Date/Time:

19/03/2026 - 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

Event Categories:

• Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
• Futures Thinking
• Leadership and Coaching
• Professional Learning

Description:

Empower your community to learn from within. Explore how to interrogate ‘problems of practice’, strengthen research capabilities, and become a self-researching school. Foster a culture of reflection, inquiry analysis, and collective growth focused on what matters most in your unique educational context. 

Your commitment: 23.5 contact hours plus any required reading. Participating schools are also required to trial strategies following session 1 and share learning at session 4.

AITSL Professional Standards for Teachers: Focus areas 6.2,6.3 and 6.4.

Delivery mode: 4 x face-to-face sessions.

Presented by: 
Dr Tom Porta, PhD, Program Director, Master of Education, Lecturer in Education, School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics, The University of Adelaide.
Associate Professor Joanna Anderson, PhD, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, School of Education, Adelaide University.
Along with key experts to support specific micro projects and inquiries.

Price: $2,850.00 per school team (GST inclusive). A school team comprises of 3 participants. This series is not designed for individual registrations. If you wish to send more than 3 participants, please contact Julie Tarzia or Désirée Gilbert.

Key Dates: By registering for this series, you are committing to attend the following sessions:

19 March 2026, 9:00am-3:30pm
12 May 2026, 9:00am-1:00pm
17 June 2026, 9:00am-3:30pm
22 October 2026, 9:00am-3:30pm

Location: AISSA, 128 Greenhill Road, Unley SA 5061.

Registration closes: 12 March 2026 at 5:00pm.

Program Overview: In its inaugural offering, the AISSA invites schools to build practitioner research capability as a gateway to learning success. This project supports schools to become self-researching communities, identifying problems of practice, developing evidence literacy, and fostering a culture of reflection and collective improvement tailored to their unique context. 

Schools will engage in tailored pathways that shift the focus from external solutions to internally driven inquiry and innovation. 

By the end of this program, participants will: 

• develop a shared understanding of the role and purpose of practitioner research
• build awareness of evidence literacy and ethical considerations in school-based research
• practice framing a problem of practice into a focused micro-inquiry
• explore research methodologies and foundational inquiry skills
• conduct a rapid cycle micro-inquiry to test ideas for improving teaching and learning
• share or publish insights and reflect collectively on implications for school improvement and future research capacity.

Program Lead: please contact Julie Tarzia or Désirée Gilbert.

Terms and Conditions: Registration for this event will incur the fee detailed above. This fee will be invoiced after the event and is payable unless written notice of cancellation is received seven or more days prior to the event. See the AISSA’s Professional Learning Terms and Conditions for the full registration terms and conditions including the cancellation policy.

Registrations: please register your school team via this link.