Instructor Training

Online

14, 15, 21, and 22 October 2020

12:30 - 16:30 NZDT

Instructors: Arindam Basu, Murray Cadzow, Aleksandra Pawlik, Paula Andrea Martinez

Helpers: Megan Guidry

General Information

The course is aimed at everyone who is interested in becoming a better teacher. In particular, this training is aimed at those who want to become Software Carpentry, Library Carpentry, and Data Carpentry Instructors, run workshops and contribute to The Carpentries training materials. You don't currently have to be an instructor or a teacher to attend this workshop, but you do need to be willing and committed to becoming one and to improving your teaching techniques.

Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, and Library Carpentry's mission is to help scientists, researchers, and librarians get more research done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic lab skills for scientific computing. This hands-on two-day workshop covers the basics of educational psychology and instructional design, and looks at how to use these ideas in both intensive workshops and regular classes.

The workshop is a mix of lectures and hands-on lessons where you practice giving a short lesson using approaches learned and implement some of the teaching techniques which we will discuss. This is training for teaching, not technical training; you do not need any particular technical background, and we will not be teaching that. This workshop is based on the constantly revised and updated curriculum.

Where

Online

This is an online event. We will meet using the online videoconference software Zoom. You will need to download and install their client to connect with your instructors. The link to use for this event is will be emailed to participants.

Requirements

Participants should bring a laptop that is Internet connected and has a functioning browser. If you have it, a device for recording audio and video (mobile phones and laptops are OK) is useful as throughout the two days, we are going to record one another teaching in pairs or threes. It does not have to be high-quality, but it should be good enough that you can understand what someone is saying.

Please note that after this course is over, you will be asked to do three short follow-up exercises online in order to finish qualifying as an instructor: the details are available at https://carpentries.github.io/instructor-training/checkout/. If you have any questions about the workshop, the reading material, or anything else, please get in touch.

Code of Conduct

All participants are required to abide by The Carpentries Code of Conduct.

Contact

Please email megan.guidry@nesi.org.nz or murray.cadzow@otago.ac.nz for more information.


Preparation

Please read the following before the workshop begins:

  1. The Science of Learning
  2. The Carpentries 2019 Annual Report

Please also read through one episode of one of The Carpentries lessons below carefully, so that you can do some exercises based on it on the first day of the class. An episode is one page of a lesson.


Training Materials and Schedule

Please see this site for course materials. Note the example schedule shown there represents a workshop spread across two full days; our modified schedule for four half days is tentatively set as follows:


Day 1 (14th Oct)

12:30 Welcome
12:45 Building Skill with Practice
13:55 Expertise and Instruction
14:55 Break
15:10 Memory and Cognitive Load
16:10 Building Skill with Feedback
16:30 Finish

Day 2 (15th Oct)

12:30 Welcome Back
12:40 Motivation and Demotivation
14:10 Mindset
14:40 Break
14:45 Teaching is a Skill
16:10 Homework for Tomorrow
16:30 Finish

Day 3 (21st Oct)

12:30 Welcome Back
12:35 Checkout Process
12:50 The Carpentries: How We Operate
14:00 Break
14:15 Live Coding is a Skill
15:45 Preparing to Teach
16:30 Finish

Day 4 (22nd Oct)

12:30 Welcome Back
12:35 More Practice Live Coding
13:55 Managing a Diverse Classroom
14:25 Break
14:40 Workshop Introductions
15:25 Putting it Together
16:15 Wrapping Up
16:30 Finish

Etherpad: https://pad.carpentries.org/2020-10-14-ttt-online-nz.
We will use this Etherpad for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.

Surveys

Before attending the workshop, please fill out our pre-training survey.

After the workshop, please fill out our post-training survey.