WORKSHOP

Introduction: The workshop is the name given a novel (refreshing, new) experiment in education. Close group type
of discussion will be held in form of workshop. It consist of series of meetings, usually four or more with emphasis of
individual work within the group with the help of consultants and resource personnel. Education process has two
aspects- theoretical and practical. Learning takes place in a friendly, happy and democratic under experts’ guidance.
The workshops are organized to develop the psychomotor aspects of the learner regarding practices of new
innovations in the area of education. Workshops helps to each participant opportunities to improve his effectiveness as
a professional worker.
Definitions:
According to L. Ramachandran :
The workshop is a meeting of people to work together in a small group upon problems which are concerned to them
and relevant to them in their own sphere of activity and to find suitable solutions.
According to Lorreta:
Workshop refers to a group of individuals who work together toward the solution of problems in a given subject
matter field during a specific period of time.
According to Basavantappa:
Workshop is defined as assembled group of 10 to 25 persons who share a common interest or problem. They meet
together to improve their individual and skill of a subject through intensive study, research, practice and discussion.
According to Neeraja:
A systematic approach to deal in detail about educational problems by means of a short meeting.
Objectives: The workshops are organized to realize the following- Cognitive objectives
Psychomotor objectives
Affective objectives
1. Cognitive objectives
 The workshop s organized to solve the problems of teaching professions.
Provide the philosophical and sociological background for instructional and teaching situation.

Develop an understanding regarding the theme and problem.

 Identify the educational objectives in the present context.

2. Psychomotor objectives (Skill development)

 To develop the proficiency for planning and organizing teaching and instructional activities.
 To develop skills to perform a task independently.
 To determine and use of teaching strategies effectively.
 To train the person for using different approaches of teaching.
3. Affective objectives ( Attitude development)
A relationship between participants and resource person.
 To develop professional
 To permit the extensive study of a situation its background and its social philosophical implication.
 To take necessary steps to solve the problem of education.
Essential Feature: Complete active involvement by each participant, the central theme of attendance is to work and
to learn from practical experience.
Purpose of Workshop:
1. To put teachers in situations that will break down the barriers between them, so that they can more readily
communicate.
2. To give teachers an opportunity for personal growth through accepting and working towards a goal held in
common with others.
3. To give teachers an opportunity to work on the problems that are of direct, current concerned to them.
4. To place teachers in a position of responsibility for their own learning.
5. To give teachers experience in a cooperative understanding.
6. Teachers will learn new methods and techniques which they can use in their own classrooms.
7. Teachers will have the opportunity in collaboration with others, to produce materials that will be useful in
their teaching.
8. Teacher will be put in a solution where they will evaluate their own efforts.
9. To give the teachers an opportunity to improve their own morale.
 Principles of Workshop :
 Workshop should focus on the current issues in the profession to be discussed.
 Workshop should be conducted with full cooperation within organizers.
 Giving the participants an active role will make teaching ore effective.
 Every individual has worth, and has a contribution to make the common goal.
Essential features of Workshop:
 It consists of series of meetings usually four or more with the emphasis on individual work with the group.
 The total workshop may be divided into small groups and each group chooses chairman and a recorder.
 The experience and knowledge of the group itself is used in defining and solving the problems.
 Active involvement of each participant, to work and to learn from practical experience.
Mini Workshop :

 A mini work shop is a short workshop lasting 3 or 4 days in the case described in this document.
 Main aim is introducing participants to a systemic approach to educational problems.
 The workshop aims at stimulating a given proportion of participants to wish to reach at least the objectives
set out.
 The success of a workshop will depend largely on the way it is planned and on the arrangements made
before the opening session.
Planning for a workshop:
Selection of a Theme
Select the theme on workshop has to be organized
 The theme must be based on pre existing problem for which we should identify the solution
 Theme must be useful for the in-service workers for giving awareness and training of new practices in their
working situation and which has a solution.
 Theme must be directed towards the participants because to motivate their interest.
After selecting a theme for the workshop, following have to be planned.
Open a file
Correspondence relating to the panning, running and evaluation of the workshop will soon reach proportions that call
for proper filing.
A suitable system might be a loose leaf file with the following subdivisions
 Budget
 Workshop site
 Selection of participants
 Documentation
 Equipment checklist
 Publicity, press, etc.
 Evaluation
Selection of resource person
In organizing a workshop resource person plays following important roles:
 They should provide theoretical and practical aspects of the theme.
 Resource person must have much more practical and theoretical exposure in their work field.
 Resource person should be able to provide guidance to participants at every stage, and train them to perform
the task effectively.
 Resource person should be able to supervise and control the trainees.
Selection of participants
Criteria for selecting the participants:
 Type of participants : Homogeneity: Participants should be homogenous ( same group).
 select the participants who will be benefited by the theme of workshop and objectives.
 Number of participants: It can be found from experience that as many as 35 participants (seven groups of five)
can be handled by one organizer.
 Select the participants 60 days before the workshop.
 Four five days before confirm the participants, who are going to participate.
 Voluntary participation and willingness to be innovative. Select the participants those who attend the
workshop voluntarily.
Selection of the date for workshop
 Date of workshop should not coincide with public and religious holidays, sports events.
 At least one working day will preside the opening of the workshop.
 It should be planned prior, to prevent inconvenience in conducting workshop.
Selection of place for workshop
  Select the place where participants can stay and attend total activities of workshop on a full time basis.
 The place should be far away from where the participants live to enable them to participate in activities
without interruption.
 The place should be pleasurable one (Quiet adequate seating, well ventilated, good lighting etc.)
 Booking a meeting room and hotel accommodation.
 Book room for conduction of workshop and accommodation 6 months priorly to the day.
 Take in writing and insist in writing confirmation detailing the conditions you have specified, particularly as
regards to the meeting room.
Selection of language :
 In workshop national language must be the working language.
 It must be known to all the participants.
Selection of committee:
For organizing the workshop various committee must be formulated. Such as:
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
 Should plan for programme.
 They should schedule the programme.
 They must select the days, dates, venue of workshop.
 They should plan for budgeting
ASSISTANT ORGANIZERS COMMITTEE
 Selection must be done 4 months before the day.
 The organizers should select assistant organizers from another school or facility.
 Select each assistant organizers for every10 participants.
 The assistant organizers will have the task of finding answers to questions put forward by the participants.
SPONSORS COMMITTEE
 The sponsoring committee should be found by organizers to share the expenses of workshop.
 Sponsors can extend their helping hand to provide place for workshop, sound media, food and snacks, printing
material, etc.
VOLUNTEERS COMMITTEE serves the following :
 Receiving the guests.
 Orienting the place to the participants and experts.
 Seating arrangement.
 Serving food.
 They have to formulate committees for –
 Registration
 Transportation
 Food
 Stage
 Reception
 Publicity committee etc.
Budget for Workshop
Organizers should plan the budget according to their plan of conducting workshop.
 Following the simple formula is suggested to estimate the expenditure:
E = (T+S) N x 1.25
E – Estimate
T – Cost of return travel
S – Living expenses (accommodation, food)
N – Number of participants
Invitation of the participants
The main points to be covered in the invitation are :
 Aim of workshop.
 Theme of the workshop.
 Working method of the workshop.
 Get a deadline for application.
Preparing workshop pamphlet/ booklet
Print pamphlets/ booklets- chart specifying the:
 Aim of workshop.
 Registration fees for the workshop.
 Activities of the programme in workshop.
 Facilities arranged for the workshop.
These all help the participants to prepare physically and mentally before coming to the workshop.
Content which the experts are going to present must be given at the time of documentation. This helps them to have
reference copies of the content for their future.
Immediate preparation of Workshop (i.e. 2-3 days before) :
Review of the list of participants and resource persons
 After getting the application, we should prepare the finalizing the number of participants, a list of participants
should be prepared.
 Resource persons also must be properly reminded.
Arrangement of room
 Two days before the workshop it should be arranged.
 The meeting room should be arranged so as to allow participants to sit at tables in small groups of three to
five.
 Allow the use of overhead projector it would be preferable in order to allow two documents to be compared
together.
 Make sure that everyone has a good view of the projection screen and discussion leader.
 Room must be quiet and that arrangement is preferable to separate groups in different rooms.
 Make sure that the room is away from the source of noise.
 Room must be adequately darkened to project the overhead projector.
 Make sure that electric power point that works and have an electrical extension flex and a spare projector
lamp available.
 In addition, have a stock to transparent cellulose sheets and marker, crayons available that ,may be used to
illustrate any remarks that may be in plenary (an intensive examination testing a student’s proficiency in some
special field of knowledge) sessions.
Arrangement of staff and equipment
Staff and equipment needed for the documentation must be arranged one month before the day.
 Staffs: Such as typist for typing the documents resulting from group work.
 Equipment: One month before itself should be arranged with all the needed equipment and prior to the
workshop it should be checked that the things by using checklist.
 Equipment Checklist:
Notepads (one for each participant)
Pencils and sharpener(one for each participant)
Rubber ( one for each table)
Two hold punch(1)
Adhesive tape(2 rolls)
Stapler (1)
Waste paper basket(one for each table)
Drawing pins (2 packets)
File
Overhead projector(2)
Sharp projectors (2)
Electric extension flex(6 meter)
Electric adapter plugs (2)
Transparent cellulose sheets (50)
Crayon markers
Blackboard for flip charts
Dictionary
Arrangement for press relations
Depending on the local situation, it may be worth deciding to inform the press.
Coordinating the assistant organizers
All the assistant organizers should arrive at the site of the workshop without fail, at least two whole days before the
workshop and should have been told how to import this coordination period is.
Timetable of work
 It is not recommended to arrange more than five hours of structured sessions a day.
 There should be provision of tea break and lunch break at appropriate time interval and it should be planned
throughout the workshop.
 Last day don’t forget to have a group photo snaps taken during the break.
In organizing workshop the following fur roles are performed.
Organizers of the workshop
Whole programme and schedule is prepared by organizer. He has to arrange boarding, lodging facilities for
participants as well as the experts. The date, days, and venue of the workshop are decided by him. The workshops are
also organized by the institutions such as NCERT, DGHS sponsored workshop on nursing development.
Convenor or chairman in first stage :
 At the stage of the workshop theoretical aspects are discussed by the experts on the theme of the workshop.
 Therefore a convener (the member of a group whose duty it is to bring together) is nominated or invited who
is well acquainted with the theme of the workshop to observe the work of the participants along with the
expert and has to carry out the formalities and keynote of the workshop.
Experts or resource person
In organizing a workshop resource person plays following important roles:
 they should provide theoretical and practical aspects of the theme.
 Resource person must have much more practical and theoretical exposure in their work field.
 Resource person should be able to provide guidance to participants at every stage and train them to perform
the task effectively.
 Resource person should be able to supervise and control trainees.
Role of participant or trainees:
 The participant should be interested or keen into the theme of the workshop.
 At the first stage they have acquired understanding of the theme and at the second stage have to practice and
perform the task with great interest and seek proper guidance from the experts.
 They should carry the concept to their classroom to evaluate its workability in actual situation.
 They may suggest some modification, using the concept in classroom.
 The effectiveness of any workshop technique depends upon the involvement of the participants in the task.
Stages in conducting Workshop:
Generally workshop are organized for 3 to 10 days duration. The period of workshop may be 4 days. It depends on the
nature of task assigned to the workshop.
It is organized in four stages:
First stage
Second stage
Third stage
Fourth stage
1. First stage programmes:-
 Registration: participants will pay their fees and they will register their names in registration counter. After
that they will be given a identity card and workshop content handwork.
 Inauguration: it is starting function of the workshop. In this all committee members, participants, resource
persons will be gathered along with the chief guest. Chief guest will start the function with lighting the lamp
and gives his guest speech regarding the theme. After to him organizer delivers his speech.
 Preliminary introductory session: organizer will give brief introduction about the workshop, which they are
going to conduct. He will give orientation towards theme of the workshop and objectives.
 Pretest: pretest will be given to the participants, which will be based in the theme of the workshop i.e.
background knowledge about theme of the workshop. And it will be evaluated.
 Break: tea break and lunch break in between the session.
 Presentation of theme of providing awareness: the resource person or experts are invited to provide the
awareness and understanding of the topic. This stage is like a seminar.
The paper reading is also done to discuss the different aspects of the theme. The trainees or
participants are given opportunity to seek clarification. The experts provide the suitable illustration steps for
using iy in practice such as classroom teaching.
2. Second stage :
 Formation of the groups: in the second stage the total group is divided in to small groups.
 Assignment sessions and practical exercise: groups will be given assignment related to the theme. Practical
exercise also will be given.
 Guidance and supervision: a resource person is assigned to provide guidance to the work to perform. Along,
with guidance the expert also supervises each participants work. Every participant has to work individually
and independently and has to complete the task within given time limit.
 Clarifying session: the participant while doing his work if finds any difficulty or doubt can be clarified with
the help of expert.
 Group discussion: if group members have completed their assignment at the end they meet together and
discuss their task within their group.
 Preview of the next day: at the end of the each day all group members will join together and discuss the
programmes of the next day.
3. Third stage : There are four phases:
 Presentation: at this phase all group meet at one place and present their report of work done at second stage.
 Evaluation: Post test it will be given to the participants based on the content which was given by the experts
during the presentation phase. That will be evaluated.
  Open suggestion: the participants are given opportunity to comment and give suggestions for further
improvement.
 Expert suggestion: the experts also provide suggestion on different aspects of the reports.
 Validation: it is the end phase of the workshop. In this organizer will conclude the workshop after providing
certificates to the experts and participants and also distribute the prizes to those perform well in their group
activities. Chief organizer or assistant organizer will give vote of thanks and programme will end with
National Anthem.
4. Fourth stage : In fourth stage means after the actual programme, organizers as well as participants have to do their
part of work.
Organizers part:
 Letter of thanks: within 15 days after the programme it is time to thank everybody who has helped, the
organizers including those who have provided funds for the workshop, the members of the committee for
sponsors and the assistant organizers. Inform theme in the letter that they will shortly be sent the report on the
workshop.
 Report on the workshop: report regarding the workshop must be printed and sent to the assistant organizers
and other persons who helped to successful conduct of the workshop. The report will contain the following:
An introduction giving a brief description of the focal context which led to the organization of
the workshop.
The general aims of the workshop.
Description of the progress of the workshop.
Selected samples of the work done in the group.
List of the documents used during the workshop
1. The evaluation
2. List of participants
 Part of participants: they should get ready for the follow up programme that will be conducted as a long
term evaluation process at least one year after the day.
Follow up:
 The trainer has to go back to their institution. They ask to continue their task and examine the workability and
usability in their institution.
 The participants are invited to meet again and present their experience regarding applicability of the topic or
new practice.
 During follow up meeting, participants will also be assessed to which level they reached their objectives by
using questionnaire and individual interview.
Advantages of the workshop:
 Workshop is used to realize the higher cognitive and psychomotor objectives.
 It is a technique which can be effectively used for developing understanding and proficiency for the
approaches and practices in education.
 It is used for developing and improving professional efficiency. E.g. Nursing, Medical, Dental etc.
 Teaching proficiencies can be developed by workshop technique for nursing in-service teachers.
 It provides the opportunity and situation to develop the individual capacities of a teacher.
 It develops the feeling of cooperation and group work.
 It provides the situation to study the vocational problems.
The new practices and innovations are introduced to in-service teachers.
Limitations of Workshop :
 The in-service teacher may not take interest to understand and use the new practices in their classroom.
 The workshop can’t be organized to large number of group, so the large number of persons can be trained.
 The teacher may not take interest in practical work or to do something in productive form.
 The effectiveness of the workshop technique depends on the follow up programme. Generally follow up
programmes are not organized in workshop technique.
CONCLUSION- Thus workshop is a meeting during which experienced people in responsible positions come
together with experts and consultants to find solution of a problems that have cropped up in the course of their work
and that they have had difficulty in dealing with on their own.
REFERENCES
Sodhi Kaur Jaspreet, Comprehensive Textbook of Nursing Education (2007), Jaypee brothers medical publishers pvt
Ltd. New Delhi, 1st edition, P:- 109-114
R Pramila, Nursing Communication and Educational Technology,(2010); Jaypee brothers medical publishers pvt Ltd.
New Delhi, 1st edition, P:- 302-304
Neeraja K P, Text Book of Nursing Education,(2007); Jaypee brothers medical publishers pvt Ltd. New Delhi, 1 st
edition, P:- 318-319