In the inquiry classroom, we aim to nurture learners who see themselves as capable, curious, resourceful individuals with a strong sense of agency. There is growing evidence of the importance of nurturing the kinds of dispositions and skills associated with agency. Being curious, adventurous, resilient and coupled with the skills of self-management, collaboration, thinking and communication are amongst what we can think of as ‘assets’ for learning. Growing these assets in our learners helps set them on a path to independence and a love of learning for life.

These skills and dispositions do not grow by chance – they are best developed through an explicit, thoughtful, embedded approach that embodies an inquiry stance. The role of the educator is pivotal not only to what young people learn but to the image they have of themselves as learners. In this wonderfully interactive and motivating workshop, Kath will draw upon her vast experience of introducing her ‘learning assets’ to schools all over the world and sharing really practical ways to effectively embed skills and dispositions for learning into our work with children and their families.

This workshop will be very relevant to educators working with the IB Approaches to Learning and Profile Attributes but will also be designed to support any educators who have a framework for ‘learning to learn’. Those participants yet to develop such a framework, will walk away with a template for introducing one and a strong repertoire of strategies to support implementation.

Over the course of 2 days, participants will:

• Be introduced to a variety of frameworks for learning to learn and deepen their understanding of skills and dispositions for independent learning

• Take a deep dive into the skills and dispositions associated with self-management, collaboration, research, thinking, communication and contribution

• Participate in and design learning tasks to explicitly develop skills associated with assets for learning

• Explore ways to use the ‘language of learning’ in daily classroom discourse

• Learn how to design ‘split screen’ learning intentions and build learning engagements that focus on the how of learning – not just the what

• Explore a range of texts we can use to promote skills and dispositions for learning

• Consider how the micro skills associated with each learning asset can be scoped out and gradually strengthened over time

• Consider approaches to assessment in relation to these assets for learning

• Learn how to weave the teaching of these skills and dispositions into a unit of inquiry.