Saturday,  January 19, 9:00 – 13:00

Language

Facilitator(s)

Title, Short Summary

ENG

Pasi Sahlberg

Training Trainers for Cooperative Learning This workshop will explore effective approaches and techniques for preparing trainers to coach teachers. Based on examples from select large-scale school improvement programs this workshop will establish some structures and principles that would increase the transfer of  training and help teachers go beyond the surface in understanding cooperative learning. The workshop requires active participation and sharing of experiences.

IT, ENG

Francesca Gobbo

Complex Instruction and Intercultural Education This workshop will present the CL strategy Complex Instruction (CI) and emphasize its intercultural dimension.  CI aims to attain equity in education by changing teachers’ and peers’ expectations of low status pupils, and looks at and works with students’ different cultural, linguistic and cognitive abilities as resources for learning. This is achieved when every student participates equally in group work, and can contribute in his/her specific way to the understanding of difficult concepts and to the solution of open ended problems. After a concise presentation, workshop participants will work on Complex Instruction units, discuss the experience and its applicability in different school environments.

IT, ENG, SPA

Sabrina Ortega

Cooperative Learning and Second Language Teaching This workshop aims at demonstrating that with CL a literature lesson can become an intercultural learning experience in which students, in pairs or groups, learn and compare cultural habits of different cultures, meanwhile improving their communicative competence in a foreign language. Participants will simulate a cooperative learning situation and share feelings and questions. The workshop is addressed to second language teachers of elementary and secondary schools.

IT, ENG

Tanenbaum Center

Cooperative Learning and Religious Pluralism. This interactive workshop will help educators and administrators identify practical ways to confront issues of religious pluralism.   The workshop will focus on the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding’s K-12 educator training program, which is based on the successful practices imbedded in our Building Blocks for Democracy: The Seven Principles for Inclusive Education. Participants will also learn to implement innovative, multicultural, multi-religious, academically integrated curricula that help students honor each other’s cultures and perspectives, thereby promoting respect and inclusion in the classroom and beyond.

Saturday,  January 19, 14:30 – 18:30

Language

Facilitator(s)

Title, Short Summary

IT, ENG

Paul Gorski

Beyond Celebrating Diversity:  Intercultural Education for Human Rights and Social Justice We can only maximize the effectiveness of cooperative learning for all people involved when we begin with an acknowledgement of the imbalances in access to power and privilege. This workshop will engage participants in a discussion about the shifts of consciousness and practice necessary to transcend intercultural education as celebrating diversity and move toward intercultural education as human rights and social justice activism.

IT, ENG

Gianni Di Pietro

Learning to Understand the Differences Between Civilizations. From clash to integration: Romans and Germans between the III and VI centuries AD. This workshop illustrates how Cooperative Learning, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and the active practice of Advanced Study can combine to help build relationships based on mutual respect and creating new quality thinking. The use of a complex historical approach fosters the ability to understand differences between people, the dynamics of their contacts, and how a richer civilization can stem from the blend of two different cultures. The workshop is addressed to history teachers of both elementary and secondary schools. 

ENG

Kathryn F.
Markovchick, Ph.D.,
Debbie Gilmer, M.Ed.,
Dr. Pamela Flood,
Emily Liebling, BA

Differentiated Learning Through Celebratory Learning –For All Your Students This workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to rethink and reexamine the fundamentals of teaching and learning for enhanced outcomes for their students. Together we will explore the principles of Differentiated Learning through Celebratory Learning, which combines multiple intelligences, positive interdependence, behavior management, individual accountability, equal participation, play, humor, connections to previous learning, and theme- and need-based learning in a brain compatible environment.  Participants will leave with many classroom strategies to integrate in lessons in all subjects.

IT, ENG

Yael Sharan

What Do They Want To Know? How Will They Find Out? Group Investigation in the Intercultural Classroom. The goals of the workshop are to create a mini “inquiring community” to explore the essential features of Group Investigation and its application in the intercultural classroom. In a simulated Group Investigation project participants will ask questions about the workshop topic, seek answers to their questions, and interpret information in light of their knowledge, ideas, experiences, and abilities.

Sunday,  January 20, 9:00 – 13:00

Language

Facilitator(s)

Title, Short Summary

IT, ENG

Lynda Baloche and Yael Sharan

ENG

Robyn Gillies

Cooperative Learning: Integrating Theory and Practice This workshop is designed for practitioners interested in understanding how the link between current research on cooperative learning and classroom practice heightens CL's potential to transform teaching and learning. The workshop will also provide practical ideas on how this may be achieved. These include ways of promoting student and teacher discourse, and ways of assessing outcomes of small group learning. The workshop will be highly interactive: both facilitator and participants will share their ideas and co-construct new understandings.

TBA

Marco Falasca

Cooperative Learning and Problem Based Learning (PBL) in Science Education Problem based learning (PBL) is a method based on the principle of posing problems as the starting point for the acquisition of new knowledge. PBL requires that students work in small cooperative groups to acquire understandings for the solution to a problem. In this workshop participants will (1) explore the essential elements of a PBL process; (2) experience a PBL method applied to a real problem in science education. PBL can be used efficiently for teaching science both in elementary and in secondary schools

IT, ENG

Maria Grazia Bergamo

Cooperative Learning for Effective Cooperation Between Teachers and Parents Today teachers have to learn to cope with frequent and complex contacts with parents who have different views and expectations of school. They feel the need for new strategies and in Cooperative Learning they can find an answer. The major objectives of this workshop are to: share knowledge of parents' ideas and expectations; suggest how to facilitate the initiation of social dialogue between different cultures and backgrounds; find ways of institutionalizing this dialogue through the creation of a protocol that suits everyone.

Sunday,  January 20, 14:30 – 18:30

Language

Facilitator(s)

Title, Short Summary

IT, ENG

Yael Sharan

How is Cooperative Learning Affected By Cultural Differences In Teaching And Learning? Cooperative learning (CL) is gaining popularity as the methodology most suited to the increasing diversity of today's student population, yet many misunderstandings of the principles and practices of CL prevail. This calls for careful consideration of the essential elements of CL and of the ways we present them in different countries and contexts. In this workshop participants will (1) explore the elements they value as essential for qualitative understanding of cooperative learning; (2) design ways of presenting these elements to ensure systematic, effective, and sustainable application of CL in different countries and in intercultural settings.

TBA

Claudio Berretta

Cooperative Learning and Social Skills Development With Special Needs Students In a class with five deaf students, including one with psychiatric problems and two with behavioural problems; another with serious disruptive conduct supported by peers with asocial behaviour, C.L. strategies enabled higher achievement for excellent students and improved the behaviour of problematic students. The workshop will pose the question: can we transfer this experience to promote intercultural integration?

TBA

Fabrizia Monfrino

Cooperative Games In Nursery School C.L experienced from an early age helps the child abandon his egocentrism in order to improve and help his interpersonal relationships with other children. Group activities help the child collaborate and cooperate with group mates, develop self confidence and empathy. Through group games children learn and experiment with different communicative strategies and develop a sense of responsibility towards themselves and others.

ENG

Linda Lee

Making a Difference For All Students: Assessing School Improvement Through A Social Justice Lens This interactive workshop will challenge participants to think about what school improvement really means, who should be involved in the school improvement journey, and how we can “measure” our success. The workshop will model actual strategies that have been successfully adapted to different cultural contexts. These strategies are ones participants can use in their own schools and communities to create conversations focused on fundamental issues related to school improvement. The workshop will be participatory in nature, encouraging inquiry, dialogue, reflection, and celebration.