Learning and Teaching News

Last Monday our staff joined with the staff of St Bernard's Coburg to further our learning and skills as Visible Learning schools.

We engaged Dr. Amy Berry to lead us in reimagining student engagement.

It was a fantastic day and we came away with a very clear understanding about engagement in learning and the partnership required between teachers and students for all to be successful.

Often, we make very little distinction between being engaged in school – turning up and taking part in things that happen at school – and being engaged in the process of learning – taking actions designed to improve our understanding or skills. 

These two things are related but they are not the same thing.

Student engagement in learning is the degree of effort, interest, curiosity, persistence and risk-taking that students choose to invest in learning. It is what makes a difference to their achievement and growth. It is directly linked to our SMDP Learning Dispositions. In fact, it provides structure and form to these ways of being as learners.

The continuum of engagement is the result of that research. It consists of 3 forms of disengagement – Disrupting, Avoiding and Withdrawing – and 3 forms of engagement – Participating, Investing and Driving. Both engagement and disengagement range from passive forms to more active forms.

This is about transforming the way we think about engagement, the way we talk about engagement, and the way we approach the task of supporting our students to become highly engaged and successful learners. 

Reimagining engagement provides us with a lens and a language for thinking about and talking about engagement that is grounded in the real world of classroom teaching and learning.

It raises our expectations for engagement beyond passive participation toward developing capable, confident, and successful drivers of learning. 

Using this language with our students, and teaching them to use it as they set intentions for their engagement and reflect on their engagement during learning experiences is one way we can make student engagement more visible and explicitly connected to the learning process.

Watch this space for exciting developments.

Elise Coghlan

Co-Deputy Principal | Literacy & Numeracy Leader | Visible Learning Leader

Denise Kelly

Co-Deputy Principal | Learning & Teaching Leader

Sustainability

Julie Barbey

Sustainability Leader