Importance of the student voice
One of the most exciting parts of the formation of the CTER has been the additional learning- focused conversations that have been stimulated by our professional learning programme. We are working through six sessions, each of which aims to develop a shared understanding of one of the Education Council’s teaching standards. Although teachers are rarely in need of much prompting to talk, we have found using the student voice a particularly powerful way of stimulating reflection and meaningful conversation. Our first session dealt with one of College’s recognised strengths, staff–student relationships. Beforehand, we got a fascinating insight to the student’s perspective by interviewing and filming a small number of boys. Excerpts were then shown to the whole staff as part of the session to highlight the importance of these relationships for our students. It was incredibly powerful hearing from the boys and this sparked an important conversation about the various ways we can develop high care relationships that also have high expectations. Our next session progressed this idea by looking at the things we can do to enhance the learning- focused culture in our classes. We revisited the student surveys to further reflect on how we communicate our expectations to all our
students. It was immediately obvious our work involving positive education has a huge overlap with these areas of teaching and learning. Developing a growth mindset in all our boys is a lofty target, but one we must aspire to. Our use of the student voice was taken to another level when we invited some students to join us in the session on biculturalism. In addition, Year 11 student William Koko, talked to the staff about his experiences of being a Maori student at College. William spoke with eloquence and passion, and many staff were clearly moved by his speech. This was a very powerful experience and it has sparked many further conversations and professional development (PD) opportunities that will develop over the next few years. As a group, we recognise the vital role the student voice plays in helping raise awareness and will continue to build this into our PD sessions where appropriate. In combination with our coaching roles, we can all see direct benefits of this work already and it helps provide a platform and language for our continued work in the CTER.
Graeme Swanson Science, PE and Health
Christ’s College Canterbury
12
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