Managing workshops and practicals

8 tips for managing workshops

• Allow students time to ask questions before they get going. Set a time when they will be back as a group and able to ask questions.

• If appropriate, put up a sheet of paper on the wall with 10 minute time slots. Students fill in their names next to a slot. To help stick to the 10 minutes, perhaps use the timer on your phone, with an alarm if necessary. Warn the student with ‘Any last questions?’

• Alternatively if students are completing exercises and can get stuck, agree a signal they can use to show they need help without shouting out. Where appropriate, encourage them to use their peers for help too.

• Visit less confident students early, whilst not obviously making a beeline for them.

• If a student asks for help with something useful to all, open it to the whole group: ‘Can you pause and listen to/watch this as I’ve realised this will be useful to everyone’. Expect to explain it again even so as students focussed on their work may not take it in.

• For students working on personal projects, ask them to think of the most important question they want clarified in their 1-1 so you can be as focussed as possible. Limit your feedback to 2/3 goals for the next stage.

• Ask students to clarify what they are doing next before you leave to check they have understood.

• Use brief group tasks during and at the end of the session such as students sharing work with a peer. Establish groundrules for feedback - constructive and positive suggestions that form useful critique, not faint praise or offhand advice. eg ‘Give one thing you like,and one idea for the future’ .