Who We Are
Independent
Schools 2010 - 2013
Victoria Writers Group
In 2010 a group of teachers came together, with the support of the Independent Schools Victoria, to work as research partners and writers documenting the stories of learning unfolding in their individual classrooms. The thread connecting this group was a common interest in developing classrooms that were cultures of thinking where students’ Intellectual Character would be enhanced. All of us embraced this goal and had been actively working toward it for several years, but wanted to examine more closely where were we at, both collectively and individually, in the process of achieving this goal. Perhaps more importantly, we wanted to explore the impact of our efforts on our students?
Examining these questions has been both a collaborative and personal inquiry, unfolding simultaneously in individual classrooms and within our supportive research group. There was much to learn in tackling the issue of our students’ development as thinkers and learners. Evidence would need to be collected and discussed, dilemmas would need to be identified and debated, and hopefully our teaching would need to change and mature as a result.
Out chief goal was to learn together in this process of our inquiry. At the same time, we felt that the emerging stories of learning had the potential to be powerful models for other teachers, and we wanted to share those with our colleagues. This website is one of our efforts. It is aimed at both sharing our own stories of learning and inviting others to join with us in this ongoing process of learning from a careful examination of our practice.
We are educators
from Melbourne, Australia whose thinking about education has been profoundly shaped by the ideas of fostering students’ Intellectual Character, creating Cultures of Thinking, and Making Thinking Visible as core principles of education.
Sites of this work now exist in schools throughout Australia, the United States, and Europe. Some of these exist as formal ongoing collaborations, such as those at ISV, Bialik College, and some as informal networks of like-minded educators.
Bialik College 2011 Writers Group
Since 2005, Biaik College in Melbourne has been the chief research site for the Cultures of Thinking project. At Bialik, the Harvard Project Zero team leading the research have investigated teachers’ use of thinking routines, the development of professional learning communities, the effect visible thinking strategies have had on students’ meta-strategic knowledge, and the questioning strategies of teachers as they relate to supporting student thinking. Much of this research has been reported in the book, Making Thinking Visible (2011) by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. The research has also been reported in other articles, which may be accessed by visiting www.ronritchhart.com. Every two years, Bialik College hosts a Cultures of Thinking conference to share the work teachers at the school are doing and bring together the every growing number of teachers and schools involved with these ideas.
In 2011, Bialik College teachers came together as a group to better understand how their ongoing efforts to build a culture of thinking were affecting their students. As a group, they met regularly to work as research partners and writers documenting the stories of learning unfolding in their individual classrooms. Like their colleagues meeting at ISV, they have engaged in this work as a collaborative endeavor, supporting one another as both researchers and writers.
