Teaching Methods for SRL Staff: Training the Trainer

The Presenter

Tim Bushnell, PhD
University of Rochester Medical School, USA

Session Summary

Education is a critical mission for shared resource laboratories. Indeed, in the paper "International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) Flow Cytometry Shared Resource Laboratory (SRL) Best Practices," education is highlighted as a key. This includes both education of the staff and education of the end user. Developing an effective training program has two components: the material that is presented and the team that is going to deliver the material.

The goal of this workshop is to help attendees' understand two important factors that can help improve their educational outreach. The first of these components is the different types of learning styles people have. Recognizing and understanding different learning styles will help the trainer adjust their delivery to help the student get maximal benefit from the training. The second of these components is the trainers' teaching styles. Understanding the different training styles will help the trainer appreciate different ways of presenting material, with the goal of providing a more productive program. On top of understanding these different styles are the different modes of presenting information such as a lecture, hands-on discussion, and internet-based tools. Before investing in one method or another, it is important to define the goal of the program and build the platform to serve that goal.

At the end of this tutorial, attendees will have the tools to:

• Identify the learning style of trainees.
• Understand their specific teaching style.
• How to adjust their training style for learning differentiation.
• Evaluate different tools and develop a training program.

CMLE Credit: 1.5