TOT Workshop Organisation[1]

Workshop
Organization - 5 key aspects

• Logistical
  aspects  
  

  
  

• Contextualization  
  
  

  
  

• Making
  Dreams come True  
  

  
  

• The
  Professional Aspects  
  

  
  

• Drawing
  up the Agenda/Program

  
  

Logistical
Aspects

In
preparing for the Logistical aspects of a Workshop you have to think
about four things:

Contracts	Negotiated Terms of Reference
Administrative Support	Timetabling; Invitations; Purchasing Assistance
The Venue	Utilities, furniture, equipment
Materials and Equipment	For preparation & for workshops

Contracts

Someone
will have called for the training to be done. It is useful to know
what they are expecting of the trainer. Are they expecting research,
materials production, running workshops and/or follow up? What time
frame is being considered? How much money is available to produce
materials, pay for workshop costs and participants feeding and travel
costs and to pay the trainer?

It
is useful to negotiate the trainer's Terms of Reference (ToR) which
set out in some detail exactly what the trainer is expected to do
and/or produce, to what standard, by when, and at what cost.

Administrative
Support

If
the trainer is external to the organisation then she will need to
know how much administrative support she can expect.

• Who
  can she call upon for day to day advice and support?

  
  

• Who
  is responsible for setting the timetable of events and for sending
  invitations?

  
  

• Who
  deals with feeding and accommodation and with reimbursing travelling
  expenses of participants?

  
  

• Is
  clerical support available and if so how much and from whom eg
  stationery supplies, typing, photocopying, collating and binding,
  purchasing materials and equipment needed for workshops?

  
  

The
Venue

The
training will take place in a building. Some buildings are more
appropriate than others. Here is a checklist of things to
think about:

Heating	does it exist & who is responsible for turning it on?
Lighting	is this adequate and are there blackout facilities if you need to show a film?
Electricity	where are the sockets, will you need an extension cable and adapter?
Furniture	are there enough chairs and tables and is it OK to shift them around?
Walls	is it OK to stick things on the walls or will you have to bring flip chart stands?
Equipment	what equipment is available, is it working, are there spare bulbs? TV aerial?
Kitchen	can food be prepared at the venue (are there cups etc) or will they have to be brought in?
Toilets	do they exist, are they clean, is there toilet paper, will they be open?
Access	is it easy to find or will participants need a map? Car parking? Disabled access?

Materials
and Equipment

The
materials and equipment that you need will depend on the methods that
you use. Some will be needed for preparation (e.g. computer, printer
& photocopiers) and others during the workshop itself. No list of
these things would ever be complete but here are some ideas for
starters - you can brainstorm and categorize your own checklist!

Equipment	Materials
Blackboard/ Whiteboard Flip Chart Stand Overhead projector Film/ Slide projector TV/ Video + remotes Cassette/ CD Players Sound System + Mikes Video Camera Minibus + Driver	Chalk (white/coloured) Felt pens (water/ spirit) Flip Charts Sellotape/ masking tape Blutak Drawing Pins Post-it pads	Pens/pencils Rulers/ geometry sets Calculators Scissors Stapler/ staples Writing paper Folders/ files	Overhead Transparencies Slides/ videos/ cassettes Storage boxes Attendance register Expense claim forms

Contextualisation

Contextualisation
is a fancy word for the process of making sure that your training
programme blends easily and effortlessly into the local situation.

No
two groups of trainees are ever exactly the same so, even if you have
dealt with the topic many times before, your materials will probably
need fine tuning - if only to the extent of being able to give local
illustrative examples. The more that you can demonstrate knowledge
and understanding of the details of the local situation the more the
trainees are likely to value what you say.

You
may also discover that what the organizers want is not the same as
what the trainees want or what you feel that they really need - so
you might have to act as go-between/ advisor as part of the process
of negotiating your Terms of Reference.

If
you have good answers to each of the following questions then you can
be confident that you are well contextualized.

What
does the Organisation want?

If
there are no official terms of reference are you as the trainer clear
about what is expected of you? If not ask. (See Workshop
Organisation - the
Logistical Aspects)

What
Administrative Support and Materials are already available?

Are
you on your own or are there people who can help you?

What
do the trainees know?

• Has
  a needs analysis already been done (eg an output from a previous
  workshop)?

  
  

• Can
  you visit some trainees in their workplace to get a better feel for
  their self defined training needs? What about their customers? Is
  serious research required here?

  
  

• Is
  there a need to brainstorm and conceptually map at the beginning of
  the workshop?

  
  

What
does the trainer know?

• What
  is the trainer's conceptual map before preparing for the
  workshop?

  
  

• What
  reference materials are to be consulted? (Local and National)

  
  

• Are
  there previous workshop agendas/outputs or research findings?

  
  

• What
  literature should be addressed? (Written/Electronic; published/grey)

  
  

• What
  videos & resource materials etc might be consulted

  
  

• What
  materials are already available within the organization?

  
  

• Which
  local 'experts' might be usefully consulted?

  
  

• What
  is the trainer's conceptual map after preparing for the
  workshop?

  
  

What
are the aims and objectives of the workshop in terms of:

• the
  desired changes in knowledge, skills and attitudes of the
  participants, and how will we know if we have been successful?

  
  

• the
  concepts developed and recorded and materials produced for use at
  future workshops and/or as circulars, exemplars, Newsletter or
  Journal articles etc

  
  

Have
the logistics been attended to?

• Work
  your way systematically through the logistical aspects at an early
  stage.

  
  

• Leaving
  things to the last minute can be very stressful. 

  
  

The
Effective Trainer - making dreams come true

You
gotta have a dream

There
is an old Arabic saying that if you
do not know where you are going then any road will take you there.

A
good trainer is clear in her mind about what
needs to be done and she knows that she
will be doing the right thing.

This
means that she will have thought about her aims
and objectives and will have written
them down. Sometimes these will have been given to her (for example
if she is leading people towards an SVQ qualification) and sometime
she will have to decide for herself what they are. Even when they are
given, however, there is always the possibility of fine tuning them
and sharing them with the learners so that there can be agreement on
exactly what a particular course is trying to achieve.

Note
that she will have three different types of objectives:

Head	Hand	Heart
Thinking	Doing	Feeling
Knowledge	Skills	Attitudes

How
you gonna make the dream come true?

Being
clear about aims and objectives means being clear about the dream.
The next task is to figure out how to make the dream come true. She
is doing the right thing
but is she going to do it right?

Muddling
through by the seat of your pants might achieve the results sometimes
but it is not a professional way of working. Would you trust a
plumber or a brain surgeon that pottered about unsystematically?

Action
planning for a trainer means being systematic about the content, the
methods and the monitoring and assessment techniques that will be
used to achieve the aims and objectives.

There
are three things to think about regarding content:

Scope	How broad and how deep are you going to go during this course - is it for pre-school or for university? Who are the learners and what is their level of experience of the topic?
Sequence	Where to begin and where to go to next?
Pace	How fast will you move through the content?

There
are thousands of possible methods but it is useful to think of
them as falling into two broad types:

Teacher centred	Learner centred
Didactic	Participatory
Passive student	Active student
eg the Lecture	eg project work

When
assessment is used to 'grade'
students it is a political tool. When
assessment is used to give feedback to
the student (or the tutor) on the extent
to which the objectives are being achieved so that she can improve
her performance - then it is a training tool.

All
good trainers ensure that learners get a lot of feedback during the
course of their learning - many small but detailed corrections along
the way are more useful than one big and generalised judgement at the
end!

The
Professional Aspects

In
preparing for the professional aspects of a Workshop you have to
think about three things:

What you intend to do	Aims & Objectives
How your are going to do it	Content, Methods and Materials
How you will know if you have succeeded	Monitoring and Evaluation

AIMS	A statement of the overall broad goal(s)
OBJECTIVES	A list of SMART* objectives pointing to the expected outputs from the workshop - these might involve altered knowledge, skills or attitudes amongst the participants, and/or specific products
CONTENT	METHODS	MATERIALS
A sequenced list of topics to be covered with an indication of the amount of time to be spent on each	A parallel list of methods to be used in covering the content topics	A parallel list of materials and services that will be required for each topic given the number of participants
As an aid to systematic planning it is useful to set out the contents, methods and materials in parallel rows as shown above. Note that the pattern of content and of methods should be designed so as to add variety and interest over the period of the Workshop
MONITORING & EVALUATION	Determine the extent to which the Workshop is/was successful in achieving its objectives and goals.
The pattern of monitoring and evaluation may take several forms eg formal v informal; open response v directed questionnaire; during, at the end or some time after the Workshop. There are theoretical and practical pros and cons related to each of the options.

*
= Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Relevant, Timed

As
in most other human affairs, motivation
makes a difference. It is generally believed that participation
helps to promote ownership and thus motivation. Wherever
possible and appropriate the
participants should be consulted about
the aims and objectives and also possibly on the contents and
methods, and the monitoring and evaluation strategies.

When
participants are well motivated it is easier to get them to engage in
pre-Workshop activities by way of preparing themselves to make
optimum contributions to the Workshop, and in post-Workshop
activities for consolidation and elaboration.

Drawing
up the Agenda/Program

People stop paying attention when they feel uninterested, bored, tired or ignored. Your task is to draw up the training agenda or programme so that none of these things happen. Ideally the trainees will be all eyes and ears and eager to learn. They will be heedful, mindful, alert, on the ball, and missing nothing. Barring serious medical problems (see opposite)) your trainees can be like this if you We have looked at aims and objectives and learning styles elsewhere so here we will focus on the idea of building variety into the programme. The completely wrong way of doing things would be for the trainer to sit rigid in a chair and talk for four hours in a monotonous and unexcited voice. Variety can be added by changing the types of activity and by changing the social arrangements.

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, (ADHD), chronic, neurologically based syndrome characterised by any or all of three types of behaviour: Unlike similar behaviours caused by emotional problems or anxiety, ADHD does not fluctuate with emotional states. Often diagnosed when a child begins school, ADHD is usually accompanied by learning difficulties and social inappropriateness. Treatment may include medication such as methylphenidate hydrochloride (Ritalin), which corrects neuro-chemical imbalances in the brain; sugar intake is no longer considered to be a factor. Symptoms may decrease after adolescence, although adults can also have ADHD.

Changing
the Social Arrangements

Trainees
can be asked to work on their own for one activity and then in small
groups for another and as part of a whole class discussion after
that.

If
the members of a small group work well together you can let them get
together for all small group activities. On the other hand you might
find it more useful to regroup the individuals each time there is a
small group activity so that everyone gets a chance to get to know
everyone else. A variation on this is to change the group sizes -
some activities might require groups of three and others require
groups of five - or whatever.

Sometimes
it is useful to ask groups to have a structure eg chairperson,
secretary and rapporteur. You could then make it a rule that
individuals are not allowed to occupy the same role twice in
succession. This has the advantage of 'stretching' individuals ie of
forcing them out of the sorts of role in which they feel most
comfortable.

Three
types of Action

Three
types of action relate to the three types of objectives which can be
set:

Thinking	Doing	Feeling
Knowledge	Skills	Attitudes
Head	Hand	Heart
Thinking involves putting on your thinking cap and doing headwork. It requires you to be rational and logical and to deal with the facts. You will use your intelligence in a reasonable and sensible manner such that you can be pragmatic. You might even have to crunch numbers.	Doing involves thinking on your feet and walking the talk. You will be practising what you preach. This may involve being creative and artistic so that you can make it look good and set a mood or so that you can say it with pictures rather than with words. It may involve using your social skills during activities such as games and role plays. Or it may involve you in actually making things from raw materials eg toys for your OOSCC Club.	Feeling involves giving attention to your attitudes, opinions, beliefs and values. Are you clear about your passions and phobias, your prejudices and addictions. How are your points of view influenced by your urges, itches, cravings and yens. What drives you into a rage and makes you furious.

18
Categories of Activities

There
are three types of action and three basic kinds of social
arrangement. These can be lined up on a matrix to create 9 categories
of workshop activity:

	Type of Action
	Thinking	Doing	Feeling
Individual	1	2	3
Small Group	4	5	6
Whole Class	7	8	9

But
there is the concept of ETHOS - the idea of co-operative
games where there are no losers. There
is a difference between a debate which forces a win/lose outcome and
a discussion which leads to a win/win outcome. So there are nine
possible categories of competitive activities and nine possible
categories of co-operative activities - a total of 18 Categories of
Activities.

ACTIVITY: Put on your creative thinking cap and come up with examples to put in the eighteen boxes - you can rake around in your experiential memory, look through this handbook for prompts and/or look in books. Here are some examples to get you started.

If you ask other people to help you but do not tell them what you are doing and keep the list to yourself then this remains as a competitive individual thinking activity. If you ask other people to help you, tell them what you are doing, and then share the results - it becomes a co-operative small group activity. If you get the group organized for systematic research and to write up the findings for distribution to other people then it is a co-operative small group doing activity (and people will have feelings about it!)

The five main competencies of a
professional trainer

A
professional trainer is one who earns her living through training -
it is her business. As such it is not enough that she be a good
trainer, she must also have a good head for business, especially if
she is in business on her own. The five main competency areas are set
out with some elaborations in the following table:

Competency area	Elaboration
Business skills	Budgeting, bookeeping, office procedures, time management, job pricing, contract negotiation
Self Development	Keeping up with specific content and evolving training methods. Ensuring her own Personal Formation and Professional Development on all fronts.
Materials Production	Writing skills, word processing, graphics, editing and layouts, reprographics, binding
Workshop Organisation	Logistical and Professional considerations
Workplace visiting	This might be for support/ facilitation/ counselling and/or for appraisal/ assessment/ evaluation.

A
Trainer's Study Skills

The
professional trainer will practice what she preaches - she will have
learned how to learn. She will thus be adept in:

• Systematically
  reflecting on practice (individually or in a group context)

  
  

• Experimenting
  and researching (treats all professional actions as 'experiments')

  
  

• Addressing
  the literature (written and electronic, published and grey)

  
  

• Networking
  - to keep abreast of ongoing developments

  
  

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