Professional Learning - Pedagogy


This project works to identify best practice pedagogy in boys' education amongst senior teachers within The Scots College, to understand and explain their practice, and to explore potential models for peer-mentoring where knowledge and expertise can be shared between teachers, within professional learning communities. It encourages these teachers to reflect on and grow in pedagogies that promote courage, creativity and conviction in student learning, strengthening the pursuit of the Brave Hearts and Bold Minds educational philosophy that permeates the College.
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The Master Teacher Project is underpinned by a number of core objectives, multifunctional in nature. First, it seeks to identify master teachers within the school and, in doing so, recognise and celebrate teaching excellence and professional accomplishment within the classroom apart from administrative leadership. The awarding of Master Teacher Fellowships is an acknowledgement of this.  Second, it pursues understanding and explanation of best practice pedagogy in boy’s education. The project provides opportunities and frameworks for master teachers to purposefully reflect on their own practice, as well as actively support and invest in student learning and best classroom practice within the school more broadly. A significant component of this is professional dialogue, support and the fostering of research-led professional learning communities. This leads into the third objective: the exploration and creation of opportunities for collaborative peer mentoring between master teachers and earlier career teachers. Finally, throughout this process data is both collected and analysed, through which the project actively contributes to existing research and discourse in best practice boys' education and building an effective model of research-led professional learning. 

To find out more about the Master Teacher Program, please contact Dr Caitlin Munday (c.munday@tsc.nsw.edu.au)
Research has shown four things to be true in the design of professional learning. That it:
  • is better together - experienced in collaboration with others
  • is better embedded - experienced as ongoing and grounded in every day practice
  • is better focused - has a clear, direct point of concentration and is not trying to do to many things
  • is better when the end is kept in view - has clarity about its objective.

Teaching for Character teams (TFCs) draw on these four principles. They are an ongoing and embedded aspect of our Professional Learning program, involving of 4-8 teaching staff in their primary teams, meeting approximately twice per term, exploring how our educational philosophy might live in practice. They are a place for collaboration and concentrated focus on transformation and reinvention. These teams provide a soft leadership opportunity for the facilitator, who is provided with some training in how to lead a team as well as the broad parameters of the project  (ie. grow student curiosity through changes in learning environment, pedagogy, or curriculum design). Teams are empowered to create a project of their choice, oriented towards a team goal, the progress towards which is showcased to the staff community on the final Professional Learning Day of the year. The focus for TFCs in 2019 is: Growing boys towards the Brave Hearts Bold Minds Graduate Profile, specifically the attribute of Curiosity, through renewed learning and teaching design. These TFCs have seen the development of some exciting and innovative projects, as teams across the College wrestle with the challenge of designing teaching and learning experiences and environments in their context that grow student character by fostering curiosity.