ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Chuck Sandy

Curtis Kelly

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Chuck | Curtis
Date: November 2001 (Curtis added his contribution in October 2004)

Topic: "How do I get the most out of teaching conferences?"

Curtis Kelly

Marc, Peter, and Chuck have great suggestions on conferencing, but I'd like to add one more.

Like Peter, some of the most interesting presentations I have attended were not plenaries, nor were they on topics I had any interest in. I attended those presentations either by accident or because the presenter was an old friend. And to my complete surprise, they were fascinating. It is often the presentations that we do not choose to be at that turn out to be the most beneficial, but there is more than just coincidence for why.

Research on learning and creativity shows that we are most likely to learn valuable new information about our work and gain insights when we get out of our interest area. In the psychological research on creativity, this is called "broadening." The more diverse the knowledge we possess, the more likely we are to be creative, since we have a greater potential to see connections that are not normally made. Interestingly, this is why some psychologists argue for a required "general studies" curriculum. When students choose electives, they tend to choose courses about things they already know, and their overall domain of knowledge remains narrow.

This effect is mirrored in research on professionals assessing their own training needs as well. In one study, in which dentists were asked to identify their training needs, they tended to choose training areas that they were already competent in, and completely ignored topics that expert evaluators determined they had the greatest deficits in. Naturally, we are unlikely to realize how important a field of knowledge is if we don't know anything about it to start with.

Therefore, let's follow the advice of Robert Epstein and other psychologist scholars. Force yourself to attend at least one presentation on a topic you know nothing about and have little interest in. If you do, send us a report on the message board and tell us how it went.

As an after thought, maybe this is the real value of having expensive plenary speakers. We go because they are famous rather than because we are interested in the topic area, and as a result learn information we wouldn't otherwise seek.

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Chuck | Curtis

Curtis Kelly, Heian Jogakuin University

Author of Writing from Within

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