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In her article, "Effective Workshops for Teacher Learning" (Exchange magazine; September, 2008), Margie Carter offers strategies and techniques for leading an effective teacher training session. One strategy she labels the "play-debrief-replay format" works as follows:

"We use a workshop process that draws on the language of Selma Wasserman (2000) in her book Serious Players in the Classroom, where she describes setting up learning experiences in a ‘play-debrief-replay’ format. We cycle through this play-debrief-replay experience several times if the workshop is more than a couple of hours. For the opening ‘play’ part of the agenda, we design an activity to spark initial self and group awareness of one of the big ideas to be explored. This is similar to what some call an icebreaker. However, it is specifically designed to give the group a common experience to reflect on —  something they already know about the topic to begin their exploration together.

"Constructivist theory tells us that people acquire new knowledge by connecting their current understandings and experiences to new information and ideas. In other words, these existing experiences are the foundation of any new learning and understanding. Knowing this, we plan our first activity of a workshop with the goal of uncovering who and where our participants are in relation to the topic at hand. Our opening activities help participants identify and name the ‘knowing’ they already bring to the big ideas under consideration. We are transparent about our goal of having participants become aware of the responsibility and power they have for their own learning. If the group is small enough, teacher responses to these initial activities helps us know what to emphasize as the training progresses. Knowing the range of knowledge and experiences in the group helps us to individualize our interactions and connect the larger body of ideas to participants’ interests, needs, and emerging questions."

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Every few years we survey ExchangeEveryDay readers about emerging training needs for early childhood teachers. Today you can help us update this information by participating in the Exchange Insta Poll on "Highest Priority Teacher Training Topics." Then over the coming week you can watch on the Exchange home page to see what training your peers believe is most important.

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