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Shaping the conversation about boys, relationships and schooling

16/6/2021

 
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​It’s not an easy time to be a boy, and some would say it’s not an easy time being an educator of boys. With questions regularly asked about the relative merits of single-sex versus co-education, and a culture challenging the traditional binary view of biological sex and gender, it can be easy to lose confidence in the particular work of educating boys. Committed as we are to the substantial research-based and observed benefits of single-sex schooling, at Scots we seek to constantly challenge ourselves to collaborate with others in refining — even reinventing — boys’ education.

Last Wednesday, staff from across the College had the opportunity to join educators from boys’ schools around the world for the 2021 International Boys’ Schools Coalition (IBSC) Annual Conference. Bringing together over 280 boys’ schools from 19 countries, the IBSC provides a diverse and active network for sharing and shaping best practice in boys’ education. Scots has for several years been a key member of the IBSC, hosting conferences, shaping major research projects, and partaking in professional learning activities. Dr Lambert currently serves as Vice-Chair of the IBSC, leading the Australasia region, and chairs the Research Committee, of which Dr Caitlin Munday and I are also members. 

This year’s Annual Conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Australasia region was invited to host the first of four successive online sessions. I had the privilege of hosting a panel conversation on ‘Boys and Relationships’ featuring Dr Rob Loe (CEO, Relationships Foundation), Professor Nancy Hill (developmental psychologist, Harvard University) and Maree Crabbe (co-founder and Director of the Australian violence prevention project, It's time we talked). In a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion, we explored key questions such as:

  • What exactly are relationships and why are they so important?
  • What are the key research-based ingredients for flourishing relationships?
  • But how do young people learn what it means to relate well together? 
  • Is there anything particular about that learning journey for boys?
  • How is pornography and a sexualised culture distorting how boys learn about healthy relationships?
  • What sort of messages should we be taking to our parents about helping their sons grow into great relational men?

Scots staff also contributed four presentations to the conference, including:

  • The Applied Entrepreneurship Program: Boys' New Pathways to the Future of Work (David Todd, Andrew Potter, Dr Ian Lambert)
  • The Real Impact of Experiential Education: Practical Insights from Major Research in Boys' Education (Dr Hugh Chilton with Dr Mathew Pfeiffer, MMG Education)
  • Future-Ready Boys' Schools: IBSC Research and Innovation (Dr Ian Lambert, Dr Caitlin Munday, Dr Hugh Chilton, with the IBSC Research Committee)
  • Becoming a Strong 21st Century School of Character (Dr Ian Lambert, with CIRCLE Education)

Beyond the Annual Conference, we were delighted to play our part in the release of a major report with University College London on boys and technology. In December 2020, the IBSC Research Committee contracted with Professor of Learner Centred Design Rose Luckin, of UCL Knowledge Lab in London, to explore Building Learning Relationships Through the Use of Technology. The goal is to design a program of future research that aims to explore how new and emerging technologies are impacting pedagogy, relationships (especially pupil-teacher, but also pupil-pupil), and the areas of overlap between these two.

This report covers the following themes:

  • Presence and how to create presence in virtual learning environments;
  • Connections and what it means to know in relationships;
  • Belonging and bringing together in community and classroom cultures;
  • Identity and how identity impacts agency and efficacy in learning—and in relationships; and
  • Learning environments, including home.

We look forward to helping shape the next phase of this significant global research.

For more about the International Boys’ Schools Coalition, please click here.

Dr Hugh Chilton
Director of Research and Professional Learning

Scots hosts boys' educators from around the world for experiential learning conference

31/7/2018

 
Over the first two weeks of the July school holidays, the College was involved in running and attending major conferences of the International Boys’ Schools Coalition. The IBSC brings together over 280 schools around the world to share research and practice in the educating of boys. The Principal has, for some years, been a Trustee of the IBSC, and since July 2017 has chaired its Research Committee (which also involves Scots Research staff Dr Hugh Chilton and Dr Caitlin Munday). As of July 2018, the Principal was elected the IBSC’s Vice-President  for Australasia, further cementing the desire for the College, in the words of our vision statement, to be ‘recognised globally as a leading, caring school for boys’.

IBSC Annual Conference

The 25th IBSC Annual Conference took place at The Southport School on the Gold Coast 8-11 July. It featured over 600 delegates from some 14 countries. Taking advantage of the proximity of this year’s conference and the opportunity to expose our staff to the world, we sent a delegation of 43 staff, selected from across our campuses and from executive, teaching and support teams. Scots staff gave 6 presentations, including a Featured Speaker session on research and innovation in boys’ schools in conjunction with Eton College and St Christopher’s School. Science Teacher Nick Little won the Action Research Award, the top in his global cohort, for his year-long study of how boys learn in our Graeme Clark Centre activity-based learning environments. He has since been asked to speak on the topic at a major conference in Melbourne. Staff who attended the program were effusive in their reflections on the ideas and inspiration this gave them for their work at the College. 
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IBSC Pre-Conference Adventures: ‘Ventures and Adventures in the Real World: Educating boys experientially’
As a boost to the Annual Conference and an opportunity to show delegates the College’s programs and the Australian environment, we organised a 3-day experiential learning program at Glengarry, Bannockburn and Bellevue Hill. We had around 60 delegates from leading schools in the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, India, China and Peru. They engaged in a range of activities and sessions built around our experiential approach to teaching and learning, as well as our 5 Patribus Initiatives. Leading thinkers spoke to the guests, such as Jason Pellegrino, Old Boy and MD of Google Australia/New Zealand, on entrepreneurship, and Prof Kees Dorst (UTS) on design thinking and creativity. A highlights video of the conference can be seen here. This program provided a unique opportunity to share and build on the world-class work of our staff, and provide a new model of professional learning for future IBSC conferences. One attendee had this to say about Scots: 

“Not only is your school outstanding, but the way you present yourselves to the outside world, especially those of us from outside Australia, is a genuine inspiration.”

Early Learning Centre Action Research with Macquarie University

18/11/2016

 
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In very large schools like Scots with boys from ages three through to 18, there can be the perception that most of the deep reflection on educational practice takes place in the Senior School, when things 'get serious'. When you look at the Early Learning Centre, however, that assumption could not be further from the truth. Under the leadership of Mrs Gaye Entwistle, the ELC has built a rigorous, reflection-rich professional culture, seeking to provide the best experiential education for our youngest boys in a critical stage of their development. That culture was on display this week as each full-time teacher presented the fruits of their action research on developing a philosophy for the ELC that integrates the best of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood formation. This project was conducted as part of a joint study with the Early Childhood Education team at Macquarie University. Mrs Entwistle explained the process of collaboration between academics, teachers, boys and families, the questions teachers explored, and the fruit of this research in enriching practice:

A focus group of families and boys were given opportunity to meet with the lecturers to discuss the heart of the Centre. What was the evident practice that made the Centre unique? How was the impact of the reflective Reggio Emilia practice part of the Centre's philosophy?

Each teacher then chose an action research question and became part of a practitioner inquiry to research the question in their class. The research was diverse and was refined over a year as small groups and teachers refined their thinking and saw evidence of change in their practice. Data was collected, practice changed and re-evaluation in teams and classes meant at the final presentation of the work, teachers had not only found some answers but continued with a further question or line of inquiry. Many felt it had finished with a new beginning. Shared ideas and experiences have provoked new directions with year levels and teams reexamining documentation, classroom designs, furniture, small group combinations and programs.

Parent participation has given us a great collection of ideas and information to rebuild our website and to offer different ways of communicating our learning while reinforcing the much loved portfolios and celebration materials we currently share.

Questions explored included:

Gaye Entwistle
What starts aggressive play in the playground?
Kindergarten

Deborah McMurtrie
How does the outside environment impact learning?
Cubs

Kitty Joson
How do we normalise IT in the Lions program?
Lions

Christa Sheaffe
Do parents value/understand our practice or do they think we should be more formal?
Lions

Kathy Gibson
How can I prioritise reading skills and strategies during guided reading time?
Kindergarten

Markie Calle
What strategies impact phonetic development in the EALD boys?

Sam Nealson
How do we build a class community?
Kindergarten

Sarah Jane Marmion
Can problem solving maths strategies be productive in low skill sets?
Year 1

Adelaide Brown
How can I utilise the best class arrangement with boy's voices to build community?
Year 1

Penny Ryder
What impact is fidgeting having on learning?
Year 1

Kate Stoddard
How can I encourage a student voice in curating the class displays?
Year 1


The research confirmed our list of essential philosophy components in the Centre.
  • The agency of the child is paramount.
  • Knowing the child deeply is the beginning to growing.
  • Choice of the child is heard.
  • Voice of the child in the environment of the room and Centre, in documentation and celebrations of learning is important for connection and comprehension.
  • The environment must be a place of provocation to learning both beautiful and engaging.
  • The experience of play is needed to reinforce and consolidate learning in a social, linguistic and physical domains.
  • The environment is the third teacher.
  • The differentiation of the program to meet the child's needs is foundational to design of programs.
  • Connection and community are important for a sense of belonging, confidence and respect.
  • All boys can contribute to learning.

These key points will now become the basis for our document outlining the philosophy for the Centre. We are not a Reggio Emilia 'all of us thinking a bit differently about it' school. We are The Scots College and we do Early Childhood Education this way. We seek to reflect world's best practice, influences and research, in an Australian context.

Experiments in Experiential Education

5/5/2016

 
PictureStaff at the Experiential Education Workshop being briefed by Glengarry Outdoor Instructor James Kelly before descending into the ‘cave’ beneath the Main Building.
How do we engage boys in transformative learning experiences? That is the question every teacher at Scots asks every day as we seek to bring out the best in our boys and form them into fine young men. To help us create rigorous, reflection-rich learning designs connected to real-world practices and places, the College has been developing its own model of Experiential Education in line with our Strategic Intent 2015-2025.
 
Last week a number of teachers from across all areas of the College had the opportunity to encounter, understand and begin to apply Experiential Education (or ‘ExpEd’) practices at a special workshop conducted by the Glengarry Leadership Team and the Scots Research Centre. Staff began the day in the blackness of the basement of the Main Building, simulating the caving activity boys undertake at Glengarry. They were guided through a modified version of the Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle – framing, immersion, direct debriefing, bridge-building and assimilating – and shown how an outdoors experience such as caving can be powerfully connected to other curriculum areas, discussing Plato’s conception of the cave and listening to poetry on the nature of darkness and light in Christian formation.
 
Staff then participated in interactive sessions exploring the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ of ExpEd at Scots, before exploring ways of embedding it in their own practice. Hearing from exemplars such as Mr Phil Atkinson’s Year 9 Mathematics Fishing Hike, Year 10 Australian Business Week and the Vanuatu Mission Trip, we had the opportunity to imagine the rich possibilities for transformative learning experiences which we could provide for our boys. A number of pilot programs are now taking shape to test and refine our model of ExpEd, while wider training and conference programs are being developed to further enrich our collective understanding of ExpEd. 

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