While AACTA offers a range of specially designed courses (See Course Descriptions) presenters are willing to negotiate a course to cater for the specific needs of any particular group.

AACTA Instructors are amenable to modifying courses to suit the needs of any group including course content, length and location. Different group sizes are catered for - from small group settings to large workshops and presentations.

(Fees can be negotiated with each Instructor and are arranged separately from AACTA)

Should you wish to run such a course for a ‘closed’* group, contact the Instructor to discuss the specific needs of your group.

*A closed group is one where all organisation for the course is undertaken by the group engaging the Instructor for that purpose. A ‘closed’ group is not advertised in the AACTA Timetable for 2008.

This list contains other courses which can be run as presented here or customised further to suit the needs of any group. Although these courses are not listed on the 2008 timetable they are all available on request. Contact the Instructor listed.

Courses For Educators

Managing Students with Challenging Behaviours

Presenter: Don White | 3 or 6 Hours

This course is very much in demand and is offered as a one day or half day workshop presentation. It has been presented to individual school student welfare teams, whole schools, school district workshops for newly appointed teachers, newly appointed executive and at NSW state conferences for Principals as well as IES Conferences Australia. The longer the course the greater scope, depth and practice of the skills.

With a grounding in Perceptual Control Theory, participants learn and practise effective strategies to manage challenging behaviours. These include specific approaches such as restitution, conflict resolution, anti-bullying strategies, creating the conditions, self-evaluation. The course draws from the work of Marvin Marshall, Jim Fay and David Funk

Negotiation for Sustained Change

Presenter: Don White | 6 Hours

Change is the only constant we have. Yet many leaders and managers, when faced with the complexities of change, do not have a model from which to work. Drawing on the work of Edward Schein, Stephen H. Covey, Michael Fullan and Peter Senge, this course enables leaders to understand and embrace the pain of change and practise and develop strategies to transform their organization.

Creating the Conditions for Quality Teaching and Learning

Presenter: Don White | 6 Hours

This course provides teachers with strategies to create a classroom where students want to be, and want to do quality work. Participants will learn ways to engage students in quality learning activities and to lift their own standards of work through the power of self-evaluation. The quality in teaching and learning concept that has become the cornerstone of current educational drive forces in New South Wales and Queensland, has its foundations in the work of W. Edwards Deming and the Total Quality Management School that has subsequently evolved during the past thirty years. This course draws together the Deming Principles, the work of Dr Albert Mamary, Dr William Glasser and the Quality School Movement. It is about the essence of good teaching.

Conflict Resolution and Third Party Mediation for Students

Presenter: Don White | 12 Hours

If a school is really serious about giving kids the skills to resolve their conflicts in a peaceable way then the band-aid approach simply does not work. Teaching a small group of students to become peer mediators is like a drop in the ocean. Many schools that have introduced peer mediation into schools as a means of dispute resolution have failed miserably and the energy consumed in the process has been wasted simply because insufficient planning and time was invested in the initiative in the first place. It takes time to imbed the process in the culture of the school.
The most effective models of introducing conflict resolution and peer mediation are based on a three to five year process. It starts with teaching staff the skills of conflict resolution, then the students and parent community. Thus, when peer mediation is introduced it is more readily embraced as a credible alternative to violence. If we want people to give up destructive, harmful approaches to conflict then we have to give them something else that they will see as better and will accept. There is no quick fix.

Courses for Leaders and Managers

Vision and Values 1 and 2

Presenter: Don White | 12 Hours

The importance of vision and values in any organisation is best summed up in the words of Stephen Covey. ‘Begin with the end in mind.’ Visioning creates a mental picture of where the group wants to go and how they want to get there. Once they know and agree on where they want to go then forging a plan to get there is relatively easier. The process of visioning is just as important as the product because it is this process that creates the energy for the planning and action ahead.”
Participants will learn a process of developing a shared vision, based on the core values and beliefs of the organisation. This course is applicable to leadership, management and teams of any organisation from school classroom to multinational corporation.

1. Creating your Vision based on chosen values | 6 hours
2. Actioning your Vision | 6 hours

Inspiring Strategies for Aspiring Leaders

Presenter: Don White | 6 Hours

Leadership and enhancing the quality of workplace relationships.
A recent Australian study, Simply the Best (www.acirrt.com) published by Dr Daryll Hull and Vivien Read of UNSW confirmed that, “To produce quality work in Australia, one must have quality working relationships.” The quality of the leadership was also a vital ingredient. The bosses in the 16 excellent workplaces in the study understood that how they behaved was a determinant of how the workers themselves felt about the job. Workers valued leaders who worked as a captain/coach and in an atmosphere where they believed they could have their say and be acknowledged when they showed initiative. The skills and ideas presented and practised in this course will provide participants with the knowhow to become leaders for the new millennium.

Building and Maintaining Better Relationships in the Workplace

Presenter: Don White | 6 Hours

An understanding of Perceptual Control Theory is the essence of this course which teaches ways to negotiate and create the conditions for people to work together.
A graph of human progress in technology over the past 100 years would show exponential growth. The same graph of human progress in terms of better relationships would be a flat-line. Why? Because throughout history people have been trying to control others through the means of external motivation and it does not work over time to produce quality relationships. Only when we give up trying to make others do what we want and really listen to them and negotiate can we really start to build more effective relationships
Participants in this course will learn to ways to act with appropriate assertiveness and manage conflict more effectively through the practice of skills and strategies presented.

Instructor Contacts:

Don White: don@aacta.org.au
Judy McFadden: judy@aacta.org.au
Jenny McFadden: jenny@aacta.org.au