Course duration: 4 Hours

    Standards Addressed: 3.7.2, 7.3.2, 3.5.2

    Target Audience: School Teachers – Pre K-12 Teachers

    Course Delivery Mode: Presentation at your school (minimum 15 teachers)

The course includes two sessions each of two hours duration. The first session considers the theoretical underpinnings of current research into why teachers need to involve parents/caregivers in active feedback to ensure engagement and achievement in learning.  The session provides teachers with the opportunity to link evidence-based research on best practice with collaborative learning and explores ways to provide effective verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student understanding, participation, engagement and achievement.

The second session provides teachers with a hands-on opportunity to develop practical strategies and resources. Through shared discussion, teachers will reflect on their own practice linked to the themes of the research basis used to develop Session 1. Teachers will participate in a role play and thinktank activity where they will plan appropriate and contextually relevant opportunities for collaborative learning, and prepare to implement their own collaborative learning communities.  The general principles of effective and engaging learning experience will be explored through a specific syllabus outcome (EN2-11D). This reinforces the idea that as a student explores a world similar to and different from their own,  non-verbal (photographs, film) and verbal communication (using the Google Docs for collaborative discussion) are an essential part of the process to promote achievement.  This thinking will equip teachers with a strong foundation for them to return to school and develop more specific strategies which partner with parents/caregivers to create effective collaborative online learning to improve student learning and wellbeing.