Workplace Tours

Teacher Reference Guide

Prior to the Tour

Organisation:

  • Consider organising the students into co-operative work groups where students perform a range of roles including: asking questions, recording answers, checking student compliance to OH&S on site, redrafting questions and thanking workplace tour guides, OH&S equipment (safety vests, safety glasses, closed toe shoes)

Eliciting and Developing Student Prior Knowledge

  • Support students to explore the organisation website.
  • Extend student discussion with knowledge from teacher tours.
  • Support the students to compose 3- 4 questions they would like answered during the tour. Students will see if these questions are answered during the tour, redrafting their questions if this is the case.
  • Discuss safety during the tour, student roles during the tour and expectations.

During the Tour

  • Ensure all students actively participate.
  • Look for examples during the tour where new learning can be related to previous student learning.
  • Model asking clarifying questions as a participant in the group.
  • Model taking notes for use later in class.

Discussion after tour

  • Before final discussion with tour presenter begins, provide students with time and support to analyse if their questions have already been answered and draft more questions on the run.
  • Pace the discussion so most students can participate.

After the Tour: Pulling the Learning Together at School

  • Lead and scaffold higher the discussion of what students learned during the tour
  • Support students to articulate what they are now wondering and what they would like to know next – career pathways they have seen, connected jobs in other fields, etc.
  • Encourage and support students to record and share their learning in a variety of formats – oral, written, digital.
  • Lead individual student reflection on how they performed their specific roles in the work group and how they can improve their participation.

Student Reference Guide

Prior to the Presentation

Understanding my role during the Presentations:

  • Work as a member of my group performing a variety of roles including
    • Compose (before) and ask questions (during).
    • Active Listening.
    • Taking notes.
    • Checking our group’s OH&S compliance during the tour.
    • Redrafting questions if they were answered during tour discussion.

Developing my prior knowledge before the Presentation

  • Explore and take notes on the company website.
  • Extend my knowledge through discussion with the teacher.
  • Recall helpful additional information from Young Ambassador talks and OH&S talks.
  • With my group compose 3-4 open ended questions to ask the presenter after the tour.
  • Record the safety measures our group need to consider during the tour.

During the Tour

  • Show active listening skills during the presentation.
  • If possible ask clarifying questions as the presentation is in progress.
  • Take notes, photos & video for use later at school as permitted.
  • Help our group adhere to OH&S requirements.

Discussion after tour

  • With my group redraft our initial questions if they were answered during the tour.
  • Actively and respectfully participate in the after tour discussion recording answers.
  • Share responsibility for thanking the presenter.

After the Tour – Pulling the Learning Together at School

  • Actively participate in follow up discussions back at school using my notes as evidence.
  • Help my group record our learning and develop our presentation or publication.
  • Develop with my group further areas coming from the tour our group would like to explore.
  • Reflect on the role I played in the group: what I did well and how I could improve my role.

Trial Schools Unit of Work

Learning Intention:

To familiarise students with a number of actual workplaces across a variety of sectors providing first-hand experience of seeing the workplace in operation.

Outcomes:

Students will gain a first-hand developing knowledge of how each visited workplace operates, the range and type of jobs and careers available at each workplace and the skills and values important in each workplace.

Tuning In Activities

Activity 1 – Developing Prior Knowledge

Teachers visit host workplaces to gain prior knowledge of the workplace and the detail of the tour, working with the tour hosts to ensure the tour best fits the age range and learning needs of the students.

Provide a 2 sided proforma so students can research the workplace visited and narrow the focus of their visit, e.g. OH&S.

Teachers prompt students to think of questions to ask before they go and are specific about the values and attributes to look for.

Prior to visit, students record the following:

  • Four big ideas I want to get from the visit.
  • 3 questions I want to ask.
  • My top 4 most interesting discoveries.
  • How does this link to my learning back at school.

Research the workplace.

Activity 2 – Workplace Tours

View different workplaces to investigate how they work. These could be the sites students select for their project.

Research the company:

  • What do they do?
  • What questions do we have as a group?
  • Organise questions and prompts.
  • Organise roles – who will interview, question, who will take notes, who will take photos, time keepers, OH&S officers, thank hosts.

Example of actual tours:

Example 1:

Local Builder – House building site

Follow-up back at school:

  • Research various house plans from workplace website.
  • Which could be an option for a designated block of land.
  • Provide a budget. Which plan works best for the budget available for various family scenarios.
  • 3 week measurement mini unit.

Example 2:

Local Botanical Gardens

Follow-up back at school:

  • Investigate the inclusion of a flower garden at school.
  • Area and perimeter of possible garden beds.
  • Volume of soil needed.
  • Cost of making the desired flower garden.
  • 3 week measurement mini unit.

Examples

Click below to view examples of Workplace Tours