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Teaching Boys - Backed by Research

The energy in Price Gymnasium soared last month as our faculty exhibited their professional development work to each other in a Summer Grant Showcase. 

One faculty member researched boys' sense of self-efficacy in art—exploring how the integration of visual language prevents rejection of oneself as a competent artist, another anticipated employing her travels in Central Asia to incorporate a new art workshop in conjunction with fourth graders' Silk Road study, still others revised music and science units to deepen learners' understanding, according to our Teaching for Understanding framework. And there were so many more. 

In total, during this past summer, 44 Saint David's faculty honed the art, craft, and science of their chosen profession, participating in professional development opportunities that varied widely in scope and type, but all with a common purpose: to advance their work in teaching and learning for boys at Saint David's School. In addition, two members of our faculty presented at the International Boys' Schools Coalition Conference in New Zealand, sharing the results of their relational teaching-related action research projects. 

While we have always provided a robust and varied professional development program, our new Teaching Boys Initiative (TBI) has enabled us to establish a framework that identifies evidence-based best practices in teaching and learning for boys and integrates research into our PD programs. The focus of the research is largely in the relational area.

Research shows that the best teacher of a boy is one who sees the boy for who he is, not who they want him to be: One who knows, cares about, and is able to reach each boy by employing relational gestures such as maintaining high expectations, demonstrating mastery and passion of subject matter, and assigning responsibility. Much of our TBI work will take place in this space, to make Saint David's even stronger in this important domain.

Toward that goal, we welcome our first in-house visiting scholar, Dr. Michael Reichert, renowned researcher in learning relationships and relationship management between teachers and boys. Last year, Dr. Reichert, working with our faculty team, created a custom Professional Pathways framework detailing the ways that our faculty can engage in research-related professional development. He also helped develop a Relationship Management Course, which was offered to eligible and interested faculty this summer. This year, Dr. Reichert will guide several workshops with faculty. He will also be the featured speaker for an upcoming Parents Association event.

As another dimension of this work, we are collaborating with Dr. Ric Campbell, an educational consultant who is leading a group of faculty reflective practitioners as they beta-test and develop the Teaching Boys Curriculum, a course sequence we aim to offer through a university that earns both graduate credit and a certificate of advanced study in teaching boys. A large part of this work entails the faculty working together to define problems of practice and reflect on how they can achieve a desired outcome (see video clip above).

Sharing and benefiting from the expertise of fellow professionals who relish their life's work is exhilarating and inspiring. As demonstrated by the buzz at the Faculty Summer Grant Showcase last month, these are exciting times at Saint David's. Our school deeply values intellectual curiosity, critical analysis of ideas and issues, action, reflection, and deliberate moral introspection. These all underpin our faculty professional development program, bending in service to our mission's ultimate goal: "ut viri boni sint." 

To learn more about our TBI professional development initiative, explore Teaching Boys, featured in the current issue of Saint David's Magazine.

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