Professional development for teachers

Engaging civics and citizenship

Wednesday 26 February, 9am - 3pm,  Parliament House
A free professional development event, presented by Parliament of Victoria and Swinburne Living Lab

Teachers from across Victoria’s education sector are invited to a special workshop focusing on engagement in the civics and citizenship classroom.

This workshop explores what it means to engage in civics and citizenship and what engaging civics and citizenship education looks like. Through using co-design strategies participants will explore concepts such as democracy, decision-making and representation. Additionally, participants will consider how these co-design strategies can be used in the classroom to enhance democratic decision-making, encourage active citizenship and elevate student voice.

Led by staff from the Parliament of Victoria and facilitators from Swinburne Living Lab, the ‘Engaging civics and citizenship’ workshop is suitable for both primary and secondary teachers.

The Exploring democracy module focuses on developing and understanding democracy in Australia and Victoria, covering concepts such as representation and democracy, separation of powers and democratic process.

The Taking action module takes a look at active citizenship, exploring how students can get involved in their communities and beyond.

Choose from two modules - Exploring democracy or Taking action - or complete both.

The Victorian parliament offers a range of opportunities for teachers looking to engage in professional learning, which are designed to enhance professional knowledge and practice, and support student learning.

There are a range of learning opportunities on offer, including seminars, conferences, workshops and online learning, with particular relevance to Civics and Citizenship and Legal Studies.

Each professional learning session addresses the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). The standards that are most often addressed through participation in parliament’s professional learning opportunities include:

• APST 2 Professional knowledge: Know the content and how to teach it
• APST 6 Professional engagement: Engage in professional learning
• APST 7 Professional engagement: Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community.

We're always happy to hear from teachers who would like to discuss their requirements when introducing Civics and Citizenship into the classroom.

Whether you're looking for advice on the use of our resources or subject matter expertise, we're here to help.

Use the form below to send us an email and we'll work with you to organsie a time to talk.

We promote all our professional learning opportunities through our social media channels and our education newsletter, Springboard. Sign up to Springboard to find out what's coming up.