgrounds and professional development concerns of participants, and the skills and workshop styles of facilitators.

Using the Workshops

• the nature, scope and objectives of coastal and marine studies;

• "best practice" in coastal and marine studies;

• using the outdoor environment and the community as resources for teaching and learning; and

• an interdisciplinary, whole-school or across-the-curriculum approach to planning coastal and marine studies in schools.

These four workshops may be considered the hub while the remaining ones are spokes that address particular themes and approaches to teaching and learning in coastal and marine studies. They may be used in any combination and sequence but, preferably, after the four core workshops have been completed.

Probably the most common way in which the modules will be used will be as "one-off" activities incorporated into an in-service or pre-service education course being conducted for a particular groups of teachers. This may be as part of an afternoon or weekend in-service workshop or may be when a lecturer in pre-service teacher education, e.g. in a science, geography or social science curriculum/methods course, chooses to use some of the workshops (preferably an adapted version) to teach a particular concept or teaching skill relevant to the course.

Ideally, however, several of the workshops could be used as an integrated set - again, preferably, with local adaptations - for a core or elective programme in environmental education, science education, social education, etc. This approach may be very desirable if it is feared that the infusion approach may lead to the duplication of some topics and the omissions of others or some participants missing out altogether.

The materials may also be used as the basis for a linked programme of professional and curriculum development for teachers in which innovative approaches to curriculum planning and teaching and learning are being sought. In these cases, the theme of coastal and marine studies provides a very interesting and relevant theme to use as a vehicle for these wider educational goals.

The workshops have been written to facilitate their use in these different ways.

Conducting Effective Workshops

Preparation

1. Consider the Participants

• What is the size and the composition of the group?
• What is the age, ethnicity, gender and teaching experience of the participants?
• What is their level of interest? What are their needs? How might you ascertain these?
• In what ways might the group contribute to the workshop?
• How might you cater for their individual differences?

2. Brainstorming the Programme

• What are your aims for the workshop?
• How might different modules or combinations of activities from different modules be best used to meet the needs of the participants?
• To what extent may modules and activities require modification?
• In addition to the processes suggested in the modules, in what ways can you model coastal and marine perspectives and environmental awareness through your facilitation style?
• In what ways can the programme contribute to the empowerment of teachers to contribute to positive environmental change?

3. The Venue

• What is the best space available for the workshop, given the number of participants and the style of activities?
• What special facilities might be needed?
• At what time should the workshop be held?
• What facilities (eg. creche, refreshments, safety) might be needed to encourage participation and improve the effectiveness of the workshop?

The Programme

1. Content

• Does the content of the programme meet the needs of the participants?
• Does it involve a variety of different styles of learning experiences based upon principles of adult learning and professional development?
• Are the purpose of the content and learning experiences clearly stated in a way which links them to the goals of the workshop?
• Will the amount of content allow time for discussion and the input of the participants?
• Have the advantages of doing some activities outside been considered?
• Have you considered ways in which participants could support each other after the workshop to use the content of the programme? (See 'After the Workshop').

2. Process

• Will the presentation of the workshop be suited to the messages of the workshop?
• Is the workshop flexible enough to respond to any needs raised by the participants during the session?
• Will the workshop model concern for coastal and marine issues?
• Does the process cater for all learning styles?
• Is the course participatory and empowering ? Are participants provided with choice and room for negotiation?

3. Evaluation

• Which method of evaluation is most suitable for the workshop? (Some of these are described in various modules in this manual).
• Will my chosen evaluation method reflect the processes and attitudes I tried to establish in the workshop?
• In what ways will the participants and the facilitator benefit from the evaluation?

After theWorkshop

Sample Programmes

An Afternoon Workshop

Aims

• To clarify a common working definition of coastal and marine studies;
• For participants to experience a variety of activities and teaching methods for the incorporation of coastal and marine perspectives into their teaching; and
• To establish a support system to enable coastal and marine studies to be incorporated into current programmes.

Venue

Four students from the Senior Child Care course will be invited to supervise younger children of the teachers with games and a video in the library. Older children who may be present in the afternoon may watch a video or use the library facilities.

Programme

A Two Day Workshop

Aims

• To clarify common working definitions of coastal and marine studies, environmental education, and ecologically sustainable development;
• To provide experiences of a variety of activities and teaching methods for the incorporation of coastal and marine perspectives into teaching; and
• To establish a support system to enable these perspectives to be incorporated into current programmes.

Venue

The local TAFE has been contacted to provide volunteer work experience Early Childhood teachers to run activities for the children of the participants.

Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be catered by a local company. This cost will be offset by a small charge to participants.

Programme