What is the importance of Seminars, Workshops and Symposia for a Teacher?

Teachers are expected to conduct certain other activities than teaching such as seminars, workshops and symposia.

(i) Seminars:

Seminars are basically arranged to discuss current issues and problems or to share ideas. A seminar is a small group discussion in a formal setting with clear agenda. In a seminar a speaker present a theme or a set of papers and it is discussed by all those who participate.

The chairman/chairperson of the seminar guides, directs, coordinates and organizes the discussion in a systematic manner in order to optimize time, resources and get more benefits. In a seminar, teachers can discuss problems regarding admission, staff, development, evaluation, new idea of teaching or relevant innovations etc. In a seminar a teacher may contribute a paper or an idea, constructively criticise or review a conventional approach.

A seminar can also be organized by a group of teachers. The required resources of a seminar are finance, facilities to sit and discuss facilities to present. The agenda of seminar to be discussed earlier the general themes to be discussed, dates and time need to be communicated to participants giving adequate time for preparation including the date, time, and theme presentation.

All the papers received for presentation need to be classified and made available at die requisite time in the format required to facilitate clear presentation. A report of the proceedings of the seminar needs to be prepared and distributed to all the participants of different institutions for their observations and to further channelize the thoughts through certain experiments, activities or teaching.

(ii) Workshops:

It is generally organized by an institution or association in order to develop certain instructional materials, book, resources material, supportive material, work book etc. Workshops can be organized to develop certain skills of teachers.

Teachers could be trained in certain new laboratory skills, develop a question bank, analyse question in set different examinations and suggest reforms. A workshop could mean hard and concentrated work on the part of experienced teachers to create certain educational materials. A workshop comprises a small, selected group of teachers or experts drawn from actual working situations or related experts who theories on the activities.

(iii) Symposia:

It can be organized by a group of teachers in a resourceful institution to focus on important issues that are related for the professional growth of secondarily and senior secondary teachers. The messages, issues, problems to be discussed need to be systematically outlined for worthwhile discussions and for arriving at some meaningful conclusions.

It comprises experts in a field which could be drawn from different fields focusing the theme. The presentation could be in the form of a research paper, a review, or a model to visualize professional problems and issues in a given context.