Educational Programs: Teacher Training Workshops

In our educational programs, the classroom implementation of the educational materials we develop is accompanied by professional development workshops for teachers. These workshops are sometimes held for two or more consecutive days, and sometimes spread out in time over the course of a semester. Although the format may change from one workshop to the next, the general structure remains identical, as described below:

Introductions
After introducing the PACE Center team, participants are given the opportunity to chat with, and then introduce, their neighbor. What's the idea behind this program? The main ideas underlying the program (theoretical foundation and previous research findings) are presented. This presentation is specific to the focus of the workshop (e.g., teaching for enhanced memory or for successful intelligence) and is described in the two sections below.

Schedule
Participants are given the schedule for the program.

Educational strategies and pedagogy
This part of the workshop focuses on the educational strategies that will enhance student learning, and which are incorporated into the instructional materials that teachers will be implementing in their classrooms. The focus is either on enhanced memory instruction or on teaching for successful intelligence, and the content is described in the two sections below.

Modeling the instructional materials
An important part of the workshop is devoted to the instructional materials that we have developed and that the teachers will be implementing in their classrooms. The units are modeled and teachers are then asked actively to participate themselves in the instructional activities.

Assessment
It is essential to assess students in a manner that corresponds, at least in part, to the instruction. Sometimes students are assessed in ways that go beyond the techniques used in their instruction. For example, students taught primarily for memory may nevertheless be assessed for creative achievement in order to determine whether there has been any transfer of thememory instruction to creative achievement (or of creative instruction to memory achievement). A part of the workshop is thus devoted to assessment.

Concluding remarks
The workshop ends with a question and answer session, and teachers are asked to evaluate the content and format of the training.

The structure for two specific workshops we conduct are available by clicking on the following links:

• Teacher Training for Enhanced Memory Instruction
• Teacher Training for Triarchic Instruction and Assessment