The Scots College

Schools context

The Scots College is a school that provides for day students from transition through to Year 12 as well as boarding students from Year 4. Currently, the College has 1600 students in attendance, of which 235 are boarding students. The College is located to the east of Sydney. The College has a Preparatory School campus and a Senior School campus, as well as a unique country campus.

Project outline

A mentor, two new scheme teachers and a number of school support personnel worked as a team in the project, Learning first: exploring the standards by habit. The project incorporates the pedagogical approach used in Costa's Habits of mind. Follow the link below to view information on Costa's Habits of mind..
Costa's Habits of mind Costa's habits of mind was employed by the new scheme teachers as the principal approach for lesson design, focusing on student understanding of the habits and inculcating this understanding into student responses to learning activities. This approach enabled new scheme teachers to:

• establish a positive environment supporting student effort and learning
• manage student behaviour by engaging students in purposeful and worthwhile learning activities learning activities Follow the link below to view a web page with a
  sample Unit of work for Year 10 science..
• establish orderly and workable learning routines that ensure substantial student time on learning tasks.

Collegial team approach

The project team met once a fortnight to review progress and enact recommendations for modification. These meetings were:

The opportunity for the new scheme teacher to work with a specialist member of staff in the application of contemporary pedagogical approaches to teaching i.e. Costa's habits of learning, served as an opportunity to develop an understanding of the schools' approach to lesson design, instruction and student management during team writing sessions. The collegial approach ensured that the new scheme teacher felt comfortable testing approaches in a failure fear free atmosphere. Time to meet, prepare, evaluate, discuss content and student progress throughout the project added to the sense of collegiality.

Project outcomes

Project outcomes include:

• teachers take an active and effective role in their professional development
professional development Follow this link to view information on
The Scots College Activity Plan..
• collaborative support networks
• fostering and developing positive relationships
• frequent communication and dialogue about teaching and learning approaches
• learning from one another
• the opportunity to develop an understanding and appreciation for diverse thinking approaches to lesson design and student management
• appreciation and understanding of pedagogical approaches; participation in Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) Follow this link to view information on
  Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument..
• demonstrated confidence when implementing teaching approaches.
• confidence in working on Action research learning programs
• greater appreciation of the challenges faced by new scheme teachers