One of the most satisfying aspects of scholarship is the opportunity to share your findings with others - to make your experiences available to the insights and understandings of others who share your interest. This often leads to an increase in your own insight and may well extend the discovery; it will certainly lead to the refinement of the ideas and their presentation.
Preparing and presenting a seminar to departmental colleagues
Delivering a paper at a conference
Making application for resources to improve student learning
Preparing and presenting a seminar to departmental colleagues
Presenting your ideas to a seminar of your teaching colleagues is a good way to start the process of communicating your scholarship of teaching more widely. While not as formal or large an undertaking as presenting at a conference or writing for publication it will require you to go through many of the same steps.
The Oxford dictionary tells us that a seminar is "a small class at a university, etc for discussion and research; a class meeting for systematic study under the direction of a specified person". And that describes exactly the purpose of this section. You are the specified person, someone who prepares the topic, arranges a program that will encourage and enable all who come to participate and to contribute to each other's learning. many people will recognise this as the definition of a workshop and feel that a seminar is a time where a presenter presents and allows a short time for questions. We prefer the activitiy described by Oxford as we believe that it is through collaboration and communication that we learn best.
As seminar leader you will take responsibility for
These activities can be organized into three stages
Write a few lines in answer to these questions
Develop one or two clear objectives, point three above should provide some basis for their development. These objectives are for your guidance they should clearly identify:
How will you use the time allocated to the seminar, how will it be proportioned between?
The answers you wrote in relation to 'Designing the seminar', will help you develop your seminar plan. In particular, 'What is it that you want people to learn?' and 'How can you help them to know that?'
Why would people be interested in attending?
Who would be interested in attending?
What will you tell them about the event?
How can you let them know about the event?
Answers to these questions will enable you to prepare a statement about your seminar. You want people to come so make it brief but interesting, remember to include date time and venue.
E-mail is a good way to get in touch with people, you may wish to post a notice on your staff electronic bulletin board or drop a note in colleague's pigeon holes. Remember to follow up key people personally, the best publicity is word of mouth, get people talking about it so there is a sense of anticipation and people are looking forward to the event. Invite your Head of Department personally.
Introduction
This is where you set the tone for the seminar. It is important to strike a balance between seeming well organized but not determined to control the program too tightly. An overhead that announces the topic and the session plan can be displayed as you welcome people and outline your objectives for the session.
Learning Stimulus
It is good practice to start with a simple activity that will enable all to participate from the beginning, contributes to a sense of camaraderie and increases the energy level of the group. The activity needs to be relevant to the topic andprovide an opportunity for people to draw on their own relevant prior knowledge. See the activity in Sample Seminar Plan. With a few words to conclude the activity affirming peoples contribution and connecting it to what is to follow.
Learning
What is
it that you want to share with people?
What is it that you want people to learn?
How can you help them to know that?
Your answers to these questions form the basis for this part of the program. This will probably involve you in some telling but keep this to a minimum; remember that the definition of a seminar is 'for discussion and research, a meeting for systematic study'. Your telling needs to be the catalyst to allow people to explore the topic for themselves. As the director of this learning experience guide the conversation with a series of questions that ask people to make connections between the topic and their own teaching or research, this will enable learning integration. Your task is to outline the issue. Provide sufficient context to people to understand your findings or conclusions then ask for their contribution.
Learning reflection
Use some further questions or an activity to bring the discussion to a close. These questions or activities should be reflective, focusing on what has been learnt during the session. It may take a form that will be helpful to you in your own review and evaluation of the session. Conclude with a short remark indicating how the discussion has enlarged your own view and thanking the participants for their contribution to your own learning.
An important part of scholarly practice is reflection and evaluation
Reflection to consider what happened, what was observed, what was learnt (on your part as well as by others), were the outcomes achieved, did any thing unexpected occur, what have you learnt that will enable you to improve on your seminar presentations in the future. As you replay the event in your mind make a note of anything significant. A scholarly evaluation would consider evidence from several sources, here where we consider a single seminar it is important to keep some perspective. As in all evaluations, be clear about what you want to know, in this instance you probably want to know the extent to which you achieved your objectives and some idea of how to improve future seminar presentations.
Asking the participants
See the evaluation questions at the conclusion of the Sample Seminar Plan
Asking yourself
The following is a simple checklist to help you focus on your own contribution to the seminar. Write a brief note beside each question.
The evaluation process is not complete until you have made a judgment based on the evidence. In this case you have data from the participants and the product of your own reflection on the event. As in any other evaluation, focus on what your data suggests which you were not aware of as much as on what it confirms what you expected. Write a brief note in your journal about the seminar based on this evidence and include the recommendations that you believe will improve the planning and implementation of a seminar in the future. You may chose to make a more formal report about the seminar, if you are undertaking this activity as part of an accredited program you will have access to more detailed guidelines for an Evaluation Report in the Subject Guide.