What leads to the best learning environment?
As educators, we all wish that there were some sort of magic formula to be able to put together the perfect learning environment both in school and in each classroom. Even though much academic research has gone into the search for the perfect formula, the jury is still out amongst both educators and the public at large as to what ingredients are needed for the ideal school. In 2008 a New Zealand professor called John Hattie published his findings from a meta analysis of published research on a wide range of topics linked to student learning which he published in a book entitled Visible Learning for Teachers.
I was fortunate to attend a conference led by Professor Hattie in April this year, where he outlined his further research of over 1300 more academic studies which has led to an updated book called Visible Learning: The Sequel. In it he indicates which aspects of school and the learning process lead to the biggest gains in student learning, and one area that these further studies confirm is that when school leaders strategically plan time for teachers to collaborate, this leads to a large positive impact in the classroom.
The last couple of years has seen our teachers spend valuable time on this front in collaborative sessions as departments, leaders, IMYC teachers, tutors and IB teachers on Friday mornings to work together on specific issues related to specific areas for which they are responsible. Over the next fortnight, we have arranged for each department to spend a day offsite to collaborate on areas based on their subject needs. Each Leader of Learning will take responsibility for this process, and share their outcomes with each other at the end of it. This teamwork is invaluable in arriving at a shared understanding of what works well in the learning process and underpins one of the International Stream Secondary development goals, creating more collaboration time to impact in the classroom.
