Gina Bennett

>>What are the reasons you look forward to speaking to these people? What are the reasons you'd rather find help elsewhere?

Wow, Faith, I find these to be particularly generative questions. These questions are worded in such a way that I immediately feel myself in the role of somebody vulnerable, trying to deal with some sort of government official. The wording evokes an emotional response in me & makes me keen to respond to this post. 

The more experience I get, the more I appreciate the value of a good question & I think you've done a great job with this! 

I wonder if this activity (taking sides on an issue or subject) is something that happens in the workplace? Maybe a chef & sous-chef each defending their choice of dessert for a really important dinner? Or deciding whether to add a gluten-free menu even though it would mean extra expense? If this kind of thing does happen, maybe this would be a really worthwhile exercise to help students learn how to argue their point convincingly & accurately (i.e. WITHOUT the mayhem & confrontation).

I'm thinking that for this activity to provide the benefits of a true discussion, I'll need to encourage dialogue. To do this, I'm wondering if it might be better to post an easier first step & then pose additional questions in response to how the conversation evolves. So... 2 specific musings:

• Instead of asking for 5 questions right off the bat, should I suggest the first participant should post only ONE question, and each participant add one to the list? 
  
• maybe this would work best using Moodle's Q & A forum, in which a participant must first post their response before they can view other participants' posts?
  

The Context

At some point in the (near?) future I'd like to offer a short online workshop called something like "Curriculum Planning for Extreme, Unexpected, and Downright Strange Situations." I'd like to base it on my experience delivering "intro to curriculum development" workshops in a variety of international settings. My proposed audience would be people who do (or hope to) participate as educators in international projects or other intercultural situations. 

Proposed first discussion post for participants (after the original 'welcome' sort of posts & assuming participants know how to use a discussion forum):

Here's the situation: 

You have been invited to join an international project team from your institution, going to Dodoma, Tanzania in 6 weeks' time. The overall project goal involves improving the quality of instruction at 2 small institutions: a mining technical institute and a teachers' college. Your role: to prepare, deliver, and evaluate a total of 10 hours of instruction related to "modern approaches to assessment of learning." 

Yep: seriously, that's all you've been told. 

The project leader and one project coordinator will be heading next week to Tanzania for project finalization meetings and they have let you know that they can promise probably no more than 15 minutes to gather information specific to what you may need. Your task: come up with 5 questions that you would really, REALLY like to have answered before you start your workshop planning in earnest. 

Post your 5 questions here; then feel free to respond to your colleagues' question choices. At the end of the week, we'll work together to come up with a group 5-question list.

Thanks so much for your detailed & helpful feedback, Sue! I realized from the start that this draft was too general & vague -- your observations would certainly help me to tighten it up, drop some parts & flesh out others. Organizing my thoughts into sections with clear themes & sub-themes would definitely improve it, wouldn't it?? Good observation!  

The more I think about this process, however, the more I think audience is critical. I'd need to know who I was writing for in order to revise it properly. If I were applying for a job back in the ABE math classroom, I would include examples, assessments, & key events to illustrate how I work in that environment. But if I were applying for a curriculum development opportunity, perhaps helping a group of faculty to incorporate more varied online practices, I would certainly choose different examples & events to communicate my philosophy. And I'd choose different ones again if that same curriculum gig were to be delivered to a group of community developers in Kenya. 

I'm reminded of a workbook or guide I read some time ago (no idea of the reference at this late date), about how to develop an academic portfolio. The guide recommended first putting together a "portmanteau" portfolio: a collection of certificates, letters of recommendation, assessments you'd created, results of your teaching evaluations, notes from students, you name it. Then, when you are required to apply for a job or otherwise describe your teaching skill, you pick & choose items from your portmanteau to fit the bill. I wonder, for those of us with a hodge-podge of education-related experience, if such an approach might help when putting together a TPS... separate sections to fit different educational work & roles, from which you can pick & choose when you have a specific teaching job or audience in mind. What do you think? 

Regardless of audience, you've given me an excellent overview of the level of detail, organization, and style that might be expected in a formal TPS. Thanks again for all the work you put into this (for all of us!)