Mark Church of Harvard Project Zero Visits Saint David's For Faculty Study Session

Today in the Hume Library, groups of faculty members had the opportunity to join Mark Church, author of "Making Thinking Visible," and part of the team at Harvard University's Project Zero, for a follow-up study session that focused on "Descriptive Consultancy" -- a protocol for fine tuning strategies teachers have been using to make their students' thinking visible.

During the session, faculty members presented a challenge they have encountered and received help from their peers sorting and thinking through the issue, using approaches such as asking clarifying questions, reflecting back and brainstorming possible solutions and next steps.

The atmosphere was collegial, and the focus on helping the presenting teacher frame an issue for herself/himself first, before hearing how others frame it and exploring potential solutions.

Our teachers have been working with Mark Church since August 2014, using what they've learned in the sessions to implement strategies that provide insights into boys' thinking--important to increasing understanding and identifying areas in need of clarification.

In this year of deliberate moral introspection, Saint David's continues to explore methods to formalize how we think and talk about thinking; to further a culture of deep, reflective thinking in our students and ourselves. For more on this effort, see my earlier blog entry: Thinking Made Visible.

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