Workshops

Our lecture courses have workshops associated with them and these are potentially the most important and influential part of a student's learning experience. Early years students will have more contact with their tutors than with anybody else from the School.

Workshops and tutors provide opportunities for students to:

• get written feedback via marked work
• work actively on some mathematics while getting immediate feedback - both from their peers and from a more experienced mathematician (i.e. you)
• discuss mathematical ideas with the tutor and other students, in order to develop understanding
• ask questions about the mathematics covered in lectures
• get to know students they might be able to work with on mathematics in their own time
• get a flavour of working as part of a community of academic mathematicians

These outcomes depend very much on the way that the tutor conducts workshops. It is hoped that this guide will be helpful to tutors in thinking about such issues.

First workshop

Introduce yourself and get the students to introduce themselves to each other. Particularly in first year they may never have met each other before. Do try to learn your students’ names – this will make the students feel valued and help you to establish a rapport. Check that all the students are in the right place.

Explain what will be expected in workshops and set out any ground rules. Workshops are for discussing mathematics not social lives. Expect students to come prepared and to be fully focussed throughout. Try to refer questions about admin etc to the CO, course secretary or student guide. It is up to you to set the tone – try to be friendly without being over-familiar.

Check that first year students know about MathsBase and other students about the Maths Hub, as these are important sources of help outside of timetabled classes – see Maths Base and Maths Hub (Link to page to be added here)

Running workshops

This is general advice which will be augmented by that from your CO/YO about the particular course you are tutoring.

Do prepare properly. This is bound to take you a little longer at first but it will be worth it. Look at the guidance you will have received from the lecturer. Make sure you are comfortable with the material. If you have any questions, ask!

If students have been asked to prepare something before the workshop make clear that you expect this to have happened but also have a plan for how to deal with different levels of preparation.

Facilitating workshops

The aim in workshops should be to have students working on mathematics – ideally in groups. Your role as tutor is to facilitate this and to use your experience to guide them. We hope that they will start to learn what it means to think like a mathematician.

• You should resist any pressure to 'present' the material to them again, while they receive it passively. The students have access to a great deal of presented information on their subject: lectures, lecture notes, books and so on. They should be encouraged to refer to these sources in workshops.
• Try to avoid telling students how to do a problem. Encourage them to do as much as they can themselves, and to help each other. At least get a student to identify the point at which they are stuck. Sometimes that will be enough to get them ‘unstuck’. A useful analogy is the idea of providing a scaffold for the student – you need to give them temporary support when they need it. Think carefully before suggesting they try a question in a different way from what the lecturer intended. A new perspective may help but it is often better to help students understand and use the methods they have been given.
• Encourage students to work together on problems. You can facilitate this by asking a small group to produce a joint solution. You can allocate roles to the members of the group – e.g. scribe, checker etc. Do make sure that one person does not just take over. Do be prepared to change groupings as you see fit.
• Get students to explain their thinking to each other – this benefits the explainer just as much as (and probably more than) the listener. Get the listener to question anything they do not understand – or you can prompt if necessary.
• Encourage students to ask questions of you and of each other – make them feel that there is no such thing as a stupid question. Students may be reluctant to contribute to workshops as they fear making 'silly' mistakes. Try to emphasise that it is by making mistakes that we learn.

Dealing with questions

Students may feel that having 'the solution' written down will be as useful to them as having struggled through the problem themselves. Explain that, although this struggle may feel like hard work at the time, it will serve them better in the long run. Resist the pressure to do the problem for them – students may appear grateful and give the impression that they are understanding each step but in reality be learning little. A technique to try is “no hands tutoring”: when students ask how to do something, guide them through it with words, but without actually writing anything yourself. If you and the students can get through this then something really has been learned. It will take longer than if you write it yourself with a running commentary, moving on to the next line each time the students nod, but you have to ask if you do this whether those nods really mean they have understood!

Don’t panic if you are asked a question you cannot answer immediately. It can be useful for students to see how you approach a problem. Try thinking aloud, refer to lecture notes and ask other students what they can contribute. If necessary offer to look at it in your own time and give an answer next week.

General conduct

• Make sure that you speak to each student individually at some point in each workshop. In particular, students value getting some oral feedback on their work along with written comments. Take care that you strike a balance and do not spend too much time on this.
• Try to observe the students as they are writing mathematics. You can often spot the point at which they have difficulties – you can also pick up on poor use of notation etc as it happens.
• Try not to "loom over" students - sitting at the same level is less intimidating.
• Do talk to other tutors on your team. Some will be more experienced than you are and may have good ideas to share