Interim practice work
Interim practice work
This material is part of the VIRT2UE train the trainer program and is meant for trainers and trainees involved in the training.
You need to have a background in research (i.e. be employed as researchers) or be a trainer/educator/teacher who has had experience in research in the past.What is this about?
Prepare
To prepare for facilitating the exercises in your context you:
a. Go through the instruction manuals and other related materials such as videos and readings;
b. Prepare the necessary material for the exercises (e.g. PowerPoint presentations and/or the forms to send to the participants of the exercise). Please, be aware that it may be necessary to adapt the exercises. For example, if you are an ombudsperson at your institution, it may prompt reservations among your training participants if you ask them to share research integrity cases from their experience. You may therefore consider using only fictional cases (e.g. from the Rotterdam Dilemma Game, or from The Embassy of Good Science case section) instead.Organise
Make arrangements for the time and venue for experiencing each exercise and send out invitations to prospective participants (6-12 max.). You do not need to do the 5 exercises in one go or with the same group. You may combine exercises and integrate them in one session (e.g. Debate-dialogue and Dilemma game). Make sure to distribute and plan the collection of the required forms (i.e. Self-declaration and case reflection form - included in the tips of the Virtues and norms instructions).
Practice your training skills
Facilitate each exercise and evaluate/reflect upon the experiences with your training participants. After facilitating each exercise reflect on your experience and on your role as trainer by filling in the self-reflection form.
Report back on your experience
Get in touch with your trainer and submit your self-reflection forms. Share questions or issues you might want to address during the second face-to-face session with your trainer. For example: what facilitated your participants’ learning or what impeded it? What might be done differently in any subsequent moment of facilitation and what to keep unchanged?
Remarks
What is this about?
Collect the self- reflection forms
Remind your trainees to send you the filled in self reflection forms in due time. After you have collected them, you analyse them to learn about how the trainees experienced the exercises. In addition to this, you can consider directly asking the trainees what they would like to practice or discuss during the follow up session. This will be helpful in allocating practice time during the session.
Prepare a list of topics and activities
Based on the content of the forms you can prepare a list of topics to be discussed during the second face-to-face session. Questions 3, 4, and 5 of the self-reflection form are particularly helpful to look at for this purpose, as they provide information on what worked well, what did not go well, and what requires attention. You can consider preparing a short PowerPoint listing the input you have collected. This may provide guidance and structure for the discussion.