Predicting academic success
It is important the school community – teachers, students and parents all use a common language about teaching and that the school develops a set of core teaching practices and strategies and uses them consistently by all teachers.
These indicators are based on research over the last decade by renowned Professor of Education John Hattie and leading educational researcher Dr Robert Marzano.
Over the last two years teachers at Stuartholme have worked to implement the findings of this research. The development of a school-wide pedagogy document – a set of values, principles and practices to guide teaching practice at Stuartholme – has been one outcome of this process. This document sets down how teachers at Stuartholme will carry out their day-to-day work in the classroom.
Supporing school-wide pedagogy
One of the key ideas of our school-wide pedagogy is ensuring that what teachers do in the classroom is based on research rather than, for example, a teacher’s own personal beliefs about what is effective.
To support the pedagogy, Stuartholme has developed a set of common teaching practices informed by authoritative research. Increasingly, through the research of people like Hattie, there is a much clearer understanding of what teaching practices have the biggest impact on learning.
Teaching how to learn
Hattie has pointed out that nearly everything a teacher does in the classroom improves student learning but that some things make more of a difference than other things. His research suggests that teaching students how to summarise and how to make notes have a significantly higher than average impact on student learning.
With this research in mind, this year in Year 8 History and Geography common strategies for summarising information and note-taking have been explicitly taught to all girls. Tests conducted before and after teaching these skills indicate that the girls have enhanced outcomes especially in reading comprehension.
Teachers are now in the process of developing common approaches to other core teaching practices, for implementation in 2015.
Stuartholme is committed to providing each girl with an education that promotes and stimulates creative learning and leadership. Our goal to make each student ‘the best she can be’ is at the heart of our teaching principles.
