The Plato Program is an innovative and dynamic subject that was introduced to explore "learning how to learn" in Year 7.

1. The Plato Program
John Stanton
BA (Syd) GradDipAppSci(Information) (UTS) GradDipBM (ACT) GradDipEd(Secondary) (CSU) AALIA
Head of Library Services
William Clarke College
Sydney, Australia
Diversity Challenge Resilience: School Libraries in Action - The 12th Biennial School
Library Association of Queensland, the 39th International Association of School
Librarianship Annual Conference, incorporating the 14th International Forum on
Research in School Librarianship,
Brisbane, QLD Australia, 27 September – 1 October 2010.

2. William Clarke College
Established 1989
Kindergarten to Year 12
Independent Anglican College
Kindergarten to Year 4 established
2007
1400 students
Located in Kellyville, an outer suburb
of Sydney

3. William Clarke College Library
Kindergarten to Year 12 Library
Physically located in the centre of the
school
1 full-time teacher librarian and 1 part-
time teacher librarian; 4 part-time
library assistants
Collection of about 60,000 items

4. Introduce learning styles One semester-long
to students using subject
For Year 7
Gardiner’s Multiple
students
Intelligences
THE GENESIS
OF THE
PLATO
PROGRAM
Create a regularly
timetabled subject using
half-sized classes
(about 15 students)

6. Introduce critical
thinking skills
Introduce learning styles One semester-long
to students using subject
For Year 7
Gardiner’s Multiple
students
Intelligences
Learning about learning
Lots of discussion at
College-wide level
THE GENESIS
OF THE Use the Bloom’s
about curriculum
Taxonomy /
differentiation PLATO Gardiner’s MI matrix
PROGRAM as the basis for a
learning task (the
Two components: Project)
1. A series of lessons
using games and other Create a regularly
activities to explore all timetabled subject using
Gardiner’s Intelligences half-sized classes
(about 15 students)
2. A Major Project

7. Plato Program Version 1

8. THE PLATO The ‘Choose your own adventure’
Project: a Gardiner’s / Bloom’s
PROJECT: matrix with 48 general questions
VERSION 1 which could be tailored to any
topic.
Students chose their own topic.

9. Plato Project matrix
Remember Understand Apply Analyse Create Evaluate
Visual Task Task
Verbal Task Task
Logical
Musical
Intrapersonal
Interpersonal
Naturalist
Kinaesthetic

10. THE PLATO The ‘Choose your own adventure’
Project: a Gardiner’s / Bloom’s
PROJECT: matrix with 48 general questions
VERSION 1 which could be tailored to any
topic.
Students chose their own topic.
Positives:
Students highly motivated & interested
Negatives:
Students did not engage deeply with thinking or
learning processes;
Predominately low-quality work produced;
Not every topic neatly fitted the generic questions

11. Plato Program Version 2

12. The ‘Teacher-selected topic’ Project:
a Gardiner’s / Bloom’s matrix with
THE PLATO 48 questions applied to a pre-
determined topic.
PROJECT:
VERSION 2 We trialled:
Body image and the media;
Consumerism;
World Heritage Areas
Positives:
Higher quality work produced, with deeper
thinking; more challenging
Negatives:
Topics not necessarily connected to lifelong
learning skills, or to other curriculum areas;
Teachers got sick of the topics

13. Information skills Information skills
lessons (or Library skills “embedded” in most
lessons) non-existent syllabuses (this is code
for: we think it might be
important but we don’t
Teachers of Senior know what to do with it)
students (Years 11 &
12) lamenting the Lack of student
students’ lack of
MY GENERAL knowledge about scope
research skills and use of subscription
OBSERVATIONS
databases available
So many ‘information
skills’ to be taught, yet Student inability to
no scope and sequence successfully use the
library catalogue, and
Lack of opportunity to Lack of student ability to transit from the OPAC to
get into the timetable – critically appraise the shelves
either “library lessons” information for reliability
or collaboratively or accuracy

14. Plato Program Version 3

15. Light bulb moment…
Devise a Project using
the Gardiner’s / Bloom’s
matrix with
INFORMATION SKILLS The focus is on the
as the core topic. process, not the product
The focus is on the
THE RESEARCH ESSENTIAL
& INFORMATION QUESTIONS of
SKILLS Information skills
PROJECT
The matrix contains
mandated tasks as well
Students explore as free-choice tasks.
research itself in a Students have direction,
meta-cognitive way but also control over
their learning

16. THE PLATO The ‘Information Skills topic’ Project:
a Gardiner’s / Bloom’s matrix with
PROJECT: 48 questions applied to library and
VERSION 3 information skills.
Positives:
Focus on Information Skills; Students exploring
the Research Process itself, not just “doing
research”; Higher quality work produced, with
deeper thinking; more challenging; mandated
compulsory tasks + optional tasks
Negatives:
Abstract topic led to tasks which were too
difficult for Year 7 students; too much
complexity; not all topics were well chosen for
the tasks

17. Plato Program Version 4

18. THE PLATO The ‘Information Skills topic’ Project:
a Gardiner’s / Bloom’s matrix with
PROJECT: 48 questions applied to library and
VERSION 4 information skills.
Positives:
Introduced ‘big ideas’ as a focus for tasks; use
of ICT to deliver some content; students
explore electronic resources; use of Koechlin &
Zwaan’s Infoskills outcomes;
Negatives:
Some tasks still too difficult for Year 7 students;
too much ambiguity with instructions for each
task; no logical sequence for tasks

19. Plato Project online delivery
All information
and links are
provided
Links to online
information
sources

20. Plato Program Version 5

21. THE PLATO The ‘Addis Ababa’ Project: a library
and information skills course for
PROJECT: Grades 6-8 in a third world context.
VERSION 5
Positives:
Forced me to consider how much of the
content could be taught in a technologically
poor environment; course spanned over 3
years – more time to explore ideas in depth
Negatives:
Infrastructure failure (power and internet);
development of the course simultaneous to
teaching it

22. Plato Program Version 6

23. THE PLATO The current version of the Project: a
Gardiner’s / Bloom’s matrix with 48
PROJECT: questions applied to library and
VERSION 6 information skills.
Positives:
Clear pathway through the project tasks; step-
by-step instructions for each task; checklists
for ‘what to hand in’; online submission of
work; simplified content
Negatives:
Possibly still too many tasks

24. Plato Program Version 7
(2011+)

25. THE PLATO New features:
PROJECT: Matrix combining Bloom’s Taxonomy with the 6
step Information Process (NSW Dept of
VERSION 7
Education)
Reduced number of tasks (36 instead of 48)
Logical sequence to the project more obvious
Explicit teaching of main tasks in class
Incorporation of Visible Thinking Routines
(from Project Zero, Harvard University)
A collaboration project will commence in Term 4, 2010 with the
Head of History to begin looking at how Information Skills can be
embedded and taught in the History curriculum for Years 8-10.

26. The Current Version
Unpacking the details

27. 48 tasks in total
Each task is awarded
Bloom’s / Gardiner’s points, from 1 point
matrix Each task has at (easy) to 6 points
least one ‘big idea’ (difficult)
or Essential
Compulsory tasks span Question
all Intelligences /
Students must complete
Learning styles
45 points worth of tasks:
THE PROJECT
Compulsory tasks = 33
The entire project, ITSELF points
including the matrix,
graphic organisers, Free-choice tasks = 12
specific web links, points
YouTube links etc. are
all available through
Students explore 7 information
Moodle on the
sources: Google, Wikipedia, ANZRC,
intranet
MacquarieNet, World Book Web,
Newsbank and the library catalogue
(Oliver)

28. What are ‘big ideas’ or
Essential Questions?
– Essential Questions can be expressed by
asking: “When a student leaves the school,
what are the fundamental things (knowledge,
skills etc.) that they need to have learned
from your subject?”
– They originate from research done by
McTighe and Wiggins in ‘Understanding by
design’

29. How do I make a
How do I identify bibliography?
keywords to make a
search strategy? What is Boolean logic,
and how can I use it?
What is the
research process? How can I assess the
THE “BIG accuracy and reliability
What is a database? IDEAS” or of a website?
ESSENTIAL
What is research? QUESTIONS
What are truncation and
proximity searches, and
How can I find print how can I use them?
information using the
library catalogue? Subscription databases
vs. Google, Wikipedia
What are skimming and etc.
scanning?

30. Student-directed
Essential Questions / learning with support
Big Ideas
Opportunity for a lot of
1-on-1 mentoring of
Koechlin & Zwaan’s students
InfoSkills
THE
Scalable for different
Student choice in
PEDAGOGICAL learning needs
learning FRAMEWORK
Use of ICT as a central David Loertscher’s Ban
learning tool, not as a the Bird Units
gimmick
Explicit teaching supported
by self-paced discovery
High expectations of
through the use of online
students
games, resources etc.

31. The Information Process

32. Plato Project matrix Bloom’s
Taxonomy
Optional
tasks in
white
Compulsory
tasks in
yellow
Gardiner’s Multiple
Intelligences

33. Most tasks require
students to learn about
Each task contains four a skill, then to be able to
components: apply or use it The use of YouTube
clips demonstrating
1. The Essential information skills
Question
2. Instructions about
what to do
THE PROJECT
The use of online
ITSELF games to teach
3. A list of ‘What you
need to hand in’ information skills
4. A reference to one or
more of Koechlin The use of pre-existing
Most tasks have one to
and Zwaan’s online resources to
three pre-set topics to
‘Infoskills’ engage students, and to
choose from to give
not reinvent everything:
students an example to
e.g. rubrics for
use when searching
analysing websites;
WebQuests, Boolify etc.

34. Plato Project matrix
Task grid
reference
Previous task
grid
reference ‘Big idea’
question
Step-by-step
instructions
Checklist of
what to hand
Navigation to in
optional tasks
Next main
task grid
Infoskills reference
outcomes

35. Moodle Macquarie
Newsbank
Net
Online course delivery ANZRC
Focus on electronic
(Ebsco)
information sources
Resources All links
available in provided Wikipedia
different World Book
Google
formats (e.g. THE USE OF Web
Word, pdf)
TECHNOLOGY Oliver
Kathy (ICTs) (Library
Schrock’s catalogue)
website
evaluation YouTube
guides
BBC
Learning
Use of existing Online submission of
online
resources from the responses
games
internet
Webquests CILIP
resources

36. How can you assess
How do you use the accuracy and How can you find
keywords to reliability of internet print information?
identify search sources?
terms?
How do you use
skimming and
What is Boolean Logic? scanning to extract
PROJECT information?
SEQUENCE
What are How useful and
How do you make
databases and reliable is Wikipedia?
a bibliography?
search engines?
Mini-project What is research?
What is the
How do you use Research Process?
What have I What is an online
different information
learned? reference database?
sources effectively?

37. Identifying
How do you use keywords in a
keywords to text
identify search
terms? Using keywords in Google: why some
results are ‘good’ and others are not
Identifying
keywords
around a PROJECT
topic SEQUENCE Building
background
What are Types of
knowledge
databases and information Six step
search engines? found in each information
process
Similarities & Usefulness of What is research?
differences each What is the
Internet vs. databases: Research Process?
positives & negatives; What is an online
similarities & reference database?
differences

38. Website How can you assess
Transitioning
evaluation the accuracy and
from screen How can you find
tools reliability of internet
to shelf print information?
sources?
Genuine vs. Interpreting Using the
Critical thinking
hoax information library
skills
websites catalogue
PROJECT Identifying
SEQUENCE the parts of
Using a the library
variety of
sources for Comparing
similar information
information from different
sources
How do you use Identifying
different information keywords in a
sources effectively? text

39. Gathering
AND information
Selecting
OR Using them information
NOT to obtain
better results How do you use
skimming and
What is Boolean Logic? scanning to extract
PROJECT information?
Bracketed SEQUENCE
searches
How useful and
Positives & reliable is Wikipedia?
negatives
Authority
Accuracy

40. PROJECT
SEQUENCE
Avoiding
plagiarism
How do you make APA
a bibliography? Referencing
standards
Applying all Mini-project
Reflection
the
information
skills What have I Evaluation
Feedback for learned?
me

41. Increased competence
in the use of online
resources, including Students using
Increased awareness of Google expected referencing
online databases
standards
available at school
Students have greater TOTAL student
confidence in their OBSERVED engagement over 10
ability to use information OUTCOMES weeks
technology
(SO FAR)
Students able to use the Students able to think
library catalogue critically about the
websites they encounter
Students know what
clues to look for when Students demonstrating
assessing websites a clearer understanding
of their own learning
styles

42. The future vision

43. I envision the Project will be
Include links to reconfigured so that it will
NSW Education contribute to students’ lifelong
learning development Expansion to
syllabus
incorporate other
outcomes &
information skills
National
outcomes
THE FUTURE
VISION
Information and Study Skills
Research Skills
Another option is to
One option is to incorporate
expand Plato Project to
Information Skills into the
include a Study Skills
Years 8-10 History curriculum.
component for Years
10-12
Develop a Years 7-10
learning continuum

44. Plato Project Blog
http://platoproject.wordpress.com/