Workshop evaluation New England Workshop on Science and Social Change 2008

Part II (as of 3 May 2008)

Write out neatly a synthetic statement (1 or 2 paragraphs) evaluating this workshop. (You might build on/build in your comments from Part I.) Please make comments both to help us develop the workshop in the future and to enable some third party appreciate the workshop’s strengths and weaknesses. (Imagine a reader who may not be willing to wade through all the notes on the other side, but who wants to see more than averages from a "1-5" numerical evaluation.)

1. This workshop will be invaluable for my academic work and teaching. It made me realize I have an academic community I never knew existed. I feel I now know 13 other people I can go to for advice, encouragement, teaching help, ideas, collaboration, anything. I am going to grow and evolve as an academic and a teacher as a result of these four days. I really had no idea what to expect to get out of this, but any expectation I MAY have had has been far, far exceeded. I am going away with knowledge, tools, approaches, and contacts that will improve the way I work and teach.

For those of us working in the spaces between disciplines, especially the spaces between science and other disciplines, this kind of intellectual community is invaluable. We are like lost sheep roaming the wilderness, and now I have my flock. I can’t say enough about this experience.

I don’t know if I will try to make my own workshop, but I would definitely volunteer to help run this if Peter ever tires of it. I doubt I could ever do as good a job, but if needed I will participate in any way I can (including seeking more funding) to make sure this keeps happening every year.

Thanks SO MUCH,

AMY LESEN

2. I am reminded of the Prologue to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit in trying to answer this question: the answer to the question about the benefits of NewSSC is to be discovered not in something one can express in a paragraph of evaluation or chapter of a future book, but the benefit is to be lived into reality, a PROCESS through which one must personally pass, to understand its method, function, benefits, brilliance.

One comes, one struggles to understand what is/will be happening, one anticipates, explores, interacts, listens, listens, listens, finds one has learned to listen well, finds one hears others differently now, relates more "hearkeningly" to others. The various activities do not simply build connections with others, but they necessitate the discovery of the identity of others through their own self-articulations. But since those articulations follow their own path, one sees them not as simple reports of some static truth but as new explorations of self, in each case. Then one discovers this has happened to oneself as much as to others-one discovers oneself anew in the surprising revelations that emerge in the process of self-revelation. Ultimately, I believe we have all come to embrace, not only ourselves and each other, but the process! And I believe too that we all are in silent agreement that we depart better persons for the experience, refreshed from the supportive net of the community that has held us fast during this perilous self-discovery. Oh, and then!... one begins immediately to hatch plans for helping others to feel this same wonderful way.

Thank you so very much for including me in this wonderful experience!

3. I enjoyed the workshop very much. Participating the second time, I was able to concentrate more on specific details and was not as overwhelmed by the wealth of methods, processes, and group interactions. For me the process of group interaction is very important and the methods were intensified for me by taking part a second time. This workshop was less focused thematically than the first one, which I attended. I liked both forms: the more generic form of teaching and outreach as well as the more theme-centered one. But I think, not all workshops should be generic. Alternating will be productive. It is productive that some of the participants are new and some already were experienced with this format.

I appreciate very much the possibility to have a common space for thinking social interaction – the continuation of both, together with a not too short duration is the real productive thing, beyond having more detailed cognitive, scientific input. Of the methods I especially valued the dialogue process this time. It would be good to have a little more time (2-3 hours) for non-planned things (like Thursday afternoon).

4. This workshop model is something I would like to continue to engage in at various points throughout my academic career. It’s something that is difficult to fully comprehend at the first go, and having come a second time, I am learning more and more how I can better integrate these techniques into my own work and pedagogy. The strength of a workshop like this seems to really depend on the mix of people participating in it. This (the 5^th) year’s workshop group seemed exceptionally well tuned to each and this is no small accomplishment, and it speaks a good deal to the connections of the organizers.

I think there needs to be a more explicit effort towards increasing the diversity of participants. This would most likely be accomplished by holding this workshop in a different location, such as New Orleans. If the idea is to engage boundaries, we need to be sure they are reflected in the participants as well.

There could be improvements and minor tweaks in a variety of places, such as including a free-writing reflection after each office hour session. I have great conversations then need to run off to the next person, which is fine, except I have no time to jot down the notes of all the great things I heard. Then, I go on to the next person, which, by the third person, makes a jumble of it. Perhaps we could do office hours over three days, but only do two at a time, with the reflections? I am not so interested in having time to center or meditate, but we do a LOT of listening, which is great, but it requires little time for reflection. More free writing would be helpful, and it seems we did quite a bit more of it last year.

Overall, I sincerely hope I can continue to do these workshops in some capacity or another. However, the torch needs to be passed as I think Peter has done an absolutely fantastic job of putting these together, but I think he could use a break and just be a participant. Thank you for the wonderful experience!!

5. The primary strength of this workshop was in bringing together diverse people from diverse yet intersecting fields and allowing them to exchange expertise and to share inspiration and support for innovative educational/activist efforts. The format of the workshop is itself a model to replicate: as Marshall McLuhan has famously noted, "the medium is the message." Accordingly, its impact seems very difficult to evaluate fully and effectively, as it involves examining methodological shifts and perhaps subtle rearrangements in infrastructure or organizational relationships at multiple locations following the workshop itself. These "products" are not documented on paper.

The prime weakness, as I see it (and quite possibly i[s] an exception to the common perspective), was the lack of "work" in a "workshop" (my concept of work being focused narrowly on development of a concrete product and plan, rather than a shift or transformation of attitudes or imagined possibilities). I see evaluation in terms of observable benefits and deficits and applicable contexts more than perceived "connections."

This workshop provided a strong model in its use of "office hours" -- formalizing the casual, intimate interactions that happen elsewhere at conferences in coffeehouses, pubs and the corners of a hotel between formal scholarly presentations. One could amplify the value of this element by providing time afterwards for consolidating the information gleaned and focusing it in work on a particular project (envisioning, planning, expanding, revising).

The workshop provides a strong model for cross-disciplinary interaction. However, it could benefit from being more explicit about articulating each of those perspectives before negotiating their interaction.

The workshop is a strong model for reflective practice at many levels. However, it could benefit from working on only one level (or perspective) of reflection at a given time, working only gradually from the concrete and particular to the more abstract and general -- possibly deepening over the course of several days.

The workshop format will benefit from an explicit model of leadership/facilitation skills showing how to alternate deftly between centralized control and focus, on the one hand, and distributed authority and unrestricted scope on the other. (This workshop seemed to suffer from lack of temporary centralized authority when needed for clarity of group cohesiveness and focal purpose.) That is, decentralization was sometimes chaotic, not enriching, while when more focused at other times, quite fruitful.

6. This workshop introduced me to a wonderful range of new techniques for facilitating deeply satisfying group processes, creating cohesion, mutual understanding, lasting bonds and transformative learning. I would strongly recommend it for dedicated educators seeking to make their teaching practice stronger and more emancipatory, especially those dealing with social aspects of science and technologies.

7. This year I have enjoyed in a very particular way the things I used to consider the “details.” Probably because I was not so available after workshop hours to think specifically on activities to develop, the “regular” parts of the workshop assumed a very different and much more structuring dimension in my representation of the workshop. This is to say how well organized and thought out it is. Sometimes this may lead you to “naturalize” what is a collective process. I think the model is a very good one, and it enables one to develop in very different ways, depending on the group.

8. The workshop more than met with my expectations. I thought that the Dialogue exercise was very helpful for setting the bar at the beginning. “Office Hours” allowed for focused conversations with members – I was able to benefit a great deal from this exercise. The activities went well because the various groups were allowed a large amount of creative space for experiment.

9. This workshop was a very valuable experience, which helped me to develop my understanding of the wealth of collaboration and participatory forms of producing new knowledge, both intuitively and from the point of view of the development of adequate[?] procedures. Autobiographical presentations, office hours, collective exercises and dialogue processes provided a broad and very effective repertoire for exploring both the meditative and methodological aspects of the topics dealt with.

I was particularly appreciative of the way the workshop provides a challenging and nurturing environment for the free experimentation of innovative work of enjoying and collaborating for new forms of generating knowledge.

10.

11. The 2008 Workshop was especially valuable for me because I was able to observe the responses of individuals who were unfamiliar with its exercises in comparison with those of Workshop veterans. Most of the new attendees seemed a bit disoriented at first, but certainly gained quickly from the activities. The energy level of all attendees was remarkable given our considerable duties as professors and researchers and the fact that most of us squeezed in our Workshop attendance between difficult parts of our respective semesters. In my conversations with Workshop veterans (and in their autobiographical reports) I noted how much they benefited over time from the Workshops. All of the veterans were proceeding with incredible energy and resilience in their careers, which they credited in large part to the inspiration and support they received from the Workshop. As online education takes over many of our duties as faculty members, intense workshops of the kind that Peter Taylor has designed should be utilized to replenish our enthusiasm for teaching and remind us of what our fellow educators can provide us in terms of support. As a business school teacher, I would certainly recommend that Peter Taylor "franchise" the nicely-crafted Workshop notions.

12. Strengthen the workshop with a sharper focus at the gate—participants could submit better readings and think about presentations. The “take away” stuff is on the wiki and that will be real good.

13.