A Seminar for Primary School Teachers
Presented by Kath Murdoch

Inquiry as an approach to teaching and learning has long been regarded as an effective way not only to engage students in their learning but to challenge them to think deeply and apply skills and understandings to new contexts. Many of us like the idea of an inquiry approach but feel less confident with how to actually use it effectively in the classroom. This workshop is designed for teachers who are newer to inquiry or those who wish to refresh their understanding of the approach and update their pedagogy.

This highly practical, interactive day will explore the following questions:

• Why use an inquiry based approach?
• How can we adopt an inquiry ‘stance’ in our teaching across the day?
• What is the role of the teacher in the inquiry classroom? Where does ‘explicit teaching’ fit into the picture?
• What does inquiry learning ‘look like’ in the classroom?
• How is the inquiry classroom organised? How to we curate the space?
• How can we use an inquiry approach while remaining accountable to the curriculum?
• What does an inquiry based lesson entail?
• How do we collaboratively plan/design extended journeys (units) for inquiry learning?
• How can an inquiry approach help us make connections across the curriculum?
• What strategies can we add to our repertoire to strengthen our inquiry based teaching?

Come along and enjoy inquiring into inquiry!

Seminar Program

Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

A 2 Day Seminar for Primary School Teachers
Presented by Kath Murdoch

Participants will leave with a treasure trove of strategies, resources and insights into the use of a quality, inquiry based approach to teaching.

About the workshop

The learning landscape is rapidly changing. For teachers in the 21C, adapting to this changing landscape requires new ways of thinking and new instructional strategies that really build students' capacity as learners. An inquiry approach has long been recognized as a powerful way to equip students with the skills, strategies and dispositions needed for independence and creativity in learning. The Australian Curriculum also recognizes the need to engage students in active exploration and promotes the development of inquiry skills in history, science, geography and other areas. Contemporary inquiry practices, however, go beyond the "unit of work" and weave their way across the curriculum. Quality inquiry teaching helps both teachers and students navigate their way through abundant information, rapidly changing technologies, shifting community priorities and the need for both personalized AND collaborative learning.

Through interactive tasks, viewing of videos, work samples and planners as well as access to resources and research-based strategies participants explore the following questions ...

• How can we create classrooms where inquiring into LEARNING is central to all we do?
• How can we use an inquiry approach across the curriculum?
• How can we personalize inquiry for students while maintaining a manageable routine?
• What frameworks and scaffolds can we use to 'anchor' student learning and guide our practice?
• How can we create contemporary contexts for real inquiry into relevant questions for students?
• How can quality thinking routines and strategies help build capacity for learning?
• How do we ensure we involve students in negotiating aspects of their learning while maintaining clear learning intentions and meeting curriculum expectations.
• How can we use technologies to engage students in authentic inquiries and to build our own personal professional inquiry networks.

Through this 2 day workshop, participants will gain:

• A deeper understanding of how to use contemporary, inquiry based approaches in the classroom
• A broader repertoire of quality teaching strategies and techniques to help build students' skills as inquirer
• Greater familiarity with and understanding of a model for designing powerful units of inquiry with conceptual underpinnings
• Strategies for planning and teaching that encourage students to become increasingly independent as inquirers
• Ideas for assessing growth in students' understandings and skills in the context of inquiry
• Opportunities for reflection, collaboration and planning
• Knowledge of the resources (particularly on line) available to support teaching and learning through inquiry

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $460.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm

Click on Seminar title for full details 

A Seminar for Primary School Teachers
Presented by Kath Murdoch

This workshop is designed for teachers who want to take inquiry further and who believe in the power of personal passions!

 “Whatever your circumstances, you need to find time to be in your element - to do what gives you energy rather than what takes it from you.” Ken Robinson, 2013

 There has been growing interest in ‘personalised learning’ for many years now. Increasingly, schools are making arrangements to provide more opportunities for learners to learn to be self-directed and to have their needs and interests met through the curriculum.  An inquiry-based approach is in itself, an approach that recognizes the importance of learner voice and choice and of linking new learning to the existing knowledge, experiences and interests of the learner.  In this sense, inquiry has always been an approach that nurtured learner agency but this can be amplified when learners can pursue the questions, interests, problems and wonders that matter to them.

Teachers who use an inquiry based approach are committed to helping learners ‘learn to learn’ and equipping them with the skills and dispositions to more independently investigate questions, problems, issues and interests.  But what opportunities do we give learners to do this beyond the “units of inquiry” we may develop?  How can we provide learners with real opportunities to follow their passions and to truly inquire into those things that matter to them? And why is this so important?  

This workshop is all about supporting learners to design, pursue and assess their own journeys of inquiry and how these pathways sit alongside shared inquiries. 

We will explore the following questions with practical tasks and lots of recent examples from classrooms:

• Why is personal inquiry important? What’s our purpose?
• What is the teacher’s role in this and how can we apply quality conferring skills to scaffolding learner thinking in connection with their personal investigations.
• What can ‘personal inquiry’ look like as learners move through the school?
• How can we help learners identify their interests? How can we inspire wonderment and curiosity?
• How can we help learners design effective questions for their investigations?
• How can we make sure personal inquiry time is not simply “doing projects” or ‘free play’? How do we help learners challenge themselves and go beyond the known?
• What skills and dispositions do learners need to make this work? How can we teach these?
• How can we make this manageable? What systems and routines and classroom set ups make it work?
• How can we involve the wider community and communicate the importance of this practice to parents?
• What resources are available to support this way of working?

This workshop would best suit teachers who already have some understanding of inquiry and are using this approach in some form in their school. 

We also recommend you come with at least one other colleague so you can collaborate on an action plan for your return to school.

Completing ‘Inquiry Learning: The Whats, the Whys and the Hows’ will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Registered PD addressing 2.1.2, 2.2.2, 2.3.2, 2.5.2, 3.1.2, 3.2.2, 3.3.2, 3.4.2, 3.5.2, 3.6.2, 5.1.2, 5.2.2, 5.3.2, 5.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.

Register a Group & Save
Register 5 or more delegates and pay $230.00 per person

Seminar Program
Registration 8.30am – 9.00am Seminar 9.00am – 3.00pm