Workshops

IICE-2024 (April) Accepted Workshops

 

Workshop 1

Title: Promoting Excellence in Distance Education through Use of the Teaching Enhancement Protocol (TEP)

 

Scope:

This interactive workshop introduces the audience to a diagnostic framework of use for faculty evaluation and mentoring efforts to enhance distance education in higher education. The Teaching Enhancement Protocol (TEP) framework is the result of consensus efforts by faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Education across a two-year period that identified essential components of online teaching leading to enhanced learner experiences and outcomes. The tool provides ratings across essential components of teaching and may be used to evaluate elements at the course level or as a broader measure across courses. It is especially helpful as a diagnostic instrument in supporting faculty understanding and awareness of best practices. TEP permits the identification of relative strengths and areas for improvement in teaching and allows for the monitoring of progress in specific areas across time. TEP has been found to be useful as a framework for mentoring faculty new to distance education and as an assessment device for evaluating effectiveness of new instructional strategies and approaches.

 

Objectives and Motivation: 

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Cite selected best practices in distance education
2. Evaluate areas of relative strength and needed improvement in teaching by deconstructing learner feedback
3. Apply the model to evaluate teaching improvements/enhancements across time
4. Implement the tool as a guide for providing faculty feedback

 

Organisers:

Christina Harnett, Christine Eith, Norma Day-Vines and Kelly Cooney
John Hopkins University, School of Education, USA

 

Workshop 2

Title: Wellness in the Educational Workplace: How can Improvisational theatre guide policy implementation

Scope:

This presentation is meant for educational leaders, professional teachers and anyone who is concerned about improving overall wellness within the educational space.

 

Objectives:

Participants will learn how the basic tenets of improvisational theatre can provide a framework for implementing policy at the school and district level.

 

Motivation:

In recent years, the short supply of teachers has become an issue of critical importance. Across the globe, educational entities are struggling to fill positions, and attrition rates within the profession remain stubbornly high. One solution often proposed is the implementation of wellness initiatives for educational staff. However, research holds that the way these initiatives are implemented has been ineffective in making any real head way on the issues of teacher recruitment and retention.

In this interactive and engaging presentation, educator and author Grant Frost will introduce participants to a model of policy implementation that follows the most basic rules of improvisational theatre. Grant will take you through the power and perils of saying “Yes”, the benefit of allowing for “No”, and the amazing opportunities offered by “No, but…” and “Yes, and…”. Come prepared to engage, to laugh and to learn!

 

Organiser:

Grant Frost
Educator, Frostededucation.com, Canada

 

Workshop 3

Title: Extracurricular STEM activities to increase girls’ interest and participation in STEM fields

 

Scope: 

In many countries there is a gender gap in the participation of girls and women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). In Europe for example, a stark gender gap exists in tech sectors, with only 15% of women working in these fields, and a mere 2.4% in ICT-related roles. Moreover, the participation of women in entrepreneurship stands at around 20%. This alarming underrepresentation of women in technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship sectors has led to various initiatives that attempt to encourage more girls to participate in STEM. Extracurricular settings may offer more opportunities to foster young students’ interest in STEM, compared to formal classrooms. The workshop will focus on ways of engaging girls in STEM and particularly on extracurricular activities as a way of kindling interest and enhancing the development of essential STEM-related and personal skills that empower girls.

 

Objectives and Motivation:

Various initiatives have sought to investigate and address the underrepresentation of women in STEM. One of these initiatives was the ‘Girl empowerment in STEM Education’ (GEM) project that aimed to bridge this gap by igniting girls’ interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and ICT subjects through a series of summer camps held in ten European countries. The workshop will be an opportunity for those present to reflect on issues surrounding this gender gap and for sharing their perceptions, ideas and experiences in addressing this gap.

The GEM project will be used to start off a discussion during this workshop. The discussion with the participants will focus on pedagogies that may be used in such events, examples of activities that may be used, the learning environment as well as more fundamental issues such as whether it is a good idea to have extracurricular events only for girls. Results of an evaluation of these summer camps will also be shared and discussed.

 

Organiser:

Josette Farrugia
The University of Malta, Malta