Wembley Primary School
Principal Tamara Doig
The motivation for our school to engage in Creative Schools was to amplify our vision to promote student agency, inspire curiosity and approach the curriculum in an innovative way through creative learning strategies. The program’s approach including the Creative Habits of Learning aligns with existing expansive pedagogies embedded in the school including Project Zero’s Visible Thinking routines, integrated STEAM learning and Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry Learning model. Over two years we have partnered teachers with creative practitioners in the school, engaged in professional learning at the whole school and school leadership level and dedicated time and resources to scale the teaching of critical and creative thinking skills across all year levels.
So often as educators and school leaders, we hear how important it is that we teach our students ‘21st century skills’ or ‘new work capabilities’ so they can effectively participate in the society of the future. We are confident that the expansive pedagogies we are embedding as a school provide deep learning opportunities and relevance to the real world and over the past few years, we have been transforming our learning environment into a dynamic and creative place to learn.
But as a school, the question we are now exploring is how do we value the development of these skills and learning dispositions in our students? What does that look like from a student, teacher and parent perspective? Traditionally, value has been allocated purely based on the grades and results achieved through standardised assessments and student achievement reports. Evidence and data are the foundation of how we report student progress and plan teaching programs to target student needs. Should that be different for teaching and assessing student progress in thinking creatively and critically? Put simply, no, in my opinion.
As a school leadership team, we have focused on providing release time for our teachers to collaborate and dissect the Critical and Creative Thinking Skills Continuum (ACARA) and align these to the Creative Habits of Learning so it is clear what needs to be explicitly taught at each year level and importantly, professional learning on how to integrate these skills into the stages of the inquiry learning model. Each year level now has a scope and sequence including relevant Visible Thinking routines and strategies to draw upon. Investing this time has been worthwhile to get teacher buy-in and connected practice. Through reflective practice and collaboration, we have become more skillful at ensuring accountability to year level curriculum content is able to be integrated alongside the teaching of these skills.
As a school leader, I can see the growth in our staff and students with this pedagogical model in place and a palpable shift in the culture of student learning. The question I found myself asking was how do we measure the impact? We are currently developing a model to answer this question and so far, the answer is through a balance of quantitative and qualitative data collection. At the student level, participation in assessments such as Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge, PAT STEM Contexts and PEAC testing are providing quantitative data on how students perform when faced with creative thinking challenges. We survey students and parents and monitor attendance and Attitude, Behaviour and Effort (ABE) data from teachers each semester.
Considering our overall goal is to amplify student agency, the most important part of the puzzle for the school is to empower our students to understand the development of these skills and take ownership of their progression through formative self-assessment tools. It is well documented through John Hattie’s research that self-reported grades have the highest impact on student achievement. Working with Mathilda Joubert from Creative Schools, we examined the different models in schools and systems in Australia and internationally and have started to contextualise a model that will work for Wembley. The first question to answer was the type of progression statement we want to implement. What do we want students to demonstrate – autonomy, confidence, frequency, complexity?
The current qualitative model evidences a student’s autonomy in achieving the skills for their year level, categorised by the creative habit of learning it is best aligned to. The trial in place is for students to self-assess prior to a unit of inquiry learning where this skill will be a focus followed by being explicitly taught and provided with opportunities to practice the skill. Following the unit of work or sequence of lessons, students can reflect on their progress with this skill again using the self-assessment model. Through an online learning journal platform already used by the school, students can share their self-assessments and show evidence through photos and videos to justify their thinking.
We are on a reflective journey as we work towards students evidencing their progress in acquiring critical and creative thinking skills. As an education system, it is my hope that we can align the future focused teaching and learning taking place in schools across the country with similarly innovative ways to report student progress to value the development holistically.
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