Leading and Coaching a Culture of Thinking
with Ron Ritchhart
Date
10th - 11th March 2023
RACV City Club
501 Bourke St
MELBOURNE VIC 3000
9.00am - 3.00pm
Cost
Full Two-Day Workshop
Non Member - $1045
ACEL Member - $995
One-Day Workshop
Non Member - $600
ACEL Member - $550
Combine and Save*
Two-Day Workshop - $1,155pp
One-Day Workshop - $710pp
*Receive a discount when you combine your registration with a new ACEL membership
Group Rates (3+)
Full 2-Day Workshop
Non Member - $985 pp
ACEL Member - $935 pp
One-Day Workshop
Non Member - $560 pp
ACEL Member - $510 pp
A key principle of the Worldwide Cultures of Thinking Project is that for classrooms to be cultures of thinking for students, schools must be cultures of thinking for teachers. Achieving this goal often demands that schools shift and change the types of conversations they must better focus them on issues of teaching and learning than on issues of schooling. We see the most gains in student performance and school transformation when schools make the discussion of thinking, examination of student work, and the taking of risks in trying new teaching practices central to the work of the school. This 2-day workshop is aimed at laying the groundwork for this type of development shift by exploring ways participants might build on and extend the professional learning culture that currently exists at their schools. We will examine tools, frameworks, protocols, and practices that the Worldwide Cultures of Thinking Project has developed to support the development of cultures of thinking at the school-wide level.
Ron Ritchhart
Ron Ritchhart is a Senior Research Associate and Principal Investigator at Harvard Project Zero where his work focuses on the development of school and classroom culture as prime vehicles for developing students’ as powerful thinkers and learners. Ron’s most recent book, Creating Cultures of Thinking, takes readers inside a diverse range of learning environments to show how teachers create classrooms where thinking is valued, visible and actively promoted as part of the day to day experience of all group members. Howard Gardner has called the book “ a tour de force” for Ron’s ability to seamlessly merge theory, research, practice and application together in a highly accessible and engaging manner.
Ron's research and writings have informed the work of schools, school systems, and museums throughout the world. His book Making Thinking Visible, co-written with Mark Church and Karin Morrison, has popularized the use of thinking routines to facilitate deep learning and high engagement. Ron and Mark Church have just finished a new book, The Power of Making Thinking Visible, in which they introduce a new set of routines and share what they have learned about the successful integration of thinking routines as a powerful teaching tool.
Workshop Overview: Day 1
Date:
Friday 10th March 2023
Time:
9.00am - 3.00pm
Duration:
6 Hours
- A Leader’s Stance: Leading and coaching a CoT requires us to take a stance different from implementing a new program or rolling out an initiative. There may be tensions here with how we have traditional thought about our roles as leaders. We will examine the difference between the informational stance toward professional development that dominates education and contrast it with the transformative stance that looks at professional learning as much more than training up people in new ideas.
- 4 Areas of Attention to which Leaders Must Attend in Shepherding Change: We will tap into our collective experience of being either participants in or leaders of change initiatives. What do we know about how change happens? Connecting to our experience, we will then examine 4 key areas to which leaders must attend simultaneously and continuously while being aware of the pitfalls, traps, and distractions that might derail or impede the initiative taking hold in a substantive way.
- The Vision of Cultures of Thinking: Leaders are keepers of the vision and need a robust and nuanced understanding of what a culture of thinking looks, feels, and sounds like beyond the mere implementation of a set of practices. To do this effectively, we must develop a robust understanding of a culture of thinking looks, feels, and sounds like.
- The Tools & Frameworks of Cultures of Thinking: Cultures of thinking is based on both a grounded framework and a grounded set of practices that schools and teachers can use to both understand their culture and shape it. These frameworks and practices provide for multiples avenues in and starting points, which allow teachers flexibility. Drawing on twenty years of research and four books, we will take a briefly look at these tools and frameworks.
Workshop Overview: Day 2
Date:
Saturday 11th March 2023
Time:
9.00am - 3.00pm
Duration:
6 Hours
- Facilitating Teacher’s Learning: Transformational learning and change require the time and conditions for ongoing inquiry and dialogue into one’s teaching. To change one’s practice one must be supported and willing to be genuinely self-reflective and take risks. One must learn to reflect not only on one’s practice but on the underlying beliefs and assumptions that guide that practice. We will examine how we can shift teacher dialog to more reflective inquiry into teaching and learning by using specific protocols and frameworks. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with a number of protocols such as the Snapshot Observation Protocol and Looking At Student Thinking (LAST) Protocol.
- Examining our Growth and Development as We Become a Culture of Thinking: Growth in a culture of thinking is often incremental and must be continuously acknowledged and celebrated along the way. Growth is not measured by first-order changes of merely implementing practices but in the deep structure of the classroom that can be seen and heard in the ways teachers and students operate in the classroom. Furthermore, the typical “satellite” data that looks at learning from a great distance, far removed from the classroom isn’t much use. Instead, we need to rely on the street data that gives us a grounding in what is happening in classrooms.