Description: "What I hear, I forget; What I see, I remember; What I do, I understand." (Confucius, 451 B.C.). What we believe the ancient Chinese sage alludes to is what we now call experiential or "hands-on" learning. Yet, as instruction librarians and library trainers in the academic or public arena, many of us have either forgotten the logic of Confucius' statement, or we find that we cannot take advantage of its wisdom because we have not had much instruction in pedagogy (i.e., "the art, science, or profession of teaching). This is especially true today in regard to the electronic environment in which we are frequently asked to teach. In this three-hour pre-conference workshop, we will provide background information on learning theories and discuss the common methods successfully used in teaching the content of today's library instruction or workshop, as well as the criteria used to select the best methods for each situation. We will also demonstrate and discuss the facilitation skills and techniques that teaching librarians can use in any environment to keep the learners more interested and actively involved in the library session, whether it is an academic subject-oriented 50-minute one-shot BI or a more lengthy Internet class.

Included here are the PowerPoint slides for this 3-hour workshop (Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, 164KB, 29 Slides)

RUL_10/25/02 PowerPoint slides (Brief Facilitation Skills Session)