About this workshops:
What does it really mean to design, teach and assess effective units of inquiry and how can we create classroom cultures within which our units of inquiry can meet their full potential?
This practical, two-day workshop provides educators with an opportunity to take a deep dive into the power of inquiry with a particular emphasis on the design of inquiry journeys across a year. We will explore practical approaches to designing inquiry journeys with and for our learners with an emphasis on striking a balance between forward mapping that attends to the curriculum and responsive planning that takes into account the needs and interests of students.
Across two days of active learning, we will explore the following questions:
• What classroom routines and structures can we develop to support the inquiry process?
• What are the characteristics of an effective inquiry?
• What contexts lend themselves best to inquiry? How can we use both local and global contexts to ensure inquiries can be more authentic?
• How can we design inquiries to develop skills and dispositions as well as knowledge and understanding?
• How can we use collaborative planning time more effectively to design and implement inquiries?
• How can we design inquiries to meaningfully integrate the curriculum?
• How can we ensure that inquiries are more conceptually driven?
• How does a ‘cycle of inquiry’ work and how can it support both our planning and the learning?
• How can ongoing assessment support the planning process?
• How can we involve students in co-constructing or co-designing for their learning?
• What documentation processes support inquiry? How can we make the learning visible as an inquiry unfolds?
Throughout the workshop, Kath will guide participants through her cycle of inquiry and use a range of practical strategies. Drawing on her extensive experience of facilitating inquiries around the world, Kath will show how understanding the elements of the process can make a powerful difference to the way we plan. Kath will show the way the cycle can be used to invite children into the planning process and how the meta language of the cycle can help children transfer the process to more personal, independent inquiries. Kath will also identify how the cycle can help elevate the role of key competencies or ‘Learning Assets’ as it unfolds. We will examine many examples of powerful inquiries to inspire us. Why not bring your team!
Workshop Leader Biography: Kath Murdoch
Kath Murdoch is an experienced teacher, author, university lecturer and popular consultant who has worked for many years in schools throughout the world. With a focus on early childhood and primary education, she is widely respected as a leader in the field of inquiry based learning and integrative curriculum in which she has taught, researched and published for over 40 years.
Kath began her professional life as a classroom teacher in Melbourne, Australia. Her fascination in how students' constructed their understandings - and her interest in the way questions and big ideas could drive curriculum soon led to a passion for integrative and inquiry based methodologies. This passion has become a career-long focus for teaching, research and writing and the methodologies in which Kath specialises are now central to curriculum frameworks in many parts of the world - including the popular International Baccalaureate, PYP program.
Critical to Kath’s success is her continued involvement in classroom teaching. Whether it is to demonstrate techniques, coach teachers or build her own repertoire of practices, Kath is committed to regular and ongoing work with students. Her classroom work and research feeds a dynamic and ever-evolving expertise in the area of integrative and inquiry-based learning.
Kath’s professional development offerings are diverse. They range from intensive partnerships with schools to develop inquiry programs and practices over several years through to one-day workshops for beginning or experienced inquiry teachers. Whether in her home town of Melbourne or on the other side of the world, working with a team or speaking to a packed auditorium Kath's style is refreshingly practical, inclusive and always connected to the real world of teaching.
Registration Fee（payable in USD）
Registration Fee: RMB 4400 per participant
Group Deal: RMB 4000 per participant for 5 or more participants
Early Bird： RMB 4000 before 28/2/2027
Refund Policy:
• If the workshop is canceled for reasons beyond our control and we are unable to find a suitable alternative time for most participants, IES will inform participants of the cancellation and refund the actual paid registration fee only, additional expenses (such as hotel accommodations, transportation, etc.) are not eligible for refunds.
• If a registered participant notifies IES before 15/08/2027 that he or she cannot attend or transfer registration to another person or event, IES will issue a refund of the actual paid registration fee. However, if this notification is received after 15/08/2026, IES will not issue a refund.
• A 2% transaction fee, charged by the payment platform (not the organizer), will be deducted from any refunds.
Certificate: E-certificate signed will be issued after the workshop.
