This is a presentation I gave at an ANDS data summit in February 2018 about the Carpentries "Train the trainer" aka instructor training program.

1. Carpentry Instructor Training
“Training the trainers”
Darya Vanichkina
Genomics and Bioinformatics Data Scientist (ex. Molecular Biologist & Biochemist)
Software and Data Carpentry Instructor, Genomics mantainer
Centenary Institute, University of Sydney

2. SWC/DC/LC in 1 slide
• Computing skills researchers need to get more done in less time with less
pain. /2 day workshop/
• 100s of events for 34k+ people since 2012 (all continents except Antarctica)
• All materials freely reusable under Creative Commons - Attribution license.
https://software-carpentry.org/
http://www.datacarpentry.org/
https://librarycarpentry.github.io/

3. Who are instructors?
• Volunteers
• Usually ECRs/MCRs or Uni staff
• Domain experts in their field
• Often: attendees of a workshop

4. What does training need to cover?
• Volunteers
• Usually ECRs/MCRs or Uni staff
• Domain experts in their field
• Often: attendees of a workshop

5. What does training need to cover?
• Volunteers
• Usually ECRs/MCRs or Uni staff
• Domain experts in their field
• Often: attendees of a workshop
• NO domain training!

6. What does training need to cover?
• Volunteers
• Usually ECRs/MCRs or Uni staff
• Domain experts in their field
• Often: attendees of a workshop
• NO domain training!
• Evidence-based practices of teaching

7. What does training need to cover?
• Volunteers
• Usually ECRs/MCRs or Uni staff
• Domain experts in their field
• Often: attendees of a workshop
• NO domain training!
• Evidence-based practices of teaching
• Positive, INCLUSIVE environment for
teaching

8. What does training need to cover?
• Volunteers
• Usually ECRs/MCRs or Uni staff
• Domain experts in their field
• Often: attendees of a workshop
• NO domain training!
• Evidence-based practices of teaching
• Positive, INCLUSIVE environment for
teaching
• Avoiding expert blindness

9. What does training need to cover?
• Volunteers
• Usually ECRs/MCRs or Uni staff
• Domain experts in their field
• Often: attendees of a workshop
• NO domain training!
• Evidence-based practices of teaching
• Positive, INCLUSIVE environment for
teaching
• Avoiding expert blindness
• Contributing to SWC/DC materials/
community

10. What does training need to cover?
• Volunteers
• Usually ECRs/MCRs or Uni staff
• Domain experts in their field
• Often: attendees of a workshop
• NO domain training!
• Evidence-based practices of teaching
• Positive, INCLUSIVE environment for
teaching
• Avoiding expert blindness
• Contributing to SWC/DC materials/
community
• Practice teaching, getting and GIVING
feedback

11. How does this work in practice?
• 2 day in-person workshop or ~3 month online training
• 3 tasks at the end (for 2-day in-person):
• contribute to repo
• attend workshop debrief
• live teaching demo
http://carpentries.github.io/instructor-training/

12. What can we take away from this
model?
• Live teaching demo
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Sense of community & support while teaching (safe feedback environment)

13. [Extra] Why Carpentry training works - Belinda Weaver
1. Live coding - what people *see* is what they *hear*, which helps them integrate their learning
2. Learners use their own computers, so their environment is familiar and they are set up with the tools for after the
workshop
3. Structured exercises and challenges progressively test people's understanding
4. The peer-to-peer nature of workshop instruction mitigates anxiety about being looked down on by experts
5. Instructors make errors as they go (*how could they not?*) and watching them recover from errors helps people
learn that skill
6. Sticky notes allow people to signal a need for help without drawing attention to themselves or holding up the
workshop
7. Multiple choice questions with diagnostic power help Instructors see what misconceptions learners have so they
can fix them
8. Multiple helpers in the room keep learners on track and and can provide individual attention when needed
9. Etherpads provide a place for collaborative note taking, to point to lesson materials, to add useful links picked up
on the way, and to provide post-workshop orientation about what was taught
10. Feedback gathered at the end of each session via sticky notes allows Instructors to recalibrate, e.g. slow down,
speed up, provide more challenge time, use a microphone
11. The number 7, plus or minus 2. Chunking of concepts allows Instructors to teach just enough without
overloading learners
12. Open lessons hosted on GitHub allow people to catch up if they get lost or left behind, and people can return to
the lessons after the workshop.
13. Code of Conduct makes people feel safe so they can learn