Teaching: The profession of innovation

MAI THATCHER | Springfield Marketing & Events Officer

At St Peters Lutheran College Springfield we know the wider world is simultaneously one of great continuity and change. It is tempting to believe that because new technologies have been developed that the nature of learning itself has changed, but the cognitive science that underpins the profession of teaching shows that this is not true.

No change to the medium of delivery has yet fundamentally altered the truly human endeavour of teaching how to acquire, synthesise and evaluate knowledge in order that a student – like all human beings – may go onto a life of experience which it is hoped teaches wisdom. Those who believe otherwise are naïve to the purpose and practice of the profession of teaching and, occasionally, to the true meaning of what it means to innovate in education.

Springfield teachers collaborate daily in their work, combining their ideas, methods, observations, techniques and skills to respond to the needs of its young people in novel ways. In so doing, each teacher’s work is enriched by learning from one another and by contributing to each other’s practice, achieving breakthroughs for the benefit of young people that no single teacher could achieve on their own. In support of this, our Leader of Teaching and Innovation, Mr Alexander Mason, works with colleagues to strengthen this College-wide passion for teaching and learning.

Alex joined the Springfield community in July 2018 and has taught in Lutheran Education Queensland schools since 2013, after a successful career as a Corporate and Commercial Lawyer specialising in Construction Law. While the experience of working as a lawyer in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane equipped Mr Mason with a diverse set of skills, he is the first to acknowledge that such work is no guarantee a person will make a 'good' teaching professional.

When asked why Mr Mason became a teacher he said: “Is there another profession that is so challenging yet so rewarding? I cannot think of one. It requires a commitment to bringing one’s unique traits to a heady mixture of instructional design, adolescent developmental psychology and expert communication; not to mention empathy and compassion. It took me a while to realise an essential social truth and I acted accordingly: those who can teach, should!”

During his time at St Peters, Mr Mason has always emphasised collaborative problem-solving. He knows that innovation in teaching and learning is a collaborative endeavour borne of a need to find solutions to local and contextual 'problems'. It is this mindset that he brings to everything he does for the College and the wider profession of teaching.

His contributions to the wider profession was recently recognised by the Australian Council for Educational Leaders who awarded him a Queensland Fellowship in 2021 for actively supporting the teaching profession and educational leadership across Queensland. The peer-nominated award was bestowed on Mr Mason (pictured above) – one of the youngest ever recipients of this honour – for having made an outstanding contribution to the improvement of student achievement and organisational effectiveness through his leadership. This was partly due to his contributions to crafting The Statement of Commitment to the Profession of Teaching in 2017 – a statement of deeply-held values of all teachers, akin to the Hippocratic Oath.

Upon receipt of his Fellowship Mr Mason noted that his award was, “only one form of acknowledgement of the high level of skill and dedication that is shown by my colleagues and by the truly significant number of accomplished teachers in all education sectors across the State of Queensland.”

We acknowledge and thank Mr Mason for all he contributes to the life of the College at St Peters Lutheran College Springfield.