Creating solutions

The teacher of a year 9 class promotes critical and creative thinking skills while modelling effective teaching strategies to a colleague. The focus of the lesson on social networking sites is the analysis of images that are projected onto an interactive whiteboard. The images allow students to critically and creatively explore different perspectives about the impact of social networking on young people and on society generally. The mentoring opportunity provided to the ‘beginning teacher’ allows for a discussion about possible teaching strategies that he can subsequently employ in his own class.

Emmaus College is a co-educational Catholic school located in metropolitan Melbourne with a separate campus and learning program for year 9 students. The year 9 program offers a flexible and alternative teaching program. It is designed to enhance creativity, engagement, thinking skills and deep learning. Creative, critical and metacognitive thinking skills are developed through students’ practical involvement in projects. The pedagogical approach within subjects is deliberately intended to connect activities in the classroom to students real world experiences, including the use of information and communication technologies