On Wednesday 23 January 2019, Secondary teachers met to share the work they are doing in the Professional Learning Pathways. These pathways are a year-long programme in which teachers inquire into their own practice in order to improve student outcomes for their classes. Teachers choose between three ways of working:
– a solo ’Teacher Inquiry’;
– a team ‘Learning Sprint’, which involves trying out a new technique as a group over a series of a few weeks and evaluating its effect;
– Instructional Coaching, which involves teachers coaching each other to find new approaches to problems of practice.
This year, the main focus of the pathways is Visible Wellbeing. Teachers are working towards improving Wellbeing via the six aspects of the SEARCH Framework introduced by Professor Lea Waters:
Some wonderful examples were shared of the work emerging in this year’s pathways, including:
– Developing emotional management via the habit of reading for pleasure (A Learning Sprint led by the English Team)
– Integrating meditation into the DP Biology curriculum to reduce negative thoughts around assessments (an Instructional Coaching)
– Students working in partnerships to identify and utilise character strengths associated with specific Science tasks (a Teacher Inquiry)
We are excited to see how this work continues in the second half of the year and leads to greater wellbeing for our community.