Global perspectives: School research centres

RESEARCH IN SCHOOLS

Global perspectives: School research centres

By Dr Sarah Loch, Director of Research and Development

Katie Jackson and Sarah Loch with Dr Ian Kelleher, Head of Research, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Maryland.

Pymble is preparing to establish a research centre as a hub for generating, attracting and communicating educational research both within and beyond the College community. To help us learn from the journeys of existing school research centres, with Mathematics teacher Katie Jackson, I embarked on a study tour to the United States and Canada. Katie had initiated a number of research projects into ways of teaching Mathematics during 2019 and both of us were excited to look at how teachers in other schools conducted and used research. The two-week tour covered three different school research centres in three cities, as well as two non-school research institutes and a fourth school with many similarities to Pymble.” Lasting relationships were built with the schools and centres visited and we were welcomed warmly at each location;

Laurel Center for Research on Girls, Laurel School (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (Potomac, Maryland, USA) Chandaria Research Centre, Branksome Hall (Toronto, Canada)

We also met with a representative from the Fields Institute Centre for Math Education (Toronto, Canada) and visited the Science of Learning Institute at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) and

Havergal School (Toronto).

Visiting Laurel School’s outdoor education campus with Mrs Hope Murphy, Director LCRG

RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

A RESEARCH CENTRE FOR PYMBLE In considering a research centre, the question immediately arises: “What would the focus of such a centre be?”

This is followed quickly by additional questions like: “Why do we need a research centre? What will we research? What outcomes and output will be produced? And most importantly, how will a research centre benefit our students and staff?”

As a large, diverse and busy school with a number of signature programs and areas of excellence, Pymble offers internal and external educational researchers a myriad of authentic research questions. These arise from our teachers in their classrooms, educational leaders working with their teams and from students seeking new insights and deeper understanding in areas of study. A research centre at Pymble has exciting capacity to see our community more readily initiate and engage in global education conversations. It will also create space for our staff and students to be researchers, skilled in technical and ethical abilities, who make original and useful contributions to practise both locally and internationally. The impact on our students will be immediate; as in the case of action research, which is designed to cycle back to improve practice straight away, but even with longitudinal and complex formal projects, where results can take years to crystalise, students will see researchers working and gain from role modelling of the research journey.

WHY DO SCHOOLS CREATE RESEARCH CENTRES?

A relatively small number of schools, internationally and locally, have research centres. Principal, Dr Kate Hadwen and I identified a number of schools in North America as being of interest to visit due to their research centres and research-informed initiatives. Those selected had a mixture of established and emerging reputations for the contributions they were making and the ways in which they were using research. Schools create research centres for a range of reasons. The study tour provided the following examples:

A research centre to focus on best practice in girls’ education in the case of Laurel School. We met with the 4th Grade team to hear about the Power and Purpose program, which combined literacy, numeracy, the arts and independent living skills (including using power tools!) with the aim of fostering confidence, capacity and resilience in girls. The program was also explicitly designed to incorporate the beautiful environment of the school’s outdoor education campus.

At the CTTL, we met the team responsible for the school’s approach to teaching, known as

‘neuroteaching’, and learnt how research has informed the school’s professional learning model. This revolves around the working of the brain and engages all teachers and students of the school in a quest to continually expand knowledge and practice in this area.

The Chandaria Research Centre demonstrated a connection between the school and the university community and let us see many examples of how teachers’ research projects contribute to the school’s strategic mission of academic success, wellness and global mindedness.

The CRC utilised research assistants and a board of directors to add a layer of professionalism and external capacity to the school’s research activities.

Three research centres

It was inspiring to see how the culture and flavour of each school influenced their definition and practice of educational research. Our short visits allowed the following observations which will help to inform our decision-making at Pymble.

LAUREL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS: THE LAUREL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON GIRLS (LCRG): ‘PUTTING BEST PRACTICE TO WORK FOR GIRLS’

Laurel is a Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 girls’ school (with a small number of Junior Kindergarten boys in the fully outdoor education program at the Butler campus). The school is non-denominational with a total student population of 660 divided across primary, middle and upper schools. It is located in a beautiful building, full of student artwork in every hallway and on every available wall. The school’s outdoor education site, Butler campus, is located about 20 minutes away in an equally beautiful, semi-rural area. The Laurel Center for Research on Girls (LCRG) was formed in 2007 as a way for the school to take charge of research involving its students and staff. Rather than gift external researchers the opportunity to research and write about Laurel girls and issues they faced, the school decided to embrace this themselves and use what they learnt to improve their students’ experiences. The Executive Directors of the LCRG are prominent local psychologists with international reputations whose research focuses on helping parents to know their daughters’ developmental needs and support them using scientific research.

RESEARCH IN SCHOOLS

When asked to describe the relationship between the school and the centre, LCRG Interim Director, Mrs Hope Murphy, said: “Laurel is the ship and the LCRG is the rudder.” And it is evident that LCRG focuses on all things ‘girls’ and all things ‘Laurel’. In its early years, the Centre focused on conducting original studies, but it now produces research monographs and works with external researchers whose projects are relevant for their girls. During our visit, we met with a research team from two universities who were studying the experience of girls of colour in independent girls’ schools in the USA.

Laurel parents are strongly connected to the LCRG as a research-based information source and stay up to date with parenting tips and strategies through parent evenings and coffee mornings with the Executive Directors, Dr Lisa Damour and Dr Tori Cordiano. Lisa and Tori advise the Laurel community on what is best for girls and their input helps to shape elements like the timetable, the Butler campus program and the physical appearance of the school.

ST. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL: THE CENTER FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL TEACHING AND LEARNING (CTTL): ‘OUR VISION IS A WORLD WHERE EVERY TEACHER UNDERSTANDS HOW EVERY STUDENT’S BRAIN LEARNS’

St. Andrew’s is a co-educational Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 school with about 900 students. It is located near Washington D.C. and has an Anglican faith base focused on serving others. The CTTL spends 40 per cent of its time working with lessprivileged schools in communities across the United States. The CTTL is driven to improve teachers’ professional practice through increasing teachers’ knowledge of and skills in the ‘science of learning’ and ‘neuroscience’.

The Centre developed their own terminology around mind and brain education (MBE) and ‘neuroteaching’ following a core focus of the new Principal’s vision for the school when he took up the post 18 years ago. They began with an adaptation of the ‘All Kinds of Brains’ model and also used John Hattie’s notion of ‘collective efficacy’ to train all teachers and all new, incoming staff in their evolving Mind, Brain and Education Science approach. The CTTL’s mission is to ‘professionalise practice’. It is not to do research or to support teachers to engage in their own research, even in the area of neuroteaching. However, the CTTL has a partnership with the Center for Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University and the teams work together to develop and evaluate professional learning tools for teachers. The CTTL produces a magazine, Thinking Differently and Deeply, and curates a blog called ‘The Bridge’. The Directors of the CTTL have published a book on neuroteaching and facilitate an online course that educators worldwide may use for professional learning, as well as running a summer academy for teachers. Student Research Fellows both assist at the Academy and generate their own research under the direction of the Centre. For example, the Principal recently asked students to investigate and report on ways to improve homework and a group of students were able to present their findings to staff and the school board and affect policy change. BRANKSOME HALL: THE CHANDARIA RESEARCH CENTRE (CRC): ‘TO INITIATE NEW RESEARCH AND EXPLORE EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE IN GIRLS’ LEARNING, WELLBEING AND INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS’

Branksome Hall is a Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 girls’ school located in Toronto. It has 1,600 students and is an International Baccalaureate school. The Chandaria Research Centre has three key purposes aligning closely with the school’s strategy. The mission statement of the school is ‘advancing scholarship in girls’ learning, wellbeing and international mindfulness’. The CRC focuses on academics, wellbeing and international mindfulness for students which means that the CRC’s focus and outputs always align with those of the school. The CRC also has a set of drivers which guide the categories into which research will fall, namely: (1) Educator Inquiry (2) Action Research (3) Collaborative Inquiry (4) Graduate studies and Career Pursuits.

The Centre was founded in 2015 through a grant from a former parent of the school and is staffed by a director and two research assistants, who are employed on two-year contracts. The research assistants are PhD students whose work is in areas of interest to the school and the two year tenure ensures new ideas from those researching education are readily brought into the school. An Advisory Board, comprised of academics from local universities, oversees all decisions about projects the CRC undertakes and supports. The CRC produces research summaries of their own research and also a school portal space where staff, students and parents

Research coming from the College e.g. telling the

College story, examining innovation and what works in our context

Research skill building: University

Professional learning partnerships (PL courses, RRR, 1:1 e.g. enabling their mentoring, ad hoc research with our post-grad support, students

Journal Club), and staff for

Sokratis reciprocal students Output: Illuminate journal, benefit Conference (Term 4), Gallery Walk (Term 3)

Pymble research model at end of 2019

can read research into girls’ education and learning. The CRC hosts a Visiting Scholar program where a ‘holder of knowledge’ or ‘knowledge maker’ is invited to the school for a couple of days each year. The Centre uses cycles of dissemination to ensure staff presenting at conferences also produce a monograph for the school, and that parents receive information from research conducted e.g. through a Maths Night. Staff action research projects are limited to only a few a year and include a Junior School mathematics professional learning project using the work of Professor Jo Boaler; a project on humour and its benefits to teaching and learning conducted by a Junior School PDHPE teacher called ‘My Funny Project’; and, an investigation by the Middle School counsellor into the timing of recess and whether it should be technology free.

Grade 4 Visual Arts Teacher-Researchers from Laurel School share their work with Katie

RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

Pymble’s journey

Pymble’s focus on research commenced in 2018 with a strategic intent to build a culture of research in the College. Those involved in this strategic intent began cultivating ‘research mindsets’ amongst educators in the College community primarily through the creation of the journal, Illuminate, and through supporting staff to publish in it. The second year, 2019, saw the appointment the College’s inaugural Director of Research and Development. To build capacity among staff to enable them to appreciate and contribute to a research culture at the College, activities included staff professional learning in research skills, the establishment of collaborations with external researchers working with the College and the creation of professional learning communities, such as within the RRRPL program. Student skills in research were also a focus. In the second half of 2019 we prepared for the US/ Canada research trip, the delivery of research skills sessions for the Sokratis program and a guest panel of researchers for the Year 10 to 11 transition program. The College Ethics Committee was formed with approximately 12 staff and Years 10 and 11 student members, and the inaugural Pymble research conference, ‘Imprints and Impact’, took place with internal and external teachers and academics attending. Throughout 2019, Dr Sarah Loch interacted with more than 30 per cent of College teaching staff around ‘research conversations’ with the aim of engaging them in or supporting them with research.

NEXT STEPS

A key question as Pymble embarks on our own journey to a research centre is to contemplate the focus of the centre. What will we be known for? How will our centre support learning for the College community? Before answering these questions, we must also consider the culture and strategic direction of the College. It is my hope that Pymble’s Research Centre will be symbolic of relationships, networks and partnerships in education to inspire teachers, support the highest levels of pedagogical innovation and reform, and inform the Pymble educational community – and beyond – of the generative nature of educators integrating a research perspective into their professional learning plans.