Ka Boom!

Ka Boom! Science Inquiry for All Learners Using See, Think, Wonder

Goal:  How a Cultures of Thinking Routine (See, Think, Wonder) and strategies can be used to engage and inspire critical thinking and scientific inquiry in all learners. Intentional use of Cultures of Thinking Routines in Science and Technology can also assist teachers to increase the open-endedness of inquiry with their students and improve scientific literacy outcomes for all students.

Description: Teachers will engage in a short video clip and two simple experiments (that are suitable for primary school classrooms) to experience implementing Cultures of Thinking in our Science lessons. This workshop focuses on a simple physics concept, most relevant to School Years 6-8, as well as addressing Working Scientifically Outcomes. This workshop will also help educators to develop more open-ended inquiry, by modifying experiments they already complete in their programs.

Audience: Upper Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Nicolette Wheaton - MET School Armidale Campus
Code: WS4 - AM only
Speaker Bio

Identify and Symbolise

Identify and Symbolise: a new thinking routine

Goal: How might teachers help their students engage with reading by using imagery and symbolising? This workshop will introduce a new thinking routine created by Bridget. She would like to introduce educators to the concepts of Identify and Symbolise and how it can help teachers engage their students in literacy.

Description: This workshop explores ways to engage students in their literacy novels. Students learn how to predict and plan their class novels by thinking creatively about what they are reading. Students learn how to identify meaning, predict endings and symbolise their thoughts.

Audience: Primary focus but all welcome
Presenters: Bridget Anderson - Meridan School
Code: WS5 - PM only
Speaker Bio

Thinking for teachers

Thinking for teachers: creating whole school cultures of thinking

Goal: 

• Participants will be challenged to consider the processes and structures that we may put in place to develop a culture of thinking for teachers as well as students.  
• Participants will understand the concept of a focus group (a key element of developing and enriching a culture of thinking) and the protocols we may use for different purposes. There will also be some understanding on how to be an effective facilitator of teacher learning.  
• Participants will develop an understanding of the importance of teacher dialogue and the mechanisms we may implement to develop outcomes for student learning. 
• Participants will develop an understanding of Masada's professional learning and begin to consider ways in which this could be integrated in their own context. 

Description: Developing a culture of thinking at an individual classroom level may not seem like a daunting process for many, but what about at the whole  school level? How can we leverage existing and new mechanisms within your school to develop and enrich your culture of thinking? How can we promote a culture of thinking for our teachers to ensure that the business of teaching and learning remains on the table? Ryan Gill, Head of Teaching and Learning 7-12 at Masada College, will share our journey over the last decade and enhance your understanding of the processes and structures that you may integrate in order to develop your culture of thinking across your school. This workshop, aimed at school leaders and those interested in developing a culture of thinking within a group in the school, will consider the theory and practices for your own educational context.

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Ryan Gill - Masada College
Code: WS6 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

How can I push for depth in my students' thinking?

How can I push for depth in my students' thinking?

Goal: Participants will be exposed to a number of Visible Thinking routines and will see samples of student work in a High School English classroom. Participants will also be involved in discussions of thinking in the classroom with a focus on the Cultural Forces and the Understanding Map. Participants will be encouraged to think about how they can increase students' critical thinking in their own classrooms and units of work.

Description: Why is it that our students don't want to think for themselves? With this question at the heart of his teaching over the last 10 years, David has explored a range of possible answers and solutions. During this workshop, David will discuss his own journey through Visible Thinking and Cultures of Thinking, with a particular emphasis on using student work to illustrate the effects of teaching practice on the depth of student thinking. Participants will discuss, engage in thinking routines and examine student work to reflect on their own teaching practice. All examples will be from High School English classes, but the routines and activities are applicable to all subjects.

Audience: Secondary
Presenters: David Camp - Emanuel School
Code: WS7 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

Thought-Provoking Questions

Thought-Provoking Questions

Goal: Participants will learn how to teach students to ask better questions. Through exploring the Question Starts routine, the notion of driving or essential questions, and the Question Formulation Technique, participants will leave with a handful of strategies to promote classroom interactions that better support great thinking and learning.

Description: What if the culture of the classroom was question-centred? Are questions more important than answers? Welcoming questions in class is not the same as deliberately teaching the skill of asking good questions. When teachers start focusing on asking questions that require students to think deeply, the questioning tends to swing away from procedural and review questions towards more generative, facilitative, constructive questions that push student thinking and make thinking visible. This interactive presentation focuses on how to develop curiosity and how to teach students to ask good questions that lead to deeper learning. Everything we know has its origins in questions, yet teachers tend to monopolise the right to question. The premise of this workshop is that students become more successful when they ask their own questions. What is a good question? How can we teach our students to ask better questions, and ultimately, how can we utilise questions to create new patterns of classroom discourse and promote interactions that better support thinking and learning?

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Cameron Paterson (Shore School) & Natasha Terry-Armstrong (St Ignatius' College, Riverview)
Code: WS9 - PM only
Speaker Bio

Making Connections in the Classroom

Making Connections in the Classroom: Using the Cultural Forces to Help Students See How Themes and Concepts are Related

Goal: Participants will understand how using the 8 Cultural Forces can stimulate more detailed discussions and performance and can encourage student inquiry. Participants will understand the importance of the 'why' before the 'how' when planning to use a Visible Thinking routine in a lesson. Participants will see how the Visible Thinking routines can push students' thinking and help them to see relationships/Cause and Effect between 'big' ideas and concepts.

Description: 

• Overview of the 8 Cultural Forces and what they 'look' like in April's classroom
• Examples of different Visible Thinking routines in the secondary English and History classroom (ex. Parts Purposes and Complexities, Zoom In, See Think Wonder, 3-2-1 Bridge, Connect Extend Challenge) 
• Teachers will use a Study Group protocol to analyse the effectiveness of Parts Purposes and Complexities in students' understanding of different historical events and their relationships to one another
• Teachers will practice using different thinking routines while also experiencing the Cultural Forces at play

Audience: Secondary History & English - But all welcome
Presenters: April Taylor - MET School - Lachlan Macquarie Campus - Mt. Victoria Site
Code: WS10 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

Promoting a Culture of Thinking through PBL

Promoting a Culture of Thinking through PBL

Goal: Participants will come away with practical examples of how Project Based Learning can be effectively leveraged to promote critical and creative thinking in the HSIE and cross-curricular classroom.

Description: We will share how driving questions can be used as throughlines to arouse curiosity, maintain engagement and connect learning to the outside world throughout the unit of work. We will also discuss the framework we used to provide an optimum balance between teacher and student directed learning. We will also be sharing examples of how we are currently working with English and Languages to provide our students with a better understanding of connections between HSIE and other key learning areas.

Audience: Secondary focus but all welcome
Presenters: Natasha Mercer  & Claire Cartwright - St Ives High School
Code: WS11 - AM only
Speaker Bio

Stoking the Fires

Stoking the Fires: How might teachers help students become curious young people in service of developing deeper understanding and greater engagement?

Goal: Participants will understand that curiosity is more than a character trait that students either 'have' or 'don't have', but rather that it is a disposition which we as teachers can nurture.  They will understand how by drawing on the Seven-Point Learning Arc and creating opportunities for being curious they might grow engaged learners with the disposition to be curious.

Description: 

‘Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why’ – Bernard Baruch
 
What role does curiosity have to play in developing cultures of thinking?  Are some children more curious than others?  Can we help children develop the disposition to be curious?  And what might be some of the pay-offs if we can?  In this interactive workshop, Simon will introduce participants to the theory of the Seven-Point Learning Arc, a practical framework teachers might use when creating learning opportunities for students which are rich with meaningful inquiry and perceived worth.  Simon will draw on examples from a variety of different faculty areas and age-ranges, exploring several practical strategies that teachers might employ to ignite students' curiosity, leading to deeper understanding, greater engagement, and ultimately to the growth of curious-minded young people.

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Simon Brooks - Simon Brooks Education
Code: WS12 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

Creating Empathy through Perspective

Creating Empathy through Perspective

Goal: Participants will be introduced to a combination of thinking routines used to help assist students become more empathic and see different situations from another person's perspective. They will also take away a set of tools they can use to create rich learning experiences in their own class using Art.

Description: Empathy is a trait that is natural to some and evades others, and yet is at the very heart of who we are as humans. It enables our students to understand beyond what they can just see and transcend into real enlightenment and understanding. Participants will go on an adventure through the process of creating empathic students using creative thinking routines. The Workshop will be focusing on "Rights and Freedoms" using Art as a tool to create perspectives.  

Audience: Secondary
Presenters: Dan Ryan - Meridian School
Code: WS13 - AM only
Speaker Bio

Can You Speak Boy?

Can You Speak Boy? Teaching in a Boys’ School Creating and Promoting a Culture of Classroom Engagement

Goal: By the end of the workshop participants will be able understand and  answer the following based on their own context:

• How can our understanding about boys’ research, enable us to harness the eight cultural forces to create meaningful opportunities to facilitate learning and engagement?
•  As activators of learning, what practices do we do each day to engage our boys in the classroom to create a culture  of engagement?
• Which tools can we use to assist our boys to make their thinking and understanding of the world around them visible and promote a culture of engagement?
• What messages are we sending about what it means to be a learner in our classroom?

Description: As female leaders, girl is our first language, but why is it important that we learn to speak boy? How does an understanding of research into boys’ education guide our classroom practice, and student outcomes?
This interactive workshop will outline how to maximise the engagement of boys in the classroom using the research based Cultures of Thinking philosophy (Project Zero, Harvard), in particular the Eight Cultural Forces, various visible Thinking Routines and protocols.

• As female leaders, girl is our first language but why is it important that we learn to speak boy? What does the research tell us?
•  As activators of learning, what practices (cultural forces) do we do each day to engage our boys in the classroom to provide meaningful learning opportunities?
•  Which tools (thinking routines and protocols) can we use to assist our boys to make their thinking and understanding of the world around them visible and promote a culture of engagement?

Audience: Female teachers in boys school - All welcome ... including men!
Presenters: Kylie Bowra - St Augustine's College Sydney
Code: WS14 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

Visible Thinking in English

What is the impact of the use of visible thinking routines on students’ learning throughout a 6 week English unit of work?

Goal: For participants to be inspired to incorporate visible thinking routines into their current programs after they see how positively they impact on the learning of students’ with a wide range of abilities. The visible thinking routines have proven to engage students in their learning experiences, encourage deeper thinking and collaborative learning, and help to develop the students’ metacognition.

Description: This workshop is hands-on and offers teachers an insight into a real classroom experience of using the routines and the students’ responses to how these routines impacted on their everyday learning experience. Positive results were found in students’ engagement, collaborative learning, and deeper thinking and in developing metacognition.
 
To begin the workshop I will briefly outline the research project I recently completed for my Masters in Gifted and Talented Education. I investigated how five visible thinking routines impacted on my students’ learning throughout a 6 week English unit of work on Persuasive Language. The core text used was Mao’s Last Dancer, plus we looked at persuasive speeches and advertising. The class was a Stage 4 co-ed, mixed ability group.
 
This workshop will be interactive with participants being guided through some of the five routines used in the English unit, so that teachers will feel confident to use these routines with their own students. I will also share some of students’ responses to the routines so that participants will have a stronger understanding of the practical, positive impacts on the learning of students in a real classroom.

Audience: English Teachers - Stages 3, 4 & 5
Presenters: Jacqui Galvin - Kildare Catholic College
Code: WS15 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

So what are these Thinking Routines anyway?

So what are these Thinking Routines anyway? A beginners guide to using Thinking Routines to foster engaged thinkers and learners.

Goal: Participants will understand how utilising Thinking Routines can

• lead to deeper learning, more thoughtful and engaged students
• foster students intellectual development
• encourage greater motivation
• cultivate the dispositional side of thinking
• encourage a Growth Mindset

Description: In this is a practical workshop participants will focus on Thinking Routines - simple protocols for exploring ideas. Participants will explore Thinking Routines that introduce, explore, synthesise, organise and dig deeper. Through the routines themselves participants  will have the opportunity to  discuss ways these can be incorporated into their teaching, used for assessment and uncover what is happening in their students minds.

Audience: Primary
Presenters: Helen Maynard - Emanuel School
Code: WS16 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

How to create a Culture of Thinking

How to create a Culture of Thinking in a classroom, the impact it has on students and teachers without adding to an already time poor workload.

Goal: Cultures of Thinking can be integrated into any subject or classroom without adding a lot of extra work to an already overloaded time schedule. By explaining the journey Wendy has gone through, she aims to show that embracing a Culture of Thinking does not have to add extra time or planning. . . just a change in how teaching happens which leads to great results.

Description: Looking at different Thinking Routines and how a change in language and methods of teaching has created a culture of thinking for both students and teacher. A practical session showcasing examples of Thinking Routines and 8 Cultures of Thinking. Discussions and questions will be encouraged to help teachers gain an insight into what they can do to aid their students.

Audience: Primary
Presenters: Wendy Williams - North Ryde Public School
Code: WS17 - PM only
Speaker Bio

Language, interactions and time in Science

How might I use the cultural forces of language, interactions and time to help my students work scientifically rather than do science?

Goal: See - Think - Wonder? This is science! From drawings of the moon, models of DNA, sketches of cells, science is our fascination and portrayal of the world around us. Can a picture tell a thousand words? How might we encourage students to seek answers through active questioning, genuine curiosity and deep thinking? How might we bring students to experience 'Aha!' moments through their own observations? With a focus on three of the cultural forces, this workshop will allow collaboration and provide suggestions from successful classroom practice to walk away with examples of and the skills to identify images that hold the essence of science topics.

Description: To have students work as true scientists is not only important to foster enthusiasm but also necessary for the advancement of society. Participants will be given the opportunity to experience lessons exemplifying the use of See-Think-Wonder and the cultural forces of language, interactions and time in a science context. Techniques for questioning in ways that foster deep thinking will be explored. Helping students discover that not knowing the answer is essential to scientific genius, will also be discussed. Examples will be given during the workshop and time will be allocated for collaboration of ideas to develop a bank of images on a shared file that can be used for various units. Units can be those taught regularly or those which are difficult to teach. Participants are encouraged to make suggestions on the day of topics they would like to adopt See-Think-Wonder Routines into. In this workshop you will have the chance to enjoy discovering, share your stories, walk away with usable resources and foster teaching practices that align with the philosophies of Cultures of Thinking to generate opportunities that nurture genuinely deep thinkers.

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Jenny Stephens - MET School
Code: WS18 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

Becoming Agentic Thinkers

Becoming Agentic Thinkers: Exploring why agency matters in the lives of our learners and what we can do about it

Goal: To explore notions of agency and develop an understanding of what this looks like for learners in the modern world. By unpacking research across the educational landscape, we will uncover the important role that thinking plays in our efforts to empower young people and allow them to achieve their goals.

Description: Through rich discussion enabled by the plentiful use of thinking routines, and drawing from contemporary research, participants will construct an understanding of how they may empower young learners. Exploring growth mindsets, motivation, creativity, self-determination theory and dispositions essential for 21st century we will go beyond the hype and translate theory into practice.

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Nigel Coutts & Nicola Sharp - Redlands
Code: WS19 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

Building a culture of thinking for us and our students.

Building a culture of thinking for us and our students.

Goal: Participants will begin to reflect upon and consider the impact that the 8 cultural forces can have on student learning and will have time to consider the messages that their students are getting about learning from their surroundings. Participants will leave with a range of practical approaches, having explored a number of thinking routines, to help create a thought-FULL learning environment for all learners.

Description: A culture of thinking is a learning environment which values independent thinking, awareness of how thinking happens and deeper understanding of what we are learning. So, how can we create classrooms where students are given opportunities to develop the disposition to think while also supporting them to see the value of thinking for themselves?
 
In this practical introductory workshop, we will uncover the 8 cultural forces that shape any learning environment and examine how they might be leveraged in a way that helps students to develop mindsets which are curious, reflective and critical while encouraging them to become alert to thinking and learning opportunities, and eager to take them.

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Carla Gagliano - Masada College
Code: WS20 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

Service Learning

Service Learning:  Preparing the Heart and Mind

Goal: Participants will understand how thinking routines such as Compass Points, Question Starts, and Question Sort can help to provide structure to a Service Learning program, particularly at the beginning when students might be new to Service Learning.
 
Participants will look at some routines, cultural forces and activities which might help to develop students’ emotional literacy and connection to a service issue.

Description: When preparing students for Service Learning, we must prepare their hearts as well as their minds.  Thinking routines guide students as to what they need to do, how they will do it, what resources they will need etc.  But, how might we make their Service Learning about more than just processes and procedures?  

The first part of this workshop will look at how we might use Cultures of Thinking to prepare students for their service learning journey:  routines which help them to learn about the service issue, which help them to ask deep questions about their issue, and which help them to prepare logistically for the Service Project.  The second part of the workshop will look at cultural forces and routines which might help students to develop empathy and emotional connections to their service issue.

Audience: Secondary
Presenters: Ruqqiya Dean - Pymble Ladies' College
Code: WS21 - AM only
Speaker Bio

Culture of Thinking in the Mathematics Classroom

How can a thinking culture be promoted and developed in the mathematics classroom?

Goal: The main objective of the workshop is to break down common barriers that mathematics teachers often express when first exploring cultures of thinking ideas.

Description: Going against the traditional methods of teaching mathematics and creating a  learning environment where thinking is made visible for all students can be a challenging and daunting task.  This workshop will explore this context of enriching the learning by slowing down and giving time for students to delve deeper into sharing their thinking in each and every lesson.  Numerous thinking routine experiences by the presenter will be shared with a focus on my own journey in how the use of one of the Cultural forces, language, has made a huge difference in my classroom.  This will be a highly interactive workshop for these ideas to be shared and elaborated on by all participants.

Audience: Secondary
Presenters: Jesse Wright - Oakwood School
Code: WS22 - PM only
Speaker Bio

Puzzles of practice in the English Classroom

Puzzles of practice in the English Classroom

Goal: To equip English teachers with ideas of how they can increase student thinking in the English classroom, and to provide resources to assist in "kicking off" a culture of thinking at your school.

Description: This course will examine two big Action Research questions:

1. "How might looking closely facilitate the development of deeper understanding and flexibility of thinking?"
2. "How might I help my students become people who actively seek different perspectives in service of making informed choices?"

The workshop will discuss how these questions were explored through action research projects within the English classroom and evaluate the benefits of engaging with such questions. This workshop will discuss ways which you can model a culture of thinking in your classroom and your school.

Audience: English Teachers - Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Yvonne Garcia (Ku-ring-gai High School) & Tanya Davies & Leonie Robinson (Ku-ring-gai High School)
Code: WS23 - PM only
Speaker Bio

Rich thinking into action

How can rich student thinking be translated into action?

Goal: The intention of this workshop is to provide educators with a deeper look at the cultural force of 'Opportunity' and to explore purposeful and practical applications of thinking routines towards student action.

Description: How can we empower our students to be engaged learners and thinkers who strive to take purposeful action?
 
In today's uncertain climate, students need to be positioned to be globally minded and ready to take purposeful action to benefit communities. This can only be achieved when provoked to think in broader, deeper ways and stimulated to take responsibility with this newly acquired understanding. 
 
Participants will explore a snapshot of ways they might activate student thinking and devise ways of how this may lead to action in their own classrooms.
 
The samples of practice will encourage rigorous, critical and creative thinking and exposure to alternative perspectives. Further, they may provoke rich discussion and collaboration and promote a shared responsibility to enhance one another's knowledge and understanding.

Audience: Primary
Presenters: Natalie Lawand & Lisa Sharpe - The Scots College
Code: WS24 - AM only
Speaker Bio

Putting Students in the Driving Seat

Putting Students in the Driving Seat: What would it be like if my students were the driving force behind their education and assessment?

Goal: Participants will come to understand that using an inquiry model which prioritises and gives time to thinking, students can uncover the curriculum for themselves and develop meaningful ways of demonstrating this through negotiated assessments. They will understand that it is through thinking that learning occurs and therefore see how giving students permission to 'drive' teachers can create opportunities for deeper and more fulfilling learning opportunities for all students. 

Description: Too often on the education road trip teachers are given the role of driver and navigator- carefully taking the main highway to a known destination of 'understanding' with student passengers along for the ride. But what if we as teachers relinquished the keys and let the students direct us to that same destination?
In this interactive workshop Alice will share her experience of how she put her students in the driving seat by using an inquiry model prioritising thinking and allowing students to assist in shaping the teaching program and negotiating assessment while still meeting the content demands of the Australian Curriculum.

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Alice Clement - Woodthorpe School
Code: WS25 - AM only
Speaker Bio

The Heart of Collaboration

The Heart of Collaboration - How might unlocking the DNA of collaboration bring life to the classroom and transform minds?

Goal: 

What do we need to really know about collaboration in order for it to work in our classrooms? What assumptions must be shed? What conflations must be disentangled? Most importantly, what is possible? This workshop, through both experiential and reflective learning, will enable participants to:

• Consider how we can define and model collaboration for students.
• Experience practices and philosophies that are required to make collaboration an effective agent for transformation. 
• Question how students may use collaboration to 'cultivate the mind' of their peer, and, how to open themselves up to 'be cultivated'. 

Participants will be given time to wonder and to create their own collaborative task.

Description: The Heart of Collaboration: Collaboration, at its best, is transformative. As Vera John-Steiner puts it, collaboration is "an affair of the mind." The experience of thinking, connecting and evolving together is the marrow of deep learning. The true DNA of collaboration contains a dynamism that, when evocatively harnessed, allows for cultivation of minds. Activating collaboration within a classroom is contingent on designing tasks and experiences that draw on this DNA. Once we transcend group work, and fully embrace the interpersonal, interpersonal and cognitive potential of true collaboration, we can create a wondrous culture of transformation.

• What is the DNA of true collaboration? Literally, what is the simple, explicit and pragmatic schemata that generates collaboration? (Cultural Force: Language)
• How can the practices and philosophies of collaboration generate a culture of transformation through cultivation? (Cultural Force: Routines and Structures)
• What if the most valued outcome was a students ability to use collaboration to 'cultivate' and 'be cultivated'? (Cultural Force: Expectations)

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Margo Bowen - Turramurra High School
Code: WS26 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio

To boldly think where no one has thought before

To boldly think where no one has thought before - An Innovative Design Project for Primary and Junior Secondary

Goal: To explore thinking in technology enabled, maker centred learning. A hands-on minds-on exploration of making and design as tools for making thinking visible

Description: Participants will engage in a hands-on workshop exploring thinking in a maker centred environment. Participants will experience a collaborative process of problem finding and solving empowered through the use of tools for thinking. You will leave with strategies to apply in your classroom and a passion for making and exploring with technology.

Are you bringing your own laptop? - If you are please load Sketch Up 2017 onto this before Saturday

Audience: Primary and Secondary
Presenters: Alannah Nastase, Shireen Winrow & Nick Walker - Redlands
Code: WS27 - AM only
Speaker Bio

Bridging School and Museum with Visible Thinking Routines

Bridging School and Museum with Visible Thinking Routines - deeper learning outcomes for school learners engaging with the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

Goal: Engaging with MAAS is an opportunity to extend and connect your school or classroom’s Project Zero inspired learning culture. MAAS recommends and supports the use of Visible Thinking Routines to support quality learning experiences within museum excursions. The E&DL team at MAAS are looking to establish partnerships with school teachers and communities to develop and evaluate best practice school-museum learning experiences. MAAS E&DL are testing the assumption: Teachers will adopt evidence based contemporary approaches (eg PBL, VTR) to Museum excursions when these are modelled and communicated effectively. 

Description: 

1. High level overview of structure of MAAS school program offer, including co-design invitation.

2. The current MAAS approach for integrating PZ’s Visible Thinking Routines is introduced. (eg Add-1)

3. The value of using the MAAS website in combination with VTR in the classroom is explored. (eg Circle-of-Viewpoints)

4. Interactive demonstration of VTR within the new MAAS on-site program offer - the Learning Concierge. (eg See-Think-Wonder)

5. Small groups: Audit of opportunities, expectation management, and potential points of teacher resistance. (eg Think-Pair-Share)

6. Identification and prototyping of resource materials to scaffold teacher’s ability to trial the evidence-supported but less familiar approach. (eg Connect-Extend-Challenge)

7. Summary/reflection: (eg I-Used-to-Think-But-Now-I-Think)

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Peter Mahony - Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences
Code: WS28 - PM only
Speaker Bio

Thinking and Creativity in the Mathematics Classroom

Thinking and Creativity in the Mathematics Classroom

Goal: To explore practical strategies for problem finding and solving in an inquiry based mathematics classroom. Participants will experience mathematical learning in a classroom environment that celebrates challenge and embraces failure as steps towards deep understanding. 

Description: Building on contemporary research in teaching mathematics this practical workshop will share strategies theta requires students to think mathematically, are highly engaging and allow every learner to become successful life-long learners of mathematics. The session will include an exploration of multiple representations of mathematical understanding including robots and concrete materials. You will leave with your passion for teaching mathematics enhanced and a new set of tools to apply. 

Audience: Primary and Lower Secondary
Presenters: Amber Bidwell, Melanie Cleary, Catriona Ling - Redlands
Code: WS29 - AM only
Speaker Bio

Enhancing formative assessment through cultures of thinking

Enhancing formative assessment through cultures of thinking

Goal: Teachers develop a mindset where they consider how their students' cognitive abilities and natural curiosity can inform the programming and teaching phase.

Description: Incorporating cultures of thinking into our formative assessments of students as a powerful tool to assess student understanding and inform future teaching and learning experiences and direction.

Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Rhonda Kaidbay & Jake Tonkin- Ryde Secondary College
Code: WS30 - AM & PM
Speaker Bio