Online
4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, and 26 May 2021
1:00 pm - 3:00pm NZST
Instructors: Megan Guidry, Murray Cadzow, Arindam Basu, Mik Black
Helpers:
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.
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
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.
All participants are required to abide by The Carpentries Code of Conduct.
Please email megan.guidry@nesi.org.nz or murray.cadzow@otago.ac.nz for more information.
Please read the following before the workshop begins:
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.
Please see below for a tentative schedule:
| Setup | Download files required for the lesson | |
| Pre-training survey | Please fill out our pre-training survey before the start of the course. | |
| Day 1 | 1. Welcome | Who are we and how do we approach teaching? What should you expect from this workshop? |
| 2. Building Skill with Practice | How do people learn? Who is a typical Carpentries learner? How can we help novices become competent practitioners? | |
| 3. Building Skill with Feedback | How can I get feedback from learners? How can I use this feedback to improve my teaching? | |
| Finish | ||
| Day 2 | 4. Welcome | Who are we and how do we approach teaching? What should you expect from this workshop? |
| 5. Expertise and Instruction | What type of instructor is best for novices? How are we (as instructors) different from our learners and how does this impact our teaching? | |
| 6. Mindset | How does mindset influence learning? How should we praise our learners? How should we talk about errors? What are successful habits of lifelong learners? | |
| Finish | ||
| Day 3 | 7. Welcome | Who are we and how do we approach teaching? What should you expect from this workshop? |
| 8. Teaching Is a Skill | How can I improve my teaching? | |
| 9. Managing a Diverse Classroom | How can I prepare for effective co-teaching? What are the challenges of managing a heterogeneous classroom? What do I do if there is a Code of Conduct violation? | |
| Finish | ||
| Day 4 | 10. Welcome | Who are we and how do we approach teaching? What should you expect from this workshop? |
| 11. Memory and Cognitive Load | What is cognitive load and how does it affect learning? How can we design instruction to work with, rather than against, memory constraints? | |
| 12. Preparing to Teach | How should I prepare to teach? | |
| 13. Motivation and Demotivation | Why is motivation important? How can we create a motivating environment for learners? | |
| Finish | ||
| Day 5 | 14. Welcome | Who are we and how do we approach teaching? What should you expect from this workshop? |
| 15. Live Coding Is a Skill | Why do we teach programming using participatory live coding? | |
| Finish | ||
| Day 6 | 16. Welcome | Who are we and how do we approach teaching? What should you expect from this workshop? |
| 17. Checkout Process | What do I need to do to finish certifying as a Carpentries Instructor? | |
| Finish | ||
| Day 7 | 18. Welcome | Who are we and how do we approach teaching? What should you expect from this workshop? |
| 19. | More Practice Live Coding | |
| 20. The Carpentries: How We Operate | How is The Carpentries organized and run? What is the difference between SWC, DC, and LC workshops? How do you run a Carpentries workshop? | |
| Finish | ||
| Day 8 | 21. Welcome | Who are we and how do we approach teaching? What should you expect from this workshop? |
| 22. Putting it Together | How are the teaching practices we have learned used in our workshops? | |
| 23. Workshop Introductions | How do you actually start a workshop? | |
| 24. Wrapping Up | What can we improve in this training? | |
| Post-Training Survey | Please fill out our post-training survey after the course. | |
| Finish |
Etherpad: https://pad.carpentries.org/2021-05-04-ttt-online-NZST.
We will use this Etherpad for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.
Before attending the workshop, please fill out our pre-training survey.
After the workshop, please fill out our post-training survey.