Instructor Training

Online

Apr 1-2, 2020

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Instructors: Mike Trizna, Sue McClatchy

Helpers:

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 https://carpentries.zoom.us/my/carpentriesroom1.

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 susan.mcclatchy@jax.org for more information.


Preparation

Please read the following before the workshop begins:

  1. The Science of Learning
  2. The Carpentries 2018 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 material and tentative schedule.


Day 1

09:00 Welcome
09:15 How Learning Works: The Importance of Practice
10:20 How Learning Works: Expertise and Instruction
11:10 Morning Coffee
11:25 How Learning Works: Working Memory and Cognitive Load
12:15 Building Teaching Skill: Getting Feedback
12:35 Lunch
13:35 Creating a Positive Learning Environment: Motivation and Demotivation
14:40 Creating a Positive Learning Environment: Mindset
15:20 Afternoon Coffee
15:35 Building Teaching Skill: The Importance of Practice
16:45 Wrap-Up and Homework for Tomorrow
17:05 Finish

Day 2

09:00 Welcome Back
09:10 Live Coding is a Skill
10:20 Preparing to Teach
11:10 Morning Coffee
11:25 More Practice Live Coding
12:10 Managing a Diverse Classroom
12:40 Lunch
13:40 Checkout Process
13:55 The Carpentries: How We Operate
15:10 Afternoon Coffee
15:25 Workshop Introductions
16:05 Putting It Together
16:25 Afternoon Wrap-Up
16:40 Post-training survey

Etherpad: https://pad.carpentries.org/2020-04-01-ttt-online-EDT.
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.