Bialik College recently played host to 350 professional teachers at a highly successful conference which commenced last Saturday evening and concluded the following Monday afternoon.

Entitled 'A Culture of Thinking', the conference was part of Bialik College’s ongoing collaborative arrangement with Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and, specifically, its Project Zero team.

Participants included school principals, academics, senior policy advisors to the Department of Education, educators from Early Childhood through to tertiary level education. Overseas participants came from Thailand, India, China, Singapore, New Zealand and America.

Organised and coordinated by Karin Morrison, who leads the Project Zero project at Bialik College, the conference, which opened with a formal presentation followed by a supper in the ELC, consisted of a series of plenum sessions and a host of individual presentations by individuals and by groups of teachers from a variety of areas in education. Bialik teachers who have been involved over the last two years in Project Zero focus groups conducted many of these sessions based on the ongoing learning in which they have been engaged.

Members of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education staff – those who have been involved in the Project Zero program – conducted the plenum sessions at the conference. Professor David Perkins, Dr Ron Richhart and Mark Church, who have visited Bialik College on several occasions since the commencement of the project, delivered some outstanding presentations and engaged the participants in meaningful discussion. The written feedback from participants has been outstanding.