High-impact Learning Through Metacognition: Strategies for the Classroom

Enhancing Learning Through Metacognition: Strategies for the Classroom

Description:
This presentation delves into the pivotal role of metacognition in classroom learning, particularly in aiding students when faced with academic challenges. Metacognition, the awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes, emerges as a powerful ally in navigating learning obstacles. In this session, we illuminate the profound impact of integrating metacognitive practices within educational settings, delving into the core concept of enculturation as a vehicle for cultivating reflective dispositions. From self-assessment techniques to reflective questioning, attendees will discover versatile approaches tailored to various subjects and grade levels, designed to support students in overcoming learning hurdles. Furthermore, this presentation examines the optimal timing and contexts for implementing metacognitive strategies, ensuring their seamless integration into daily classroom routines and their effective deployment when students encounter difficulties.

Strategies explored promote visible thinking, making students' thought processes transparent and accessible. Discover how to weave metacognitive strategies into your teaching methodologies. By nurturing a culture of reflection on one's thinking, educators can equip students with the tools they need to navigate learning obstacles with resilience and self-regulation. From tailored self-assessment techniques to probing reflective questioning, attendees will gain invaluable insights into fostering visible thinking and transparent thought processes across diverse subjects and year levels. Join us on a journey to unlock the potential of metacognition and enculturation.

Goal of Workshop:
Explore the building of a culture of metacognition in classrooms

Audience: All

Presenter: Rebecca Russell-Saunders - Wesley College, Melbourne

Bio: 
I have been teaching for 27 years across a range of settings - Hearing-Impaired education and in the mainstream classroom teaching science, VCE and IB Biology. I am currently the Professional Learning Coach at our Glen Waverley campus.

 
Code: WS04

Creating AI Tools for Learning - Meet Wesmigo

Creating AI Tools for Learning - Meet Wesmigo: Learn how, and why, Wesley College created task specific AI powered tools to support teachers and students in developing deeper questions.

Description:
Suitable for those with an interest in Ai this workshop will provide you with the skills required to develop your own, task orientated, Ai powered agent. Hear how Wesley College developed Wesmigo a friendly student resource who is helping students create meaningful inquiry questions. This workshop will cover the risks associated with using Generative Ai, how to craft a prompt, how Welsey delivered this technology to its students and encourage discussions about future possibilities. The workshop will include time for you to create and test a prompt.

Goals of workshop:
For participants to be able to design an Ai agent that will support students and/or teachers in applying Project Zero’s pedagogy and/or frameworks for thinking.

Note to Participants: Please bring a laptop and have access to a Free ChatGPT Account

Audience: Secondary - All

Presenter: Andrew Del Mastro - Wesley College, Melbourne

Bio: 
Andrew has experience working across the education sector from early learning through to higher education. Over the course of his career he has developed workshops and educational resources for companies such as Apple, Disney Australia and Australian Teachers of Media.
 
Code: WS05

Actions to empower & engage learners as partners in the educational journey - A New Story of Learning

Actions to Empower & Engage Learners as Partners in the Educational Journey - A New Story of Learning

Description:
Many teachers will recall a time in their classroom when they felt they were doing most of the thinking; questioning why their students’ seemed to lack initiative, and engagement in the learning. But perhaps we need to be questioning the messaging that is being transmitted in our classrooms and how it might be conditioning our students to adopt this role of passivity.

This workshop will explore Mindset 3 in Ron Ritchhart’s new book Cultures of Thinking in Action, that to create a new story in learning, we must change the role of the student and of the teacher. It will explore what type of learner we are promoting in our classrooms and how we can challenge the perception that the role of the teacher is to deliver and the role of the student is to receive. We will look at actions we can take to reimagine these roles in order to promote genuine student agency; develop their initiative and resilience so that they can move beyond points of challenge and empower them to develop their identity as learners.

Finally, we will look at the benefits of adopting the Harkness Method in the classroom and how this instructional tool can foster a genuine student-driven mode of conversation and provide a strong scaffold for the gradual release of responsibility and decision-making to the students. This kind of learning environment will help foster Mindset 3 as it moves beyond the dichotomy of teacher vs student-centred instruction and instead shifts the culture of the classroom towards a community of learners, and partners in the educational enterprise.

Goals of workshop:
Participants will explore and question the messaging that is being transmitted in classrooms about learning and how this is shaping the perception of the roles played by both teacher and student. Participants will then unpack what actions can be taken to empower and engage learners to work as a community and position teachers as partners in the educational enterprise.

Audience: Secondary

Presenter: Emma Kann - The Glennie School

Bio: 
Emma is the Head of Department for Humanities and an experienced Modern History teacher at her current school. She is a co-founder of the History Educators’ Regional Network (HERN), which aims to support regional and remote History teachers in terms of curriculum development, classroom practice and pedagogy. Emma aims to foster genuine student agency in order to develop critical and creative thinkers in her classrooms and has been leading her current school’s engagement with Cultures of Thinking.

Code: WS06

How can moments of challenge be used to encourage students to delve deeper, form richer connections, and create a more engaged community of learners?

How can moments of challenge be used to encourage students delve deeper, form richer connections, and create a more engaged community of learners?

Description:
This workshop will explore how planning for, and utilising, moments of challenge can be a beneficial element of our classroom culture. When students expect challenges to be part of their classes and learning, they become skilled at seeking and forming connections between abstract or seemingly unrelated topics and concepts. They also develop a greater capacity to understand and communicate their views and understanding. Using moments of tension, challenge, or provocation can also be a great way for students to more authentically engage with ideas that might initially appear perplexing. With a focus on the 8 cultural forces, this workshop will explore how we can use moments of challenge to create rich, responsive, and rewarding cultures of thinking in our classes.

Goals of workshop:
Partipants will understand the value of planning for moments of challenge or tension in their classrooms. They will be better able to use the 8 cultural forces to harness moments of challenge that allow students to delve deeper into contexts and concepts, form greater connections, or think in abstract ways, whilst also making students more responsive and intropsective in the process.

Audience: All

Presenter: Nathan Armstrong - St Leonards College

Bio: 
Nathan has been working with the Project Zero and Cultures of Thinking frameworks for over 15 years. As a Middle/Senior English and Theory of Knowledge teacher, Nathan’s classroom practices and pedagogy have also been featured in two publications by Project Zero and Ron Ritchhart.

 
Code: WS07

Celebrating Opportunities in Not Knowing: Revealing the complexity in everyday situations and opportunities for further investigation.

Revealing the complexity in everyday situations, celebrating not knowing and identifying opportunities for further investigation.

Description:
Together, we will use visible systems-thinking strategies and tools to analyse how a variety of familiar, everyday situations work. By doing so, we will build a gallery of systems in our learning space. This process will take us to the point where we may have little or no knowledge and must, therefore, conduct further investigations in order to go further. We will reflect on potential next steps that can be taken once we reach that point of challenge. Finally, we will reflect on practical applications of these strategies and tools in our own contexts.

Goal of Workshop:
To experience the power of visible systems-thinking in revealing complexity and motivating authentic inquiry.

Audience: All

Presenter: Sam Sherratt - Mount Scopus Memorial College

Bio: 
Sam has a diverse background of experience as an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme educator after working in in international schools in Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Vietnam, France and Mozambique. As a teacher, educational leader and consultant, Sam continuosly strives for pedagogy that energises, engages and empowers students.
 
Code: WS08

How can we encourage students to become comfortable with being uncomfortable and stretch their thinking?

How can we encourage students to become comfortable with being uncomfortable and stretch their thinking?

Description:
In this workshop Erin will introduce participants to a number of thinking tools that teachers can model for their students. Participants will be provided with opportunities to engage with different routines and think about the ways in which they can use these in their own classrooms. Opportunities to learn about how to celebrate mistakes as opportunities for learning, stretch students’ thinking, as well as encouraging students to learn from each other will be discussed and used in this workshop.

Goals of workshop:
Participants will walk away with a number of routines in which they can encourage students to stretch and reflect on their thinking.

Audience: Secondary

Presenter: Erin Bruns - Wesley College - Glen Waverley

Bio: 
Erin is a senior Science teacher, having taught both IB Biology and Chemistry, as well as Science in the middle years of secondary school. Erin has previous experience in leading Science faculties in both public and private schools in Victoria, and is passionate about developing cultures of thinking to celebrate the process of learning, not just the product.
 

Code: WT

Taking risks with learning: Building a culture where learning is challenging, self-directed, and self-differentiated?

Taking risks with learning: Building a culture where learning is challenging, self-directed, and self-differentiated?

Description:
During this workshop participants will explore how to create conditions for children to feel safe to take risks with their learning and how they can control, direct and change their own learning process.

Goal of workshop:
To give participants strategies and ideas to use in the classroom when creating a culture of self directed and self diferentiated learning

Audience: Primary

Presenter: Lisa Miller - Strathcona Girls Grammar

Bio: 
Lisa Miller is the Head of Junior School at Strathcona Girls Grammar and is passionate about creating a culture in schools that allows children to become critical, creative and self directed in order to thrive in their learning environment.

Code: WB

Empowering tomorrow’s problem-finders and solvers - Making a Difference.

Empowering tomorrow’s problem-finders and solvers - Making a Difference.

Description:
In times marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, education faces the task of preparing young individuals for the unknown challenges of their futures. Meeting this challenge requires a departure from traditional thinking; success will belong to those who can envision and actualise innovative solutions based on their understanding of emerging opportunities.

The workshop delves into the fusion of emergent-play-based learning, reminiscent of effective early-years education, with maker-centered learning to empower a generation adept at identifying and solving problems. Within a makerspace environment of carefully curated prompts, learners are encouraged to explore, experiment, and unearth opportunities for imaginative play that naturally progress towards ideation and creativity. Participants engage in a process of problem identification and resolution, navigating resource constraints, repurposing materials, and building prototypes. Collaboration and co-creation among learners foster participatory creativity, culminating in a shared reflection on their journey.

Goals of workshop:

The workshop's dynamic environment empowers participants to devise original solutions to self-identified challenges, embracing ambiguity as a catalyst for creativity. Educators gain invaluable insights and techniques to integrate these strategies into teaching, fostering creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration among students.

Audience: All

Presenter: Nigel Coutts - Sholem Aleichem College & Stellina Sim - Waverley Christian College

Bio: 
Nigel Coutts is the Director of Teaching & Learning at Sholem Aleichem College. His areas of interest include empowering student agency, design thinking, making visible thinking and teaching for understanding. He has experience in Gifted and Special Needs Education and as a coach within ‘Creating a Culture of Thinking’.

Stellina Sim is an experienced educator known for her innovative teaching methods that challenge and inspire her students. As a creative leader of learning, she actively supports teachers in cultivating a culture of thinking within their classrooms. Stellina excels in designing learning environments that foster creativity, utilising maker-centered approaches to empower young learners in becoming proficient problem solvers.
 
Code: WC