Putting oracy into practice - Prof. Neil Mercer (keynote speaker) and Topsy Page
This practical interactive workshop will equip you with tools to support your students to become confident, effective communicators.
Together, we will explore:
- Ground rules for talk: these will help your students to get better at thinking together and ensure that your classroom talk is both productive and enjoyable.
- Talking points: a simple yet powerful, easy to replicate structure which you can use across the curriculum to provide meaningful talk to enhance learning.
- Teacher talk moves: a collection of useful questions to facilitate dialogue, including helping your students to listen well, reason and think with others.
- Talk prompts for students: a set of useful prompts which will support your students to share their opinions and thoughts more confidently and effectively.
And there will be some fun, engaging activities to get everybody talking.
Leading inclusive school and community development with the Index for Inclusion - Dr Rupert Higham (keynote speaker)
Effective communication within any education community often relies on 'values literacy': a shared language of ethics and accountability in which all participate as equals.
This workshop will introduce and utilise the Index for Inclusion: a book, a CPD programme and a philosophy of school improvement that divides school improvement into three dimensions: culture, policies and practices. Under each dimension, it sets out a series of indicators, or aspirations for development. These act like a travel guide, allowing all members of an education community to explore chosen themes together, and think about how their values are put into practice.
The Index for Inclusion was written by Professor Tony Booth and draws on 40 years' experience working with thousands of schools around the world. It starts with the question, 'How should we live together?', then sets out a framework of inclusive values that helps schools and their communities shape a humane and intelligent response.
In this workshop, participants will work with the Index hands-on in groups to explore a shared improvement priority and how to achieve it through meaningful dialogue.
“We Are Multilingual”: Identity-based activities to promote and enhance communication and learning in schools - Prof Linda Fisher and Dr Karen Forbes (keynote speakers)
This workshop will involve thinking about our own and our students' linguistic repertoires, that is, all the communicative resources at our disposal. We will introduce and trial some of the interactive activities from the research-based “We Are Multilingual” (WAM) teaching resources for primary and secondary schools.
These resources aim to encourage critical thinking and personal reflection on a range of sociolinguistic issues, demonstrating to students the amount of implicit knowledge about language that they already bring into the classroom as users of multiple languages, dialects and other forms of communication.
Our research has shown that students who worked with the materials were more likely to identify as being multilingual. This is important, because students who feel their linguistic identity is valued by their peers, the teacher and the school are likely to have increased confidence and interest in their learning, with the potential for positive impact on their academic achievement and wider social cohesion in the classroom and wider school.
Mastering effective communication: Building confidence through debate – Debate Mate
In this interactive breakout session, participants will delve into the art of effective communication by exploring the dynamics of debate. From being critically reflective to cultivating confidence, this session aims to equip attendees with the tools and techniques necessary to excel in communication settings.
Session Objectives:
- Understand the fundamentals of effective communication.
- Learn the principles of structured debate and argumentation.
- Develop strategies for constructing persuasive arguments.
- Enhance critical thinking skills through engaging in debate activities.
- Cultivate confidence in articulating ideas and viewpoints.
- Explore techniques for active listening and respectful engagement.
- Practise applying communication skills in real-time scenarios through mock debates.
Join us for an engaging and insightful session designed to empower you to communicate with clarity, conviction, and confidence.
Promoting a communicative staff culture - Simon Armitage
Can schools ever be greater than the sum of the individuals within them? How widely do we consider the issue of communication within our schools and to whom do we think we are communicating? What are the benefits of creating a culture of communication and collaboration and, perhaps more significantly, how might this be achieved in the context of your school?
This workshop will challenge school leaders to see where there could be barriers to communication and how these can be reduced to the benefit of students, parents and teachers.
Overcoming barriers to effective communication to improve student achievement: A sustainable and inclusive approach for teachers and schools - Abby Osborne and Dr Karen Angus-Cole
This session provides busy teachers with a highly adaptable and transferable approach which enables students to develop effective communication skills.
Through recognising and harnessing the relationship between learning, communicating and student wellbeing, we share strategies that help students to overcome common barriers to effective communication.
Furthermore, the strategies also allow teachers to support both neurodiversity and student wellbeing within the classroom, via the process of learning. The practices shared in this workshop come from a new book, co-authored by the presenters, published in October 2023 - From Wellbeing to Welldoing: How to think, learn and be well.
We will explore:
- A range of common challenges or barriers to communication which often undermine student confidence and achievement.
- A range of practical bite-size strategies which enable students to actively overcome communication hurdles and can be implemented immediately with your students.
- How the strategies can be applied to the full range of communication skills (writing, listening, speaking, reading) and work in multiple contexts from different age groups, cohort sizes and subject disciplines.
Every teacher is a language teacher: How all teachers can help all learners develop their writing skills - Lauren Woods
Even when learners are confident with subject content, they may struggle to communicate their knowledge, skills and understanding effectively when they write. All teachers, regardless of subject specialism, can help learners to overcome these challenges so that the language that learners use in their written work reflects their subject ability.
When planning lessons, it is important for teachers to consider not only the topic and syllabus-specific language, but also transferable vocabulary, phrases and structures. Alongside this, to most effectively support learners to improve the quality of language in their writing, teachers should be aware of the linguistic ability of the learners in their classes. Who requires additional support with their written language? Who should be stretched and challenged to use more complex language in their writing?
This workshop will explore:
- the notion of ‘every teacher is a language teacher’ in relation to supporting learners’ writing skills
- the importance of knowing the language ability of individual learners and why some learners may find writing a particular challenge
- practical tips which can help learners of all ability develop their writing skills across the curriculum.
Transforming teaching and learning through dialogue-focused teacher inquiry - Rachel West and Dr Alison Twiner
In this workshop we will explore world-leading research about classroom dialogue from the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, to harness the power of research and transform your own teaching practice.
A team of researchers at the Faculty of Education has developed a free toolkit (the Toolkit for Systematic Educational Dialogue Analysis: T-SEDA). Teachers and leaders can use T-SEDA to conduct mini-research projects about the quality of dialogue in their classroom, and to make their practice more dialogic and more conducive to learning. We will explore this toolkit and support you to start planning your own inquiry.
We will also introduce a new online course, based on T-SEDA and hosted via CamTREE (the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange). This is designed to guide you and colleagues through the toolkit at your own pace, enabling you to make an impact on teaching practice in your school.
This session aims to empower participants to:
- understand educational dialogue, and how it relates to your practice.
- identify an area of your practice related to dialogue you wish to explore and improve
- access online resources to support you in continuing your inquiry beyond the session, and an opportunity to publish a report of your inquiry and share any resources you develop, on the Camtree global digital platform.
Communicating effectively in an evolving and international language – Hannah Lemkov
How can one communicate effectively in a language that is constantly evolving and which exists in multiple varieties worldwide? For students learning in the English language, it can be difficult to know what is expected of them in terms of 'accuracy' and appropriacy.
With a focus on English, but with reference to relevance in other languages, we will explore:
- Attitudes towards 'accurate' language use
- What is 'Standard English'? The debated value of slang and local language varieties
- Coaching students to 'code switch' depending on form, purpose and audience
- Literary representations of varieties of English.
This interactive session aims to provide the opportunity to share thoughts and best practice on helping learners take their linguistic communication from competence to confidence.
Seamless transitions: Encouraging effective communication between schools and universities - Kevin Ebenezer, Petra Olssen and Roshan Walkerley
Effective communication between schools and universities is vital for student success and seamless academic transitions. In this session, we will explore some of the outreach work conducted by the University of Cambridge with students globally and how the Cambridge recognition team communicates and interacts with universities around the world.
This session will commence with an overview of the current recognition activities undertaken by the global recognition team followed by a panel discussion. Delegates can anticipate gaining practical insights and actionable strategies aimed at enhancing communication between educational institutions, thereby fostering stronger relationships, and improving student outcomes.
This session offers a valuable opportunity for conference attendees to engage in meaningful discussions, share experiences, and collectively work towards improving communication between schools and universities for the benefit of students and the education community at large.
Integrating language and content: Supporting language learners in the mainstream classrooms - Laura Kahwati and Dr Akash Raut
Learners with English as their second or additional language often find the expectations of mainstream classrooms overwhelming. The teachers, in addition, find it challenging to meet the requirements of these learners considering the vastness of the content to be taught. In this collaborative workshop, we will explore tools and strategies for mainstream teachers to enrich their classroom practice and support their learners in developing the academic language skills they need to be successful in those content subjects they are studying through English.
The workshop will provide the participants with an opportunity to:
- Understand the multiple dimensions involved in learning a language.
- Become more aware of the challenges faced by the learners in accessing content subjects through English.
- Explore tools and strategies to support learners, in both content and English Language classrooms.
Impactful practice for creating strong institutions: Harnessing the power of collaboration through reflective practice - Nivedita Bose and Jo Scott
Teachers need opportunities to develop their own critical thinking, communication and reflection skills in order to model those skills for their learners and the wider school community.
Research has shown that high quality professional development of teachers and school leaders is one of the main drivers of all round school improvement, including student well-being and attainment.
In this workshop, school leaders and teachers will have an immersive experience of meaningful professional development that enables strong communities of practitioners based on collaboration, dialogue and reflective practice, ultimately leading to better learner outcomes and measurable impact.
The participants will get insights into:
- what good professional development looks like
- how to manage the quality of PD interventions in their local contexts to ensure skill development in practitioners
- building strong and sustainable communities of learning
- the current Cambridge approach to embedded professional development for teachers and school leaders.