Workshops for Faculty

The workshops below are designed for large-group faculty participation (whether the whole faculty or subset). Most of the public talks for adult audiences and the critical texts series can also be adapted as faculty workshops.

From Wonder to Wisdom: A Pedagogy of Encounter (2-4 Sessions)

As the classical educational movement has grown, it has developed a language of its own. Words and phrases like "Socratic method," "trivium and quadrivium," "logic and rhetoric" and "sense of wonder" have become commonplace. Often they are not as well understood as they should be, however. These sessions will help faculty understand the particularly critical role that "wonder" (thaumàzein) played in the philosophy, science, and political theory of the ancients. Faculty will receive training in how to plan lessons, conduct class, and interact with students in such a way as to elicit wonder and make the coursework of a classical school mirror the excitement of the original classical investigation of reality.

The Socratic Paradigm (3-4 Sessions)

The Socratic Paradigm gives participants an overview not only of the so-called "Socratic method" but also of Socrates as a founding intellectual of the Western tradition. The sessions touch on aspects of teaching such as the necessary persona of the teacher as learner, the importance of two types of wonder, and the cultural conditions of "the Cave" as described in Plato's Republic and applied to the 21st century classroom.

Three Columns of Instruction (3-4 Sessions)

These sessions are based on Mortimer Adler's instructional method in the Paideia Project and Paideia Program. Teachers will learn how to employ didactic instruction, seminar, and coaching. Most importantly, they will learn how to integrate all three of these methods in a single classroom or lesson plan.

Teaching as Craft and Teaching as Art (1-2 Sessions)

The discipline of teaching has elements of both craft and art. There are certainly any number of "recipes" for approaching curriculum development, lesson planning, classroom management, effective assessment, etc. But the recipe is only a starting point. True education is an art and the master teacher is an artisan. While acknowledging the value of the craft, these sessions focus on giving teachers the resources they need to transition to teaching as art.

How to Lead a Seminar (3-4 Sessions)

The "seminar" is one of the mainstays of classical pedagogy. Seminar leadership (whether in a course specifically designed for discussion or when a discussion spontaneously breaks out) is an art that takes time to learn and a lifetime to master. This three-session workshop will focus on the basis of seminar leadership, including a demonstration of the methods involved and time for questions and answers.

Becoming a Dynamic Lecturer (1-2 Sessions)

We live in a digital age where complex, accurate, and satisfying information is never more than a couple of clicks away. How is lecturing even relevant anymore? The question is a fair one, but it relies upon a false equivocation. There may have once been a time when it was essential to transfer information to students via lectures. However, in our contemporary society, an excellent lecture has to be about far more than transferring information. These sessions will provide faculty with a vision for dynamic lecturing and practical tips for becoming a better lecturer.

Fostering Good Conversations Over Great Books (1-2 Sessions)

If we want to have good conversations about great books in our schools, the first thing we have to recognize is that the books are not what ultimately matters. Books are not what we are talking about. There is always something deeper going on in a great work of philosophy, theology, political science, or literature.

What really matters is reality – the reality of the human condition, the reality of the physical world, the reality of the social and political worlds we have created, and those features in the world to which we respond with a religious sense – the mysteries of the self, the other and the divine. These sessions will give faculty a framework for leading classroom discussions and practical tips to help students engage reality in such a way.