Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2015

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GUIDING PRINCIPLE SYSTEMATIC CURIOSITY IN TEACHING, LEARNING AND RESEARCH

AUTHOR Dr Bruce Addison, Dean of Curriculum and Scholarship

embracing and implementing new approaches to student learning and engagement. An inspired pedagogical relationship is needed in order to foster the necessary inquisitiveness and discernment required in this world of digital connectedness. Our world is one of new horizons and unlimited possibility. Entrepreneurial thinking will increasingly be the currency of the digital economy. The post-school world experienced by our students will be very different from today’s. Creating opportunities in a vastly different landscape will become an essential skill in a world where uncertainty is one of the only givens. Confidence, risk-taking and resilient growth from failure will become increasingly important facets of twenty-first century learning. Future success will depend on the ability to seize opportunities confidently and creatively. Strategy provides a means by which to traverse the future with confidence. The unknown will require all who teach, learn and research to do so with agility, purpose and courage. The relationship existing between teaching, learning and thinking requires vision, skill and confidence in the ability to meld the old with the new. This is the challenge facing those who are forging a twenty-first century concept of scholarship. At Brisbane Girls Grammar School our strategy is founded on the courage to blend next practice with traditional practice so that learning is relevant, engaging and stimulating. Exceptional scholarship is the vehicle through which this generation will contribute to the ongoing development of our commitment to a broad- based liberal education for girls.

SYSTEMATIC CURIOSITY IN TEACHING, LEARNING AND RESEARCH FORMS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR CONCEPT OF EXCEPTIONAL SCHOLARSHIP. Such scholarship requires a high level of curiosity and creativity from both staff and students. At Brisbane Girls Grammar School our interpretation of a broad-based liberal education has ensured an intergenerational commitment to this ideal. The School’s culture of scholarship is one of deep learning in which academic disciplines are celebrated rigorously and creatively. Classroom practice is conceived to ensure that best practice is crafted as a partnership between teacher and student, enabling all members of our community to become confident in their ability to learn. The centrality of teachers and teaching to student learning is pivotal. For many years, educational theory has downplayed the importance of teaching to student learning. While discovery learning and knowledge construction are essential twenty-first century skills, we believe that teaching matters. Teachers are not only the disseminators of information. Teachers must role- model the paths to knowledge acquisition wisely and creatively, challenging information and misinformation discerningly. Our academic staff must be leaders in the field, cognisant of extending traditional practice while

GRAMMAR GAZETTE