Last week, The Educator announced the 75 professionals who have made a significant contribution to the K-12 education space over the past 12 months in the fifth annual Hot List report.
The winners – from principals and head teachers through to school managers and other industry figures – were recognised for their outstanding work in delivering the highest-quality educational experiences possible to all students, especially during these unprecedented times.
One of the winners was Bronwyn Dolling who, for nearly two decades, has established Pacific Lutheran College as an innovative, dynamic, and progressive K-12 institution that is underpinned by the values and traditions of excellence of Lutheran schooling across Australia.
Below, The Educator speaks to Dolling about the research that supports the College’s programs, the thinking behind the College’s recently enhanced learning spaces and how staff and students were smoothly, and quickly, transitioned to online learning in Term 2.
TE: Throughout your principalship at the school, you have been motivating staff to draw from best practices from international educational research in curriculum design. What does the research say about what constitutes best practice in this important area?
BD: Education is a deeply human experience. As a College, we have been particularly responsive to the findings of Harvard’s Project Zero team, the research of positive psychology and Lutheran theology. There has been a focus on the collaborative shaping of a cohesive and wholistic culture of thinking that draws on the synergy of these learnings and the growth of teacher and student capacity as learners and leaders. This approach involves flexibility in the choice of pedagogical approach to suit the context of learning required with a focus on the type of thinking and understandings to be developed.
Themes of wonder, connectiveness, flexibility, deep understandings, collaboration, creativity and the increasing personalisation of learning have emerged. Flexibility in both physical and virtual learning spaces has supported young people to take increasing responsibility for their learning across K-12. This year we have been exploring ways to enhance student efficacy and agency. Knowing young people well and helping them to know themselves as learners and as people is central. This includes the intentional development of social emotional capacities, which are key to the development of academic capability and wellbeing.
Different teams of teachers have focused on evolving practice and understanding. They have then shared learnings informally and formally through whole staff, team based collaborative learning sessions, small inquiry action groups and gallery walks of individual exploration. Regular communication around values and pedagogical practices and intents has enhanced the role of parents in supporting and enhancing culture.
TE: The College clearly puts a strong focus on developing its students to be compassionate, deep thinking, and socially just. Can you tell us about the College's programs that are achieving this, and what makes them so successful?
BD: Immersion in an intentional staff and student led culture, underpinned by 10 timeless and universal Lutheran values and enhanced by more recent research in the area of positive psychology, has contributed to the ongoing evolution of culture in this area. There is a focus on social emotional and spiritual development as staff and students explore who we are in relationship to God, the environment, self and others through engagement in pastoral care activities, chapels, assemblies, personal development classes and outdoor education.
A three-year cycle of fortnightly threads that incorporate these values and themes are the focus of weekly staff reflections, assemblies, chapels and small group pastoral care reflection. Weekly reflections in newsletters around these threads support family conversations and connection.
Times of stillness are important and occur within learning spaces, nature and through the use of a labyrinth. Personal Development classes across P-10, which include the RITE Journey at Year 9, also have a focus on the development of young people’s understanding of their social emotional capacities and incorporate the PERMA themes and Lutheran values. Yearly outdoor education experiences build on these learnings and include opportunities for reflective journaling; restorative practices reinforce these learnings where relationships need support; community engagement with service activities that care for the environment and support various groups including communities in Cambodia and parent-initiated support programs for College families through Pacific Together, deepen the cultural experience of families. Service in community is a strong pervasive element of our culture.
TE: Under your leadership, the physical and virtual learning spaces at Pacific Lutheran College have been enhanced over the last 12 months. What were these enhancements, and what have they meant for teaching and learning at the College?
BD: The expansion of the library and a new 6-12 STEM area have provided the opportunity for greater flexibility, independence and innovation. The library has included the addition of a P-12 learning enrichment area, a P-5 STEM Innovation area, an Ideation Hub, an immersive virtual learning space, an outdoor garden area, a senior study space, which includes a kitchenette for student use and connects physically and visually to the work spaces of the Heads of Careers Development and Vocational Education and Training. The 6-10 STEM space connects into four existing science labs providing greater future pedagogical flexibility in this area. The 6-10 STEM space enables students to design, make and evaluate a range of projects including underwater drones, model roller coasters, bionic hands, optics devices and explore the utility of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in enhancing nature. The Year 9 and 10 STEM programs also develops entrepreneurial skills as students deliver pitches for the funding of the construction of their designs.
Combining the P-5 and 6-12 learning enrichment, in line with the seamless P-12 structure of the College, has provided greater opportunities for collaboration and responsive sharing of resources. Visual and physical linkage throughout the library areas has provided flexibility with spaces being used by various large and small groups throughout the day. The Ideation Hub simulates the types of generative spaces found in universities and workplaces.
Extensive use of glass and flexible design of spaces has meant that areas can be quickly changed from large, open, connected areas to smaller spaces and preserve the visual connection in either form and support a variety of pedagogical approaches. The open, well-lit designs provide opportunity for teaching and learning to be a shared experience rather than a private one and have enhanced wellbeing. This design has enabled both staff and students to adjust spaces depending on the context of learning required. Connection of these spaces to outdoor areas has provided additional flexibility as they are used as spaces for learning or recreation at various times during the day.
TE: In what ways did the College's rapid upskilling in early 2020 provide a firm foundation for staff to facilitate online learning through early Term 2?
BD: At the start of 2020, the College was in the very early phase of the transition to Schoolbox as its new learning management system. Staff and students across P-2 were using SeeSaw. As it became apparent that we could move into a learning from home model, it was important that we maintained the wholeness of the Pacific experience in the online environment.
Clarity around this imperative saw different staff volunteer to act as champions to creatively lead initiatives including the upskilling of both support and teaching staff. Fortunately, much of what was required was in line with College’s strategic direction with those staff at the leading edge able to share their expertise. The model for online delivery at different age groups included Microsoft Teams, Schoolbox, and Seesaw. In the lead up to the student free period, teachers were upskilling each other and students at school and parents at home in the use of online resources and pedagogical practices. Training of learning support aides to support learning in the online environment was particularly critical to the success of more vulnerable students. There was a strong culture of learning through doing together and multiple teams of people working together to create a rich, coherent online Pacific experience.
Continuous ongoing communication to staff, students and parents in the lead up to and throughout the home learning period was important in building a community team approach. User friendly ready references for students, staff and families protected the continuity of learning from an academic, wellbeing and co-curricular perspective.
Trust in a range of skilled staff to simultaneously lead in multiple directions in line with a broad direction and firm cultural underpinnings created an agile and effective change management process and a very successful online learning experience. There was a rapid ongoing organic growth of capacity.
As we moved into online learning, staff, students and parents had clarity around culture to be preserved, the processes that would be used and confidence that we would all learn by doing. Senior students and staff embraced the importance of maintaining wellbeing and community connection and delivered many creative ways to come together as community online and have fun. Throughout the whole online period, the commitment and capacity of individuals and teams of teachers, staff and parents to deliver a rich wholistic Pacific experience was beyond what we had imagined as we stepped together into the experience. It was an amazing time of community and individual growth of capacity. It broadened a sense of possibility that we can now build upon together.