| Alex Black – First steps into Epistemic Inquiry Targeted at secondary Science and Humanities /Geography teachers. A presentation leading into a lesson simulation with whole “class” dialogue and small group discussions. Debrief with metacognitive and bridging prompts. Using observations of the movements of the earth, sun and moon to make inferences and models of the solar system to explain everyday experiences. Sarah Seleznyov – Desirable difficulty: the role of cognitive conflict in developing young children’s thinking Targeted at early years and primary practitioners with a focus on mathematics, this workshop explores the potential of planning and teaching for desirable difficulty (Kapur and Rummel, 2012) and how such carefully planned cognitive conflict can develop pupils’ thinking. Participants will explore the theory around desirable difficulty and explore how to plan lessons that incorporate such deliberate kinds of difficulty and how to facilitate effective pupil discussion during such lessons. Leah Crawford – Cognitive and Affective Development through Shared Reading: Targeted at teachers and leaders of children from 5-8, this workshop will explore how the Let’s Think in English teaching model promotes the development of thinking through dialogue, challenge and reflection as children collaboratively construct meaning from texts. Neil Phillipson – Teaching through and for Dialogue Talk is the primary medium for teaching and learning in schools, but not all classroom talk supports learning effectively. This workshop is Targeted at teachers of secondary students and will support participants to make the most of talk and group work in their classrooms and schools. We will consider the different types of classroom talk and the different purposes for which they are used, and think about ways of increasing the quantity and quality of classroom dialogue. Examples of meaningful opportunities for dialogue in different curriculum areas will be shared, and a particular emphasis will be placed on the development of conceptual understanding. Key points will include: (a) creating a classroom climate in which dialogue can flourish; (b) organising group work and establishing ‘ground rules for talk’; (c) facilitating dialogue; (d) devising activities to stimulate and sustain dialogue around central concepts in group work and whole class discussions. James Mannion – Metacognition: what does it look like in the classroom? Research suggests that metacognition and self-regulation provide “high impact for very low cost, based on extensive evidence” (EEF, 2018). But what is metacognition – and what does it look like in the classroom? In this practical session for classroom practitioners, we will explore tried and tested methods for developing and embedding metacognition in lessons. Essentially, this involves making the implicit processes of learning explicit, and includes strategies such as: developing a shared language of learning, focusing on the ‘how’ of learning, reflective learning journals and transfer plenaries. Kate McAllister – Metacognition: developing a shared language of learning Metacognition is the ‘mot du jour’. This workshop focuses on taking the mystery out of metacognition by developing a shared language of learning. A shared language of learning defines the invisible cognitive processes that we use in effective learning, names them and makes them familiar to students and teachers alike. When the implicit processes of learning are used in everyday parlance in the classroom, at home and around the school, learning becomes something that is visible, tangible and learnable. |