What a dream it is.....

What a dream it is that all members of a school community including students, teachers and management are innovative, reflective and self-regulating learners and each individual striving to be as effective as they can be within their own domains. All require an awareness and understanding of the notions that learning is infinite, that anxiety impedes learning, and that all skills can be learnt through purposeful practice. The final important notion is that evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, is the basis on which to evaluate effectiveness. Growing capacity in our learners and that is all members of the school community, requires the careful development of an environment that fosters and supports these notions. An example at Howick College is the creation of a professional learning network named 'Very Good Teaching' (VGT). The VGT program consists of 6 facilitated groups of teachers and additionally each teacher has a 'learning partner' which they personally selected. Through this structure staff are exposed to conceptual frameworks that can support them becoming innovative, reflective and evaluative. Each year every teacher and manager carries out a mini-research like inquiry into an aspect of their effectiveness. The findings from these inquiries add to our collective knowledge and are used by the community to build capacity. Richard Kearney, an art teacher at Howick College, is a great example of a learner who used the conceptual framework of the SOLO Taxonomy to inquire into his own effectiveness and its impact on his students learning. He set out to personalize the learning process for his students that would facilitate metacognition and support deep thinking. The evidence Richard collected, using surveys and data from national exams, strongly indicated that his approach had a significant impact on outcomes for his students. Richard has generously shared his approach with various groups within the school community. His only motivation is to help his peers and students in enhancing their capacity to be innovative, reflective and evaluative in their desire to become more effective.