Feature
Innovating for the future of education Carey is dedicated to creating the best possible outcomes for its students. As part of this commitment, the School’s Research and Innovation Team, comprising 18 passionate and creative Carey teachers, are working together to enhance the learning experience at our school and, ultimately, advance education across the entire country. They are currently working on four initiatives, and a representative from each spoke to Torch to share news about these inspiring innovation projects and discuss what it has been like to be involved in changing the future of education.
Rebecca: ‘We need to be able to better interpret and respond to student learning to ensure all young people experience success at school.’
Student Learner Profile
Personalised Learning Model
Baljit Marwa, Acting Leader of Learning – Science, and Science teacher
Rebecca Swain, Learning, Research and Innovation Co-ordinator, and English teacher
What is the Student Learner Profile?
Why is this learning model important?
We are working on developing a profile that is trusted, comparable and recognises student skills and abilities. It will be a formal high school digital transcript, representing the capabilities and experiences a student has acquired in and out of school, their extracurricular involvement or achievements, and their unique strengths and interests.
Schools around the world are full of students being taught what they already know or are not yet ready to learn. We are creating a growth-focussed learning model to better meet students where they are with their learning and support or stretch them to take their next steps. Importantly, this involves developing a clear and shared understanding of what growth looks like across the School.
How will the profile help students? The student learner profile will represent the whole learner in a way that hasn’t been done before, providing a comprehensive and meaningful picture of the learner for future employers and tertiary institutions. It will complement the ATAR and support the student to transition effectively beyond school. What work has been done so far? We have been focussed on exploring the core elements of a possible profile and how to capture every student’s unique journey with a strengths-based approach. We’re also working on complementing current practices of the VCE and IB and ensuring it will prepare students for further study, jobs and the needs of an ever-changing society. Why is this project important right now? The pandemic has become a catalyst to rethink or reimagine education. We must ‘create an agile, innovative and future focused hybrid deep learning system’ (Michael Fullan, 2021), that puts the learner at the centre and provides them with choice and voice in their learning.
10 | Torch
How will a growth-focussed model support each individual student? Research tells us the spread of ability in any classroom represents, on average, five years of learning. Inevitably, this means some students will feel lost and unable to reach the next stage while others will be unfulfilled. Designing learning that accommodates this means every student can be better supported. What stage is the project at now? We are mapping student development in secondary English, Mathematics, Science and Languages initially, and have partnered with the University of Melbourne to explore progressions in connectedness and communication. Our next steps include matching our research with student learning observations and piloting growth-based assessment tools. What have you learnt from this process? This project has reinforced for me the complexity of teachers’ work. We need to be able to better interpret and respond to student learning to ensure all young people experience success at school.
