Professionals learn their entire lives. They keep current with the research and development in their field, innovate, implement, reflect, and seek continual improvement. This is the case in medicine, in law, and must also be in education—in particular, teaching, the most noble of professions. At Saint David’s, there’s exciting work going on in professional development under the leadership of Jamie MacNeille, our Director of Teaching and Learning. Faculty members regularly seek out and engage in mission-driven professional development opportunities that include conferences, Teaching For Understanding and innovation workshops, and a new program in exploring action research, which brings academia’s inquiry process into the day-to-day lived experience of our teachers.
For example, several of our faculty recently garnered valuable takeaways to implement with their students after participating in the International Boys School Coalition’s relational teaching conference. We know from research that boys are relational learners. They thrive when they make meaningful connections with their teachers, when their teachers really know them. Boys don’t learn subjects, they learn teachers.
Teaching for Understanding workshops may include reversioning curriculum through a new lens, using the TFU framework developed at Harvard’s Project Zero. In one such experience, this past summer, faculty teams had one-on-one access to Mark Church, the author of Making Thinking Visible and an expert on visible thinking routines, which deepen and further student understanding. The school has embraced TFU as a common framework for a number of years so that a solid body of teachers are familiar with it and know how to develop performances of understanding that place the boys at the center of their learning.
Faculty also have opportunities to explore an innovative project as they collaborate with a small group of colleagues to improve any aspect of our educational program. As examples, two coaches recently created a fitness app for boys to use at home with their families and Fifth Grade Teacher Margaret Lee developed a digital student portfolio.
Day to day, teachers have questions about real-life issues that arise in their classrooms. In our new exploring action research program, our faculty are digging into these issues and questions by conducting original research with their students. For example, Science Teacher Sam Woolford is exploring if engaging in a passion project promotes 21 century skills and agency in boys. Art History Teacher Catherine Milligan is investigating if feedback provided via video and its relational component bolster boys’ understanding. As part of their action research, our teachers conduct an extensive literature review to investigate what other researchers have discovered about their topic and then create plans for the collection and analysis of data.
These robust faculty professional development opportunities enable teachers to keep growing professionally and to better reach and teach our boys. Work in this area is done always to further Saint David’s mission and values, which are grounded in balance among academics, arts, athletics, and spirituality, and serve our ultimate aspiration… ut viri boni sint.
