in learning. If we can engage our students in asking critical, thoughtful questions, we can instill a lifelong curiosity for learning. In general, teachers ask too many questions and too often, the same students reply. How can we differentiate the questions we ask, and ultimately, how we involve more students to engage in higher order thinking? We spent a number of the workshop hours working with Bloom’s Taxonomy and Critical Thinking; reading, researching and applying what was learnt. You may wonder how a workshop leader can meet diverse participant needs, abilities and interests? One strategy is to step off the stage and become, instead, a facilitator for learning. Modeling a differentiated learning approach during the three-day workshop reflected one of the workshop goals. One example implemented was to set up stations, in this case, based on the participants’ interests, needs and prior knowledge acquired from a quick pre- assessment and survey done on day two of the workshop.
What became clear was the following: A few participants new to Special Needs (even though they were experienced IB educators wanted to learn the ‘basics about learning disabilities’ A second group wanted to learn the basics about differentiation A third group was interested in extending their knowledge about differentiated instruction A fourth group wanted to learn strategies to support and influence regular classroom teachers who were reluctant or struggled with how to implement differentiated instruction. Participants chose the station that reflected their needs. As a workshop leader, my focus on 21st century skills was to ‘facilitate’ their learning, modeling my role as ‘guide on the side’ instead of ‘sage on the stage’. Perhaps one strategy, more than any other became a highlight; the ‘gift sharing’ that took place during random times became a favorite moment, both for the participants and myself. As workshop leader, I wanted to reinforce the power of collective knowledge, where participants shared, for example, a strategy, tool, or program. By the last day, participants were volunteering even more strategies and resources; eventually this resulted in setting up a google doc/wiki site to continue the learning, sharing and dialogue following the workshop. What better way to end a workshop – than to set it up as just, the beginning.
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