Faculty of Education Education News Spring / Summer 2012 Page 5
anxious about how it would all work out . We met for breakfast with our project group ( Rabson , Elias , Vanwyk ) and received final details on the Poly instructors who would be our ISW students . These students were all on faculty at the Poly , mostly instructors ( those holding Master ’ s degrees ), with some Ph . D . students also .
The week unfolded in excellent fashion . Neither one of us had ever worked with a group of instructors who so fully participated , who threw ‘ care to the wind ,’ and who positively attempted every activity that we sent their way . I ( Vi ) was sure that much of what we invited them to participate in was quite foreign to them , different from the way in which they usually teach and learn , but for whatever reason , they totally immersed themselves into what we were asking them to do . Perhaps it was the unique resort experience , maybe they just trusted us , maybe it was because we were working with
Elias and Vanwynk , or maybe it was because we were professors from Canada — who knows — they were a fantastic group and we were so honoured to be a part of this experience .
At the end of the ISW , we anticipated that the participants would be better :
• prepared to teach ,
• able to select appropriate teaching strategies to meet learners ’ needs , and
• able to apply appropriate assessment techniques . We had asked the participants to bring to the workshop a course schedule ( outline ), and , throughout the week , to work through this course schedule with input from the different workshop sessions and , by the end of the week , to “ take away ” a well-developed course schedule for one course they teach .
In our instructional skills workshop we covered the following :
• Getting to know you , sharing our experiences ,
• Discussion of learning and teaching style tests ,
• Learning theory ,
• Course schedule development ,
• Female-friendly pedagogy ,
• Instructional strategies ,
• Lesson planning ,
• Micro teaching the same topic using different strategies ,
• Scholarship of teaching and learning ,
• Assessment — formative and summative , and
• Micro teaching a topic of choice to a small group . The ISW workshop ended in splendid fashion with a formal graduation ceremony , complete with speeches and certificates . Grey Mang ’ anda , Projects Coordinator , Polytechnic , and also one of the
ISW participants , presented the participants with their certificates . Each of the ISW leaders made a short speech with a personal overview of the highlights of the workshop . One of the participants also gave a short speech thanking the leaders . The general sense the leaders had at the closing of the workshop was that the workshop had been very successful and had more than met the needs of the Poly instructors . We were delighted with the entire experience and are most grateful for this amazing opportunity .
For more information about this workshop , please visit the workshop wiki at http :// malawipolyteaching . uregina . wikispaces . net
( L-R ) Kathy Nolan , Vanywk Chikasanda , Elias Kaphesi , Vi Maeers