In-Person Workshop
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 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.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW:
  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.
POTENTIAL AUDIENCE:
Leaders coaches
RON RITCHHART
Ron Ritchhart, Ed.D., is a Senior Research Associate 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 research and writings have informed the work of schools, school systems, and museums throughout the world. His research is largely classroom based, learning from the best practice of teachers to better understand how they create conditions for powerful learning. Ron is an award-winning teacher and researcher, a sought-after speaker, and a prolific and influential writer. His best-selling books include Intellectual Character, Making Thinking Visible, and Creating Cultures of Thinking, and The Power of Making Thinking Visible. Ron began his career in education as elementary teacher in New Zealand before returning to the states where he taught art, third, and fourth grade as well as middle school mathematics.
 
Venue:
International School of Zug and Luzern
Walterswil 1, 6340 Baar, Switzerland

Hotel Details:
IBIS Hotel
Bahnhofstrasse 15,
6340 Baar, Switzerland
Phone: +41 41 766 76 00

Nearest Airport: Zurich

Website: https://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-2981-ibis-baar-zug/index.shtml

8.30 am to 4.00 pm
Registration at 8:00 am
on the 11th November 2022
INVESTMENT
USD 600 Per Participant Closing date 15th of October 2022
Early Bird offer USD 550 Per Participant till 1st September 2022
USD 500 Per Participant for a Group of 8 or more.
INCLUDES: Certificate of Participation for 8 Professional Development hours, lunch and 2 coffee breaks
 
Emails:
www.chaptersinternational.com
+91-9818362535