This Month's Teaching Strategy comes to us from one of our very own NASA Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) community members, Manuel Mon, at Florida Gulf Coast University. Manny and CAE go back together a few years, and we wanted to let him tell his story about being a Teaching Excellence Workshop "junky." Now, at this point, I'm sure many of you are chuckling—and probably fit into this same category. For the rest, you may be asking just what is a workshop junky? Well, we at CAE started noticing that at each of our workshops we started to have people attending who had already attended the same workshop a year or more in the past, sometimes repeating even three or four times. After discussing with these participants why they were so keen to attend again, we thought we'd let one of them tell you himself. So, Manny, thank you for sharing with us this month why you have valued the workshops enough to become a junky.

Many of us, if not all, had our introduction to learning experience through the traditional lecture method. We attended classes in which the professor lectured about the material, we took notes and then tried to keep up with the concepts. Although this might work for some individuals, it still seemed to fall short of higher achievement by the majority of students. Later on, we incorporated this traditional lecture mode into our classrooms. While the lectures may have been entertaining and engaging for the students, we still wondered why so many of them didn't achieve as high as we would expect them. This is where the Teaching Excellence Workshops offered by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education and conducted by the CAPER team from the University of Arizona came to the rescue. They offer two tiers of Teaching Excellence Workshops which show the research results of how students learn and what methods seem more successful for conceptual learning of astronomy in a learner-centered classroom.

Three years ago I became involved in developing a summer in-service teacher workshop for our university's Whitaker Center for Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (STEM). As developers we utilized the Conceptual Change Model of learning in developing interactive learning experiences for STEM Education. We used this model to teach content and create conceptual change through hands on interactive learning activities. This was my first formal introduction to learning student-centered interactive activities.

I found the Tier 1 workshop to be one step beyond what I had already learned about education. This workshop not only presented the use of learner-centered classroom activities, but backed it up with actual educational research results. These results convinced me that the traditional lecture mode of teaching, although somewhat necessary to introduce basic concepts, could be combined with student learner-centered material in order to achieve higher levels of conceptual understanding. The research showed that if the students themselves were intellectually and socially engaged in learning activities that challenged their preconceived concepts, they would attain a better and longer lasting conceptual grasp of the material. The workshop also introduced some already thoroughly tested and readily available material for implementation in a learner-centered environment. They included: Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy and Ranking Tasks for Introductory Astronomy. There were even some examples of shorter Power Point lectures that introduced the basic concepts the students needed in order to proceed and work through the interactive materials. For those of us who are busy in our professional lives and don't necessarily have the time to do our own educational research, these materials become very handy for implementation of the results that research has shown. During the workshop we were actually made to participate in these activities and even try to come up with some activities of our own. This helped us understand from a students'point of view. Both during and after the workshop the CAPER team was more than glad to make themselves available. That interaction continued through emails once we returned to our own institutions. After starting to work through the Tier 1 workshop, and attempting to implement some of the material, I decided to go ahead and attend the Tier 2 workshop.

During the Tier 2 workshop we were introduced to additional methods of research on education. We received further and more specific instruction for implementation of the materials. We actively participated in creating and conducting a learner-centered environment. This was mixed with an introduction to some of the basic tools of educational research. After returning from the Tier 2 workshop I was able to more successfully implement what I had learned into my own teaching experiences.

About six months later I decided to attend the Tier 1 workshop for a second time. I was afraid that perhaps this would have been too repetitious; but having enjoyed it once I thought I would go through the process once more and refresh my memory. What really surprised me was the fact that not only do the workshops change in terms of introduction to new and more recent educational research materials, but also include new approaches for implementation in the classroom. During my first attendance of the Tier 1 workshop I had established a framework in which to apply the research and materials into a learner-centered classroom. Having already done some implementation, I found out that attending for the second time filled in the gaps and empowered me to do a much better job. As a result of this I have already signed up and will also attend once more the second tier workshop.

Although the workshops are intense and given in two days of full attendance, you are provided with enough material to take back to your institution. The learning and implementation does not end with the workshop. You are made part of the community of the NASA Center for Astronomy Education and have access to their tremendous website. It contains not only the workshop lecture materials, but also other materials that you can freely use for your own implementation. It also provides an electronic forum for further discussions among the community of astronomy instructors. Ed, Gina and Tim have gone to great lengths to obtain appropriate funding for this workshop so they are made free of charge to attendees. They should be commended for their dedication and devotion to the continued improvement in astronomy education. Keep up the excellent work!