Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2011

grammar gazette SPRING 2011

present well constructed cases with confidence and carefully and respectfully assess the cases put by others. Through a strong and well developed House system and a broad co-curriculum, students are required to work in teams, understand the needs and perspectives of others, and use leadership skills and qualities as part of their everyday life at the School. At the student level, this sense of active caring in community begins with the tailored integration of Year 8 students into school life in a way that is progressively reinforced by the House-based ethics programme that aims to focus them beyond the self to consider their proper place in the School, the community and the world. By exploring positive relationships which promote confidence and resilience of spirit, girls are directed into an integrated service programme and myriad associated charitable activities. Intellectual maturation is matched with the promotion of environmental awareness and responsibility while the co-curricular programme is designed to foster the best in sporting and cultural involvement with other schools as well as hands-on experience through overseas travel. Such judicious and ethical engagement focuses the School’s leadership mission as a collaborative and transformative educational entity, not only locally but also nationally and internationally. Staff too exemplify this spirit, through their professional growth and contribution beyond the School, while the invaluable involvement of the parent body is visible in all dimensions of School life. Integral to judicious and ethical engagement, is the involvement of students and staff as responsible members of the community and the School as a responsible corporate citizen, committed to the principles of service, tolerance and empathy. One of the School’s oldest and most prestigious annual awards is the Ida Woolcock Challenge Cup given for the demonstration of best spirit as a school girl. The cup bears the Latin motto ” Hoc habeo quodcunque dedi (Whatever I have given, I still possess) . The idea that privilege should elicit philanthropic mutuality and a ‘giving back’ for what has been received, has therefore long permeated our character building philosophy. It is a consistent challenge to all our students to engage with and contribute to the physical, emotional, intellectual and economic, development and welfare not only of the School but of society at large.

belief can translate into improved performance regardless of their previous efforts. Building these skills in students depends on a thinking curriculum which requires the verbalising of questions and emphasises that the search for answers is infinite. Academic rigour and the excitement of learning are not about the powers of recall or the reproduction of the exemplary. Scholarship then is not about knowing what is, but rather demands we aspire to a higher standard of understanding; it demands that we encourage ourselves and our students to ask what could be. Scholarship nurtures curiosity as the mechanism through which students, and indeed teachers, connect with the world and continue to learn. MS SAMANTHA BOLTON, DEAN OF STUDIES, AND MR TRENT DRIVER, DEAN OF ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT REFERENCES Achiron, Marilyn (2011, August 17), Education XX.0, EducationToday, OECD retrieved 18 August 2011 from https://community.oecd.org/community/educationtoday/ Blackwell, L., Trzesniewski, K.H. and Dweck, C.S. (2007). Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention. Child Development, v78 n1 p246-263 Jan-Feb 2007 Carroll, Lewis (1865/1999), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, (Oxenby, Helen (Illust.), London: Walker Books) Friedman, Thomas (2005), The World Is Flat , New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux. Gentry, James W. and Lee Phillip McGinnis (2008), Thoughts on How to Motivate Students Experientially , Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, V35 2008 Heffernan, Virginia (2011, August 7), Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade , New York Times, retrieved 31 August 2011 from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes. com/2011/08/07/ http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/february7/ dweck-020707.html Retrieved 3 July 2008 Trei, L. (2007). New Study Yields Instructive Results on how Mindset affects learning . Stanford report.

For educators the focus must address how a school can be systematic in its promotion of intellectual curiosity. The approach must seek to establish academic versatility. In a generation of data-driven standardisation, prescriptive curricula and opaque public reporting measures it is essential that schools maintain their focus on the quality of the experiences a curriculum provides for students. A school that aspires to scholarship aspires to providing systems and structures that foster opportunities for students to explore, to develop their curiosity. That school asks how the education of each student is personalised to allow them to connect with their own intellectual passions, and how it prioritises authentic relationships between educators and learners. That school asks how it can best leverage the revolution in information technologies to promote higher order thinking and effective communication. In this environment building systematic curiosity must start with motivating students to learn. Successful motivation stems from students believing that they are able to learn and to make meaningful academic progress through persistent effort. Students will be more engaged with their learning if they understand its complexity. They need to see learning and scholarship as a process which involves failure and disappointments. That is, they need to have the academic resilience to use errors as a springboard for future learning. An understanding of the learning process facilitates student engagement and curiosity because it allows the development of a growth mindset. Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford University, differentiates between the levels of success experienced by students who view intelligence as a quality “that can be developed and expanded” (Trei, 2007) compared to those who see it as a fixed trait. She argues that “people who believe in an expandable or growth theory of intelligence want to challenge themselves to increase their abilities, even if they fail at first” (Trei, 2007). Dweck’s research reveals that “changing a key belief—a student’s self-theory about intelligence and motivation” alters their academic outcomes. Students who demonstrated high levels of resilience and (consequently) intrinsic motivation were those who “believed they could have an impact on their mind” (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, and Dweck, 2007). As a school we need to nurture this self belief and ensure that a student is confident that self

Judicious and ethical engagement with the world

he ultimate and most important aim of our educational system is to equip our students with the skills to engage with the world, with confidence and purpose .

When to engage firmly, when to let things go. Who and what to trust. When to be cautious, when to take a risk. When to be skeptical and when to be optimistic. How to treat others fairly and honestly. The guiding principle of judicious and ethical engagement with the world, has shaped Brisbane Girls Grammar philosophy from its inception. Judicious engagement encompasses cultivated and ethical habits of mind which are balanced and thoughtful. It is grounded in wise and sound judgment that considers the wider interrelated issues and consequences of policies, procedures and actions. It is this holistic perspective that underpins the School’s current strategic planning and Strategic Design. Purposeful, considered and ethical involvement with the wider world is intrinsic to the School’s new Design. To foster empathy in all its dimensions, should, in fact, be the ultimate goal of all authentic initiatives in education. In order to engage judiciously and ethically with the world, students need to develop a complex and balanced set of skills that combine knowledge, well developed thought processes, research ability, leadership, empathy, eloquence, confidence and enough life experience to assess the worth and risks of any given encounter. To cultivate and develop this complex balance, Brisbane Girls Grammar School employs a number of strategies—our interactions between student and teacher are collaborative and students are encouraged to challenge concepts, develop hypotheses, research information, accept or reject data,

MR ALAN DALE, DEAN OF SCHOOL

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