Critical Workshop Construction ~ Post 6!

"Describe your experience in developing a PD Workshop related to developing critical reflection in your workshop participants"

I'll openly admit it: I really enjoyed the workshop assignment, and I'm looking forward to getting to work with it again. For once, it was really nice to have a class which allowed us to actually MAKE something, instead of simply make the same old boring, "we all know where this is going" essay. Actually being able to think like an educator and put my knowledge into some form of legitimate practice was fantastic, and something I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to do.

With that said, actually working critical reflection into the workshop was easy for me, because the bulk of my workshop was focused on having the participants become aware of their personal assumptions, and addressing them. The difficulty came in figuring out which activities I could use that would be effective for adult learners (as has been my struggle throughout the course - I'm a student of standard youth education). Adjusting to this served to be a challenge for me, as most of my normal resources which I normally rely on for my education assignments focus on students exclusively at the junior/ intermediate level; I needed to expand my search. 

Expanding my knowledge and resource base was something I took great pleasure in. My awareness of my own shortcomings as an adult educator allowed me to see that I needed new resources; finding them was both interesting and overwhelming. There are so many different resources online, on dozens of websites, all focused on teaching critical ideals in an adult education setting. Ultimately. my decision as to which ones I took into the workshop were ones which I felt flowed well together: a solid icebreaker activity, a good thinking activity, and a concluding activity, followed by a discussion of what had been covered. I find that within a workshop context, a natural and effective flow between the lessons is something that is as important as the lessons themselves. Building off of the activity before it can make an already good activity better. In this case, I believed I achieved that. My lessons regarding assumption making and critical thinking built off of each other effectively, and made for an effective workshop.

I'm looking forward to getting to expand on the work I've already done. My grade was good, but it wasn't where I wanted it to be. I genuinely believe I can work what I've already created into a legitimate and effective workshop, and that is exactly what I plan to do. Critical reflection is such an important skill to teach learners of all ages, and I'm really looking forward to refining my method of teaching it within the context of my workshop.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers!