Kurwongbah State School was recently the inaugural winner of the School Library Association of Queensland Brian Bahnisch Award for its Whole School Thinking Skills Program. The Award, presented during the three day School Library Association of Queensland biennial Conference ‘Flagging the Future’ recognises the significant collaboration between teacher-librarian Denise Tarlinton and other members of the school community, Deputy Principal Alison Rose, teachers Dianne Marsden, Louise Simms and GATE coordinator Natalie Baxter, in developing and managing Kurwongbah’s ongoing Whole School Thinking Skills Program.
The award was presented to Kurwongbah teacher-librarian Denise Tarlinton by Brian Bahnischat a special ceremony during the conference dinner at the Gold Coast Arts Centre, Bundall. Mr Bahnisch is a leading figure in the history of teacher-librarianship in Queensland. He was an instigator in the development of libraries in schools. From 1969 he worked to develop the training of teacher-librarians and to develop guidelines for resource selection and management in school libraries. Most importantly, he set the pattern for the educational role of the teacher-librarian and for the total integration of the school resource centre into the educational program of the school. In 1991, Mr Bahnisch retired as Assistant Director, Division of Curriculum Services. The award is named to honour the significant role that Brian Bahnisch has played in establishing school libraries and the educational role of teacher-librarians within the school community.
All teachers at Kurwongbah have been involved in intensive in-school training over the past two and a half years to investigate various thinking models and strategies for higher-order thinking and curriculum integration. According to Kurwongbah Principal Larry Burke, “The Whole School Thinking Skills Program at Kurwongbah is about equipping our students for life long learning. It is concerned primarily with teaching for thinking, the teaching of thinking, teaching with thinking and teaching about thinking. It is about equipping our students with the critical and creative thinking skills that they will need for an ever-changing future.”
Teacher-librarian Denise Tarlinton, is enthusiastic about the vital role that the collaboration of staff members has played in the promotion of thinking within the school community. “The success of the Whole School Thinking Skills Program has been due to the enthusiasm of all teachers at Kurwongbah to accept the challenges presented within the Productive Pedagogies document; to investigate a variety of ways to enhance teaching and learning across all KLAs, and to contribute towards a whole school vision of what worthwhile learning experiences for our students should look like. Our Whole School Thinking Skills Program is the result of the collaboration and dedication of staff to integrate thinking skills into the curriculum in exciting and meaningful ways in order to cater for students’ individual interests and talents.” The Whole School Thinking Skills Program draws on and integrates the work of Edward deBono, Howard Gardner, Tony Ryan, Michael Pohl, Benjamin Bloom, Robert Marzano and Eric Frangenheim.
During his closing address at the SLAQ 2004 ‘Flagging the Future’ Conference, Terry Kearney, Assistant Director-General for the Office of State Schooling, praised Kurwongbah for its innovative approach to integrating thinking into the school curriculum. As Deputy Principal Alison Rose notes, “Our Thinking Skills Program is not about add-ons, it is about the integration of higher-order thinking into curriculum programs and the explicit teaching of thinking skills. It is about experimenting with a number of strategies and models to see which ones best fit our student community. It is about the building of a shared vision and a shared language with which students and teachers can discuss thinking in meaningful ways.”
The School Library Association of Queensland is the state professional association for teacher-librarians. It was founded in 1969 to provide opportunities for its members to work cooperatively within their educational settings through commitment to the development of students as life long learners. The biennial Brian Bahnisch Award is open to schools with a teacher-librarian who is a current financial member of the School Library Association of Queensland by virtue of personal or school membership. The nomination must reflect a partnership over a significant period of time involving the teacher-librarian, classroom teacher/s, and/or other members of the school community that has demonstrated positive effect on student learning outcomes, and that demonstrates best practice in teacher-librarianship for others in the profession.