UPCOMING EVENTS 2018

SEMINAR: Spelling Strategies for Primary Teachers

In this seminar, Department of Education Literacy Principal Consultant Vicki Briggs will explore sounds of words as represented by letters or letter patterns, visual memory, knowledge of meaning units within words; and word origins. The new online Pre-primary to Year 7 spelling resources, developed by the Department of Education to support teachers to develop spelling knowledge, will also be introduced.

SEMINAR: Food & Fibre for the Classroom P-12

In this seminar, Department of Education Principal Consultant for Agricultural (Food and Fibre) education, Alysia Kepert will provide teachers with some prime opportunities to link agriculture and food to education, and the many curriculum-linked resources available to support them. With the world’s population predicted to reach nine billion by 2050, current and future generations will be faced with problem-solving many issues around food production and supply. It is therefore vital that as educators we utilise opportunities to integrate food and fibre themes in the delivery of Western Australian Curriculum across learning areas from primary to secondary.

CONFERENCE

CONFERENCE: Excellence in Education: A showcase of leading educational prorgams being used to sustain high quality classrooms and teaching in WA schools.

Presenters includes:

• Carl Sanderson (Primary Teacher of the Year 2017) 

• THRASS

• Behaviour Tonics (Classroom Management)

• Natalie Dowd (Technology in the classroom)
• Plus more !

Monday 25th June

4.30-5.30pm

Hill Lecture Theatre, Education & Humanities Bldg (Bldg 450)

• key initiatives undertaken in STEM education
• how the school is shifting to be more 'future focused'
• strategic directions leading to an increase in student and staff performance
• methods to improve student engagement in STEM and beyond
• unique Maths Mentor Program.

SHORT COURSE FOR TEACHERS

Wednesday July 11- Friday July 13

8.30 - 4.00pm

Hill Lecture Theatre, Education & Humanities Bldg (Bldg 450)

TEACHER PD: Teaching the Arts - Primary to Years 10 - 3 day short course

Get ready to implement the WA Arts Syllabus, as required for WA schools from 2018!

This 3 day course program will provide:

• Opportunities to get into the detail of the syllabus

• Intensive focus on one Arts subject for one session each day – choose from DRAMA or MEDIA ARTS - focusing on year level and content for years P-10 with specific teaching, planning and assessment strategies

• Extension focus on 3 other Arts subjects or Arts Integration - choose one extension workshop each day from Visual Arts / Dance / Drama / Media Arts / Music / Integrated Arts (STEAM)

Click here for a daily schedule of the course.

Register your interest here

Click here for online payment - DRAMA intensive

Click here for online payment - MEDIA ARTS intensive

PAST EVENTS 2018

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a live demonstration of the unique SimLab technology installed at Murdoch, as presented by Dr Susan Ledger, Associate Dean of Engagement and School Partnerships.

The SimLab@Murdoch technology offers a mixed reality learning environment, with classroom pupils being represented by avatars that respond in real time to a teacher’s direction or instructions. Actors are wired up behind scenes to enable this. This unique blend of virtual reality technology and live human performance creates powerful and immersive learning simulations for both pre-service teachers and practising teachers. The addition of adult avatars as school parents and principals also allows other training scenarios for school leaders to take place within an education setting.

Creating a Phenomenal School Culture: Strategies for team building & staff coaching

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a seminar presented by Murdoch education alumni and coach training provider to schools, Kristy Ambrose.

Does your school have great ideas going unrealized and sacrificed to the mayhem of getting through the term? Are your teachers feeling burnt out, stressed, or frustrated? Are your school leaders saying that their day felt more like 'putting out fire' rather than leading their school toward a vision? Has your school culture deteriorated to the point where staff don’t trust or even respect each other? In this seminar Kristy will outline how to create a meaningful and sustainable cultural shift in your school.

Cracking the Curriculum Code for the Arts: Demystifying the WA P-10 Arts Syllabus

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a seminar presented by senior lecturer in arts and drama education, Robin Pascoe.

From Semester 1 2018 all Western Australian schools will be required to implement the WA P-10 Arts Syllabus. In this seminar, Robin will introduce the Arts Syllabus and provide an overview on what to teach in the Arts and how to teach it. The WA Arts curriculum, which has been adapted from the Australian Curriculum on the Arts, covers arts education for all students until the until the end of Year 7, and consists of syllabus in five arts subjects - Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts – each with specific forms, genres, styles, contexts, materials, practices and elements. This seminar will provide a taster of the Teaching the Arts Summer School - three day short course for Primary educators, that Robin will be running at Murdoch School of Education from January 17-19, 2018, to provide a more detailed de-coding of the Arts Curriculum.

Personalised Learning: What can we learn from high school students?

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a seminar presented by Professor Barry Down from the Murdoch School of Education.

In this seminar, Barry will describe some key features of a more personalised approach to learning from a students’ point of view, and explain how notions of ‘personalised learning’ are of particular relevance for addressing the persistent problem of student disengagement, especially for students deemed to be ‘at risk’, ‘disengaged’ or ‘troublesome’. Barry will draw on interviews conducted with high school students years 9 to 12, and also interviews with parents and teachers, to explore what kinds of pedagogical, structural, relational and community-related conditions need to be brought into existence in order to engage students in deeper learning. These interviews have been gathered from students attending schools implementing the Big Picture Education (BPE) design for school based on the philosophy of ‘one student at a time in a community of learners’.

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a seminar presented by ARC (Australia Research Council) Research Fellow and lecturer in education, Dr Deborah Pino-Pasternak.

Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), understood as children’s ability to direct their attention, thoughts, emotions, and behaviours to the demands of the learning environment, has been shown to be a strong predictor of children’s academic achievement and general adaptation to school. In this seminar, Deborah will discuss recent findings of her team’s research on SRL in connection to the areas of literacy and numeracy, during the first two years of schooling in WA, with a specific focus on how both home and classroom contexts in Early Childhood can promote children’s development as independent, motivated, and regulated learners.

An Introduction ot Tribes Learning Communities - a new way of learning & being

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a seminar presented by Dr Rebecca Saunders, Academic Chair of the Master of Education (Coursework) and Tertiary, Adult and Workplace Education, and registered Tribes Learning Communities (TLC®) District Trainer.

Tribes TLC® is a research-based cooperative learning program, based on the belief that creating a caring culture and emotionally safe learning community in the classroom and throughout a school is an effective way to improve engagement, behaviour, and learning. The Tribes learning program was developed in the late 1970’s by US educator Dr Jeanne Gibbs who was looking for ways to help prevent student behavioural problems, improve academic engagement and performance, and stem the growing number of stressed teachers leaving the profession.

Murdoch University has now become the first university in Australia, and among only a few in the world, to offer the Tribes course as an accredited undergraduate and postgraduate unit.

• access quality time, space and resources to inspire creativity
• develop self-regulation and resilience
• support the achievement of educational outcomes
• nurture self-identity and well-being.

• Jacqui Macliver (SSTUWA Case Manager ECE)
• Jane Merewether (Lecturer, Curtin University)
• ECE teachers Fiona Scidone (Clifton Hills PS) and Natalie Warnock (Hillman PS)

FILM & PIZZA: Most Likely to Succeed (edu-doco): Future proofing our schools

Please join the Murdoch School of Education and Learning Environments Australasia WA for a free screening of the feature length documentary, Most Likely to Succeed.

Most Likely To Succeed is a thought-provoking documentary feature film that reveals the growing shortcomings of conventional education methods in today's innovative world. The film explores compelling new approaches that aim to revolutionize education as we know it, inspiring school communities to reimagine what students and teachers are capable of doing. Directed by acclaimed documentarian Greg Whiteley, the film has been named “among the best edu-documentaries ever produced” by Education Week, and called a “smart and engaging look at education in the 21st century” by The Hollywood Reporter.

Early Career Teaching: Mapping professional participation and constructing professional identity.

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a seminar presented by Helen Dempsey and Veronica Gardiner, both current Murdoch PhD candidates.

This seminar will explore the many complexities that early career teachers face in relation to professional participation and identity, as well as the surprising ways in which various early career teachers negotiate this landscape. Findings are pertinent to teachers, school leaders, teacher educators and policy makers.

Future Steps : Future Classroom

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a thought provoking seminar presented by STEM educator Brad Howard from Practical PD.

This seminar will explore some key issues facing educators and students connected to how technologies will disrupt traditional notions of schooling, and how it will impact the future of teachers and teaching. Take the opportunity to explore key STEM, globalisation and online content delivery issues in a collaborative environment and begin to equip yourself with a mindset to successfully navigate a path for yourself and your students into the future. There is no more important time to explore the moral obligations facing educators due to the rapid progression of technologies.

Practical STEM activities for young learners: Having fun with electronics and coding

Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a practical seminar presented by STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) educator Oscar Naval. In this hands-on workshop, Oscar will demonstrate some fun STEM projects and activities to use in early years and primary classrooms.

Activities will include the mechanics and construction of an electric push-button, and demonstration of a coding video game animation with the ‘Raspberry Pi’. These activities can then be adapted to lesson plans for under 7’s, 7-10, and 11+ year olds. Oscar will also share his current experience of facilitating after school STE(A)M programs for students aged 7 to 11 years old, with his company GizmoCats.

4.30-5.30pm

Hill Lecture Theatre, Education & Humanities Bldg (Bldg 450)

Digital Technologies for Primary Classrooms: How to implement the Western Australian Curriculum’s new learning area.


Please join the Murdoch School of Education for a seminar presented by Steven Payne, Digital Technologies project officer (WA) for The University of Adelaide’s Computer Science Education Research Group.

In this seminar, Steven will give an overview of the WA Digital Technologies curriculum (Pre-Primary to Year 6), including examples of how teachers are integrating the new subject area into their lessons.

Optimising Young Children's Learning: Play Matters

The Synergistic Effect of Movement on Early Literacy and Learning Readiness

Presented by Dr Deb Callcott, former health and physical education teacher and creator of the Moving On With Literacy program.

In this seminar, Deb will explain the benefits of incorporating movement in Early Years classrooms, in particular a 15 minute-a-day movement program that is phonologically based and aimed at developing both literacy and movement outcomes, called The Moving On With Literacy program. In this seminar Deb will provide an overview of the MOWL program, including songs and specific movements to support overall early childhood development and perceptual motor development. The MOWL program is supported by empirical research, and is suitable for young children at all levels of development including special needs.

Study Hacks for Schools: How to Teach Students to Study Smarter (not harder)


Presented by Dr Jane Genovese, director of Learning Fundamentals, an education consultancy that teaches students how to study smarter and achieve their personal best.

In this seminar Jane will show you various ways to engage students to get them excited about the science of learning and the psychology of motivation. Drawing on academic research, as well as her personal experience as a PhD student, Jane will share what she considers as essential study strategies and skills for both students and teachers, as well as parents. Also discussed will be a whole school approach to teaching study skills that is currently being trialled at two schools in the Perth metro area.

Managing the Classroom to Create an Effective Learning Environment


Presented by award winning teacher Guy Stapleton (winner of the 2015 WA Premier’s Secondary Teacher of Year and a 2016 winner of ASG National Excellence in Teaching Awards).

One of the most common reasons why teachers leave the profession in their first few years of teaching is difficulties with classroom management. In this seminar, Guy will share ideas, tools, and classroom management skills to meet the demands of managing today’s classroom. Guy will also demonstrate how prior planning before you step into the classroom, the use of classroom management techniques in class, and an interest in the student beyond the classroom enables teachers to effectively manage student behaviour.

The International Baccalaureate in Australia: How to become and IB primary school.


Presented by Dr Marcia Behrenbruch, International Baccalaureate Regional Development and Recognition Manager for Australasia.

In this seminar Dr Behrenbruch will detail the impact of the International Baccalaureate program within primary schools, and outline how primary schools can become involved in delivering the IB Primary Years Program (PYP). She will also be addressing the questions:

•What is an IB Education?
•What is the process of becoming an IB school?
•What is the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) curriculum model?
•What does the research say about the impact of the PYP?
•Where is IB situated in context of the Australian National Curriculum and Western Australian state requirements?

Monday 26th June

4.30-5.30pm

Hill Lecture Theatre, Education & Humanities Bldg (Bldg 450)

What Schools Need to Know about Autism - A Personal Perspective

Presented by Rhona Bolger, registered home educator, early childhood education support teacher, and director of Alyssa’s Autism Acceptance Project.

In this seminar, Rhona will present information on common challenges faced by students on the autism spectrum, both inside and outside of the classroom, and will discuss effective ways for schools to support the individual needs of students, and their families within the school community. Rhona will also detail her own personal experience with sensory processing difficulties, and provide strategies that have been successful for both herself and her children. She will also give insight into the positive and negative experiences she has had with navigating the education system for her children, and provide guidance to educators on how to develop effective relationships with families.

Monday 24th July


4.30-5.30pm

Hill Lecture Theatre, Education & Humanities Bldg (Bldg 450)

Resilient Teachers, Resilient Schools: Building & sustaining quality in testing times

Presented by Dr Qing Gu, professor of education at the University of Nottingham, influential author and researcher, and current co-director of an Education Department of West Australia funded project on early career teachers’ resilience and effectiveness.

Understanding why and how many teachers are able to sustain their capacity to be resilient and continue to work for improvement is an important quality retention issue. Resilience in teachers is more than the ability to ‘bounce back’ in extreme adverse circumstances. Rather, what counts is ‘everyday resilience’ which enables them to respond positively to the unavoidable uncertainties inherent in their everyday professional lives and through this, sustain their commitment, wellbeing and effectiveness. In this seminar, Professor Gu will analyse what resilience is, why it matters, and how it may be built and nurtured in different organisational settings.

Friday April 21st

9am - 3.30pm

ECL Lecture Theatre 1,
Building 460,
Murdoch campus.

Register here

SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR MURDOCH STUDENTS:

Tickets just $15 !!

Make sure you type in "MURDOCH" at top of register page in the field "Enter Promotional Code"

Encouraging Recreational Reading to Improve School-wide Literacy


Presented by Murdoch School of Education lecturer and literacy researcher Dr Margaret Merga.


Now with the addition of the OLNA to the high-stakes testing stable in Western Australia, the importance of supporting children’s acquisition of sound literacy skills is arguably greater than ever. In this seminar, Margaret aims to provide straightforward take-away messages for schools looking to increase their students’ engagement in reading, and subsequently raise their literacy levels. Drawing upon her own extensive research into children’s reading habits, conducted both in Australia and internationally, Margaret will discuss how schools can effectively implement reading programs at school, and also how they can help support reading for pleasure as a habit at home. Regular reading for pleasure at home and school will be highlighted as playing a key role in developing and fostering literacy skills after children have learned to read.

Thursday February 23rd

4-6pm

ECL Building (bldg 460) postgrad suite level 2, room 2.031

Transformative Education Research Seminar

Inclusive & Values Based Education
Presented by prominent Nepali spiritual guru, Dr. Chintamani Yogi.

Dr. Yogi will focus on inclusion of values in present day students' learning needs, with an emphasis on creative and lateral thinking. He has had a long professional career as a thinker, a spiritual master, an educationist and a peace activist. He has written several books and is a winner of many national and international awards. The seminar will be facilitated by Professor Peter Taylor.

School of Education Seminar Series

Values and values education in Nordic ECEC institutions

Presented by Adjunct professor Anette Emilson, Early Childhood Education, Linnaeus University Sweden.

Adjunct professor Anette Emilson will present a participatory action research project about values and values education in the Nordic countries. Experiences from the project design will be discussed as well as some main findings regarding significant values and new insights about values education

PUBLIC SEMINAR

Evidence for Learning: The Teaching & Learning Toolkit

Please join The Murdoch School of Education as we host special guest, Dr Tanya Vaughan, Associate Director of The Teaching & Learning Toolkit (The Toolkit) from Evidence for Learning, a non-profit organisation that aims to enable and support evidence-informed education practice in Australian schools. The Toolkit is a free, online summary of global education research that aims to:
• Support evidence-informed decision-making in Australian schools;
• Provide guidance for principals, school leaders and teachers on how to use their resources to improve educational outcomes for their students;
• Act as an introduction to educational research.

In this workshop, educators will be shown how The Toolkit synthesises research to estimate the average impact, cost and strength of the evidence of 34 different teaching and learning approaches. The Toolkit also allows for a focus on Australasian evidence, thanks to a recent upgrade through a collaboration with the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Participants in this workshop will explore how they can use the approaches within the Toolkit to help address a challenge that they are facing at their school.

Thursday December 8

2-4pm

Nash Room,

Club Murdoch

Lecture: How do Intermediaries Influence the Use of Research in Education Policymaking? Evidence from a five year, multi-site study in the US.

Presented by Sir Walter Murdoch Adjunct Professor Christopher Lubienski (Professor, University of Indiana).

The role of research evidence in public policymaking has never been as clear as researchers might hope. This is particularly true in education policymaking, where research evidence is often of questionable usefulness in policy decisions for a number of reasons. Nevertheless, an increasing number of interest groups and advocacy organizations are attempting to promote the use of particular research in the politicized context of education policymaking. Drawing on a five-year study of five major cities as well as the national level in the US, this lecture will consider some of the new interests, actors, and dynamics shaping research use. In addition to reporting findings, the lecture will highlight some of the weaknesses with current theoretical perspectives for understanding research use, and propose a novel framework for future research.

Monday December 5 10-12pm

Nash Room,

Club Murdoch

Workshop: Tips and Strategies for Developing an Impactful Research Career

Presented by Sir Walter Murdoch Adjunct Professor Christopher Lubienski (Professor, University of Indiana).

Drawing on more than 15 years as a university academic and educational researcher, Prof. Lubienski will share tips and strategies for developing your research career to make an impact on public, policy, and scholarly discussions. This workshop is relevant for researchers at all stages of career, from postgraduate students to tenured academics.

School of Education Seminar Series

Learning Through Mulitmodal Communication
Presented by Ingela Trulsson-Sonnesjo and Lena Richert, lecturers in the departments of Music and Art, Linneaus University, Sweden.

How can we create active, dynamic environments and design processes that will support learning within the
preschool teacher training programme? An example of one project to reach this goal. Click here for more info.

Wednesday November 9
5.30-7pm

Hill Lecture Theatre (Education & Humanities Bldg)

PUBLIC SEMINAR

What We Know About Teacher Education: What Happens Next?
Presented by Professor Michael Grenfell, Professor of Education at Trinity College, University of Dublin.

In this seminar, Professor Grenfell will outline how and why the theory and practice of teacher education has been hotly debated in recent years , within a range of national contexts. The presentation will begin by setting teacher education within a broad field of educational research. Models of teacher education will then be addressed, along with their underlying principles and methods. Click here for more info.

Next Steps: Graduating Murdoch Teaching

For education students who have completed their Final Professional Experience, an information session to assist you in the transition to employment. The specialist panel will help you understand the next steps as a Graduate Teacher. A free BBQ lunch will be provided following the formal session. Click here to register.

Featuring a panel of speakers, including:

• Murdoch University’s Graduation Team
• Teacher Registration Board of WA (TRBWA)
• Institute for Professional Learning (IPL)
• Department of Education
• State School Teachers Union of WA (SSTUWA).

Transformative Education Research Seminar

Rising Tension: Why creative writing needs to be taught in high school, and the necessity of a divorce from English
Presented by Kevin Price - secondary English teacher and Murdoch PhD candidate, undertaking research in in Creative Writing and STEAM education. Kevin has also taught creative writing in Western Australian schools between 2005 and 2015 to both primary and high school students.

Kevin will present a fictocritical analysis, as originally presented at the 2016 English Teachers Association (WA) conference in June 2016, to address why Creative Writing needs to be taught in high schools, and why it might better serve our students and future participants of the creative economy were it located outside of English and taught as a general capability, and a foundation component of STEAM education. Click here for more information.

Friday October 7th
11-11.30am

Education & Humanities Common Room, 2.021

School of Education Seminar Series

Teaching Out of Field - an international perspective
Presented by Professor Gunter Torner (University of Duisburg-Essen, and member of the Teaching Across Specializations (TAS) Collective, scholars conducting research into TOOF), and Dr Anne Price (Murdoch University School of Education).

Teaching Out of Field (TOOF), the practice of assigning teachers to teach subjects or year levels for which they are not formally qualified, is a common practice in schools in Western Australia and in many parts of the world. Despite its prevalence, it is rarely officially reported or even acknowledged. The existence of TOOF also poses several conundrums with the increasing regulation of teaching and teachers’ work through Teacher Professional Standards.

Thursday August 18th
9.30am to 12.30pm

Canning College, Marquis Street, Bentley

• Dr Kevin McKenna - CISWA President & Former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, International, Curtin University
• Ian Watt - Pre-Vice Chancellor, International, University of Western Australia
• Dr Lindy Norris - Senior Lecturer in Education, Murdoch University

• Gavin Grift: Collaborative Teams that Transform School
• Meg Roche: Social Emotional Development in Young People
• Tunya Petridis - children's consultant at Anglicare WA; Tim Thornton - lead school psychologist: An Introduction to Trauma
• Grant O'Sullivan & Ben Calleja: Peer Observation
• Deborah Pino-Pasternak - Murdoch School of Education lecturer and ARC research fellow: Promoting Self-Regulated Learning in the Classroom

• Prof Baden Offord & Dr Haruhisa (Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University)
• Assoc Prof Wendy Cumming-Potvin (Chief Investigator Young and Well CRC, School of Education, Murdoch Univeristy)
• Dani Wright Toussaint (Freedom Centre Coordinator - Young and Well CRC)
• William Knox (ALLY training facilitator & Student Advisor - School of Education, Murdoch University)
• Olivia Knowles (Safe Schools Coalition WA).

Classroom Management Strategies: Part 1
Tips and advice on how to reduce unproductive social behaviour in the school classroom

(useful for students with upcoming school experience placement units !)