Dear St Mary’s College
What do we do when things are hard, or we feel stuck?
This is something
we all experience throughout life. Within the classroom context, we call this being in the learning pit.
Here, students are faced with a crossroads to either give up or accept the challenge to find a way forward.
This type of thinking is grounded in the work of contemporary
researcher John Hattie who states, “One year of input should equal one year of progress, for all
students, no matter where they start.” (2016) With this in mind, we are working with Corwin Australia
to implement a Visible Learning Program. Visible Learning puts students at the centre of the learning
process, empowered with the language to talk about their own learning and the tools to move from one goal
to the next. Learning is flipped from a passive thing done to students, to an active process of student
engagement.
A change of this nature depends on growing
our community culture around learning, grounded on measurable impact. Our baseline evidence comes directly
from our students. We asked a randomly selected cross-section of students from Reception to Year 12 the
question, “What makes a good learner at St Mary’s College?” Interestingly, almost 70%
of our students believed their behaviour leads to good learning, while 30% spoke about learning strategies
as ways to ensure good learning.
Our starting point is with
the language we use every day in the classroom. We aim to develop a shared language of learning dispositions
that are unique to St Mary’s. Rather than students talking about “getting something wrong,”
they will speak about how they are using feedback to improve a skill they want to grow. Rather than
students feeling teachers “give them a good mark,” they will have the language to evaluate
how they are progressing and what strategies are working for them.
This is an exciting space for our school community. Our teachers are all committed to this professional
learning and research. As we track and measure intentional language in the classroom, I look forward to
sharing the progress we make and the launch of our very own St Mary’s learning dispositions at the
beginning of 2023.
Warm regards, |