How to Give a Workshop Andy Wilson UK Staff Development Advisor

Welcome and introductions In groups of three, please introduce yourselves to each other I am… Dr Andy Wilson UK Staff Development Advisor to the BUE Director of Capability Enhancement at Loughborough University in the UK I’ve run hundreds of workshops all around the world.

Purpose To help you to run effective workshops with your BUE colleagues This may also help in other contexts: teaching, running meetings, etc.

Processes Purposeful Informal Interactive Reflective… …this is a workshop Please ask questions or offer comments at any stage.

Adverbs Doing words How should you behave as a workshop leader? Let’s have some words…

Workshop fundamentals What are the purposes of a workshop? How will you achieve these purposes?

Content and process Content is the what Process is the how You need both They need to be consistent For example, knowledge development needs different processes from skills development.

Workshops and change Workshops are about change We want people to have different: knowledge, understanding, skills or attitudes “People don't resist change. They resist being changed!” (Senge) So we need to get people to engage with the process We do it with them not to them It’s the carrot not the stick…

5E engagement strategies Empathy Understand where your participants are Get them to do something early on Experience They will have some relevant experience Acknowledge this and link to it Exercises I do and I understand Give them things to do Explanation They may not know Give them the context Enthusiasm If you’re not enthusiastic, why should they be?

Times Higher Education 08/09

Practising engagement In your threes, will one of you please explain something from your area of professional expertise to the other two, for two minutes But please – and this may be hard – do it in as un-engaging a way as possible Then discuss the experience.

Route planning

You need to find a route through the content This route needs to meet your audience’s needs, not yours You can almost certainly take bigger steps than they can Identify the key waypoints Empathy can help.

Practising route planning Put yourself in your audience’s shoes What questions do they have about your topic? Some basic ones are shown on the next slide In your groups, one of you should think of a topic that you would like to talk about with the others (professional or personal) The others should then use the questions on the next slide – and any others that seem useful – to interrogate the talker Let the questions drive the discussion.

Practising route planning 2 What is __________? Why do I need to know about __________? What do I need to do about __________? What can go wrong with __________? What’s interesting about __________? What’s the one thing I really need to know about __________? You can let these questions drive the design.

Mind mapping

Moving between waypoints Having identified the key waypoints… …use different modes of travel for variety You don’t, for instance, want large chunks of listening all together This may affect the route The early stages in the journey are important They set the tone for the session.

Early stages A colleague and I are about to run a two-day programme for about 60 university students on how to mentor school children (learners) It’s called the Aimhigher Associates Scheme It’s to encourage poorer children into HE A national group has produced a model design; the first two hours are shown on the next few slides In your groups, please discuss why we might want to change this design And what we might do.

Model training programme Plenary ~ Introduction to the concepts of widening participation and Aimhigher 9.15Plenary ~ Introduction to the central tenets of the Aimhigher Associates Scheme, to include in particular: an understanding of the Higher Education Progression Framework key transition points from year 9 to year 13 (including where to obtain information on the National Curriculum, assessment and examinations)

Model training programme 2 what the learners need to know about progressing to HE and the key decision points that affect them during their educational journey 9.45Working groups ~ Introductions 10.00Working groups ~ Ground rules: for working on a one-to-one basis and for working with groups 10.15Plenary ~ Child Protection: disclosure and related issues 11.00Tea/coffee.

Training programme summary 9.00Plenary ~ Introduction to the concepts of widening participation and Aimhigher 9.15Plenary ~ Introduction to the central tenets of the Aimhigher Associates Scheme… 9.45Working groups ~ Introductions 10.00Working groups ~ Ground rules: for working on a one-to-one basis and for working with groups 10.15Plenary ~ Child Protection: disclosure and related issues 11.00Tea/coffee.

Reflection Please reflect on the session What are you going to make a point of doing in the workshops that you are going to run? Please make sure that you think about both content and process Share your resolutions.