CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

Presenters: Beverley Langbein & Hazel Wilton

POTHOLES & PARADIGMS: A Practical Insight into Sustainable School-Wide Change towards Differentiation

We believe that change is imperative in many of today’s schools if we are to develop truly responsive classrooms. The rollercoaster of school-wide change in the direction of curriculum differentiation involves creating a vision, generating plans and implementing professional development that increases the number of differentiated classrooms. By utilising powerful theories and change principles that support differentiation, unpinned by shared, well-articulated beliefs about intelligence and education, we have endeavoured to provide the foundation for a practical, innovative pathway towards sustainable change at Kirwan Primary School in North Queensland.

Fundamental to our momentum is recognition of the need to rigorously evaluate and analyse challenges in order to continue anew on the journey. We will demonstrate how these dilemmas have presented us with opportunities to develop dynamic processes and strategies for growth. In this presentation we will share with you our navigation of the potholes and paradigms along our road to differentiation and we will assist you to create a tool kit you can tailor to suit your school’s context as you negotiate your own exciting journey.