Kath Murdoch: Talking and Thinking for Deeper Understanding: Nurturing critical, creative and reflective thinking in the early years

Description

Due to current COVID-restrictions on travel into WA from Victoria, this PL will now be provided by Kath Murdoch as an online workshop. The content for the day remains the same. Participants will receive a log-in link prior to the event. 

Vygotsky’s famous quote “Children grow into the intellectual life around them” offers a powerful and exciting challenge to educators in the early years. Our role in nurturing thoughtful, inquisitive, confident thinkers can be best enacted when we create opportunities for dialogue, inquiry and meaning making. 

In this workshop, Kath Murdoch will explore a range of practical strategies to enhance opportunities for deeper thinking as we work with young learners. Sustained, deep thinking is nurtured through intentional questioning, listening and probing, the use of targeted vocabulary, the exploration of questions that are relevant and meaningful to the young child and the recognition of the powerful role that the environment itself can play in provoking wonder. Learning to think and growing the capacity to think in different ways for different purposes is a vital part of becoming a life-long learner. 

Included in this workshop will be a focus on:

• Provoking and responding to interests
• How to question in order to stimulate creative, critical and reflective thinking
• Supporting sustained conversations about ideas using ‘talking moves’ and prompts and other dialogic techniques
• Using a concept (rather than topic) based approach to planning to enhance depth and breadth of understanding 
• The use of thinking routines to make thinking visible and strengthen thinking skills
• The careful use of language by educators designed to open up rather than narrow thinking
• The role of a cycle of inquiry in taking children from shallow to deeper thinking. 

Kath's workshop will be structured as follows:

8.45: Zoom room opens for participants to join

9-10.30am: Session 1

11-12.30: Session 2

Lunch time during which participants can arrange to come back into the Zoom room to chat with others if they wish

1.30 -3.00pm: Session 3

3 - 3.15pm: Kath will stay in the Zoom room for informal Q & A for anyone who wishes