Masterclass
About the Presenters
These Masterclasses provide a rare opportunity to spend a day with some of the world's top presenters, working interactively together for the first time in Australia.
John Edwards was the top ranked presenter by delegates at the International Conference on Thinking in New Zealand. Bill Martin and James Nottingham were ranked third and fifth by delegates at the International Conference on Thinking in Sweden.
Other presenters against who they were ranked included: Peter Senge, Edward de Bono, Art Costa, David Perkins, Howard Gardner, Robert Swartz, David Lange, Ference Marton, Julia Atkin, Sir Edmund Hillary, Guy Claxton, Karl-Henrik Robert, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Neil Carrington is regularly a top ranked presenter across Australia, and Mary Wilson has just returned from very high ratings with audiences in Norway and the UK.
Key Presenters |
Guest Presenters |
|---|---|
| Professor John Edwards | James Nottingham |
| Bill Martin | Mary Wilson |
| Dr Neil Carrington | Steve Stanley |
KEY PRESENTERS:
Professor John Edwards has dedicated his life to exploring and developing human potential. He has for many years been one of the leading research grant recipients in Cognitive Science in Australia. John is one of the few top international researchers in the field to have turned his research into award-winning practice in education, in business and in elite sport.
He has worked in over twenty countries. In Australia he has long experience researching inside schools on how students think; the direct teaching of thinking; professional development; what tests really test; the measurement of cognitive demand; the reality of teachers’ lives; and the creative leadership of change. He believes that teachers know how to create magnificent schools if only we would get out of their way and let them get on with it. This has led to the creation with Bill Martin of an international Network across five countries of over fifty “teacher designed” schools.
John spent a year working with Art Costa in the USA as Art developed his programs; he has worked closely with Edward de Bono for over twenty years; spent six months as a visiting professor at Harvard with David Perkins; worked with Peter Senge’s team in industrial settings; and has developed his own successful innovations programs. His latest book: “People Rules for Rocket Scientists” provides powerful insights into the key models, skills and processes for professional growth and learning.
He also works as a personal coach to CEO’s, school leaders, and elite sports coaches and national and international players around the world. John has worked inside schools in Australia for almost forty years, and with major organisations such as Fisher and Paykel, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Macquarie Bank, and Carlton and United Breweries, to create cultures of thinking and innovation. He coaches leaders to develop their own powerful thinking repertoires, and through these to lead others.
Bill Martin is Managing Director of Bill Martin and Associates, a U.S.-based company, which facilitates change in large organizations through the generation of powerful shared visions involving all staff, and implementation of the resulting long-term development plans. He focuses on organizational learning, the creation of leadership capacity, innovation, effective change, and the direct teaching of systems thinking skills and thinking dispositions. He has spent most of his career in senior leadership positions.
Bill’s background is in education, both in public education and in universities. On two occasions he led large schools in low socio-economic, culturally diverse communities to win State and National awards for organizational excellence. These awards are given to only 300 U.S. schools annually from over 36,000 schools in the country. The impressive positive effects on staff, students, parents and local communities have been well documented and internationally recognized. Bill has also earned national awards for leadership.
He is a sought after consultant and presenter in both education and business. Bill has worked in nine countries across a range of sectors, including education, business, health, juvenile justice, non-profit organizations and sport. He has presented invited addresses at International Conferences on Thinking in New Zealand, the U.K., USA, and Australia. He was also a keynote presenter at the recent International Conference on Ignorance.
Besides his widely respected work on shared visioning, Bill works with organizations in a range of areas: the creation of leadership teams; professional growth; the leadership of learning; the management of change; processes to create alignment and commitment, even from the most resistant staff; and Habits of Mind.
Bill’s processes are in powerful use internationally, and he completes regular tours of the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Europe. One of his major current projects is the establishment of an international network of innovative schools spread across four countries.
Dr Carrington is currently the Foundation National Director of the Leadership Centre for the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). He specialises in strategic planning, performance development systems for staff, executive coaching and advanced communication skill development. In 2007 Dr Carrington was a Travelling Scholar for Education Queensland in the area of Developing Performance. He recently facilitated a highly successful series of workshops for Education Queensland’s leaders. Currently he is assisting the state-wide roll out of the new 'Developing Performance Framework' in Queensland. He is also engaged by Catholic Education in Queensland and Victoria to speak on the topic of creating and developing Performance Cultures in schools.
Most recently Neil spent over 3 years as Director of Teaching and Learning at Queensland University of Technology overseeing 130 staff. In his six years as Director of Education for the Mater Health Services Neil was responsible for all organisational and professional development, education, and training for over 4500 medical, nursing, allied health and administrative/executive staff. He was also responsible for the Leadership Institute, Online Learning, University of Queensland Library Services, Medical Graphics/Photography, Multimedia Services, OnLine Health, and Care Management Unit. Neil also oversaw the Queensland Health state-wide Medical Administrators training program.
Prior to the Mater, he spent 6 years in the university sector as a senior academic/manager, and as a consultant (staff/organisational development) in the public and private sector. As well as his background in education he also has successful managerial/consultancy experience in private industry as a Marketing /Export Manager and Executive Coach. Currently, he provides a consultancy service to a number of organisations advising on issues such as executive coaching, training and professional development, leadership and management, learning design, organisational change and advanced communication skills.
Dr Carrington is an experienced educator and leader who has worked as a teacher in rural, indigenous and metropolitan schools, as a Learning Support Teacher and Guidance Officer (K-12), and as Head of Department in Queensland and in London. Neil lectured in Educational Psychology and Teaching Practice at QUT and the University of Western Sydney and he was also formerly Director of School Experience at the University of New England.
As well as his initial teaching qualification Neil has a postgraduate qualification in Special Education, a Masters degree in Education as well as a Masters degree in Educational Psychology. His PhD into perceptions of intelligence was judged to be one of the largest and most rigorous studies of its type ever undertaken in Australia.
GUEST PRESENTERS:
JAMES NOTTINGHAM (Sydney Masterclass only)
James Nottingham is the Managing Director of Sustained Success, a company concerned with achieving long-lasting success within organisations. He has broad experience of team learning and leadership development, is one of the UK’s leading practitioners in the direct teaching of thinking and is a sought-after keynote speaker, writer and trainer.
Starting out as an industrial quality controller, James went on to become a sports coach for deaf teenagers after having completed some volunteer work in apartheid South Africa. He later qualified as a teacher and, as head of department, led the development of the direct teaching of thinking across the curriculum. This significant work became an integral part of the new National Curriculum in England and Wales. In 1999, James featured in a nationally televised documentary on teaching thinking that helped develop a network of more than 1,000 teachers who continue to use these successful strategies to raise achievement and innovation.
In September 2000, James co-founded a social enterprise project to regenerate areas of North East England characterised by under-employment, low aspirations and lack of community engagement. This grew into a multi-million pound initiative working with key stakeholders from education, business and community groups across the UK. In 2005 James collected an award in recognition of the outstanding contribution the project had made to the raising of young people’s aspirations, enterprising attitudes and achievements.
Today, as Managing Director of Sustained Success, as well as European coordinator of the Teacher Designed Schools Network, James supports schools across the world to raise their performance to outstanding with a blend of teaching, learning, creativity and leadership. More details can be found at www.sustained-success.com
MARY WILSON (Sydney and Melbourne Masterclasses only)
Since February 2005, Mary has been the establishment Principal of a year 1-8 school, Baverstock Oaks School in Flatbush, Auckland, New Zealand. www.baverstock.school.nz
Mary has been involved in education for 27 year and has a special interest in the differing ways people learn, particularly the use of in-depth questioning, high level thinking practices and the inquiry process. Learner ownership is imperative. She has been involved in consultancy work with adult learners for a number of years creating sustainable change and positive attitudes to life long learning.
Prior to establishing Baverstock Oaks, Mary was the establishment Associate Principal at Somerville Intermediate School in Howick, Auckland. This involved establishing with the leadership team a positive learning culture and managing rapid growth. Mary has taught children from age 5 – 14 years at many different schools across Auckland.
As well as her Advanced Diploma in Teaching, Mary completed her Masters of Educational Management & Leadership in 2006. Her Masters thesis was titled “Building Governance Leadership Capability in Strategic Planning”. This focused on the pivotal role of the principal as CEO of the Board of Trustees and how to empower Board members in their role of governance in New Zealand schools.
Mary is developing a reputation for her approach to developing a learning environment based on a totally shared vision and agreed core values. From this strong base, combined with her knowledge of pedagogical theory, she has developed innovative, practical ways to integrate the teaching of thinking skills and strategies. She has presented at conferences within New Zealand as well as internationally.
Since establishing Baverstock Oaks, Mary has set about building a strong and positive learning culture throughout the school community which includes teachers, parents and students being actively engaged as learners. In this ‘teacher designed school’, distributed leadership is clearly evident and dreams really happen.
STEVE STANLEY: (Perth Masterclass only)
Steve Stanley is the Managing Director of the Centre for Professional Excellence (CPE) in Perth. CPE specialises in the design, implementation and analysis of strengths-based professional learning, internal capacity building, and effective change processes. His focus is on people as the key resource in any organisation.
The programs developed are unique to each client and context. Steve has worked in schools and was the Director of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching in Western Australia. He now works with clients across the education, information technology, government authorities, and elite sports sectors. The development of top class leadership through personal coaching is central to most CPE programs.