The Power of Making Thinking Visible
The Brian Webber Fellowships were established in 2019 to provide opportunities for staff to undertake major professional development and research activities that directly impact student learning. The Fellowships recognise the support of Headmaster Dr Brian Webber (PAC 1988-1999), a distinguished educational leader, who had a strong focus on the recruitment of the best staff and their development as teachers and professionals.
One of the five 2022 recipients was Jacquie Sexton, Academic Leader Humanities. Jacquie and three other members of the Humanities Faculty, undertook the Harvard University Project Zero Visible Thinking Course with a view to bridging the gap between education research and practice, as Jacqui explains:
"The aim of this 14-week course is to help teachers grow thinking dispositions within our students, which may sound straightforward but is surprisingly tricky. How do we not feed answers to students, but help them search for and build knowledge? Achieving this will help students in their academic studies at school, but more importantly in their lives after Princes too.
The Project Zero, Visible Thinking course ties in tightly with the College’s Strategic Plan, specifically its focus on bridging the gap between education research and practice. Project Zero is a cornerstone of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and has been at the forefront of Education research for 40 years. Such is the academic rigour of the course, it counts towards a graduate degree at Harvard. The course members of the Humanities faculty will soon undertake, leverages off this research and ties it to teaching in a heavily applied manner. We will not just be talking about this research; we will be learning to enact in our classrooms. The course is also run worldwide, meaning our staff will be linking with schools around the globe and learning from them.
We are extremely thankful for the opportunity afforded to us by the Brian Webber Scholarship to embark on this learning. As our learnings are rolled out to other faculties, we are confident our students will become better learners, clearer thinkers, and more knowledgeable young men because of it."
If you would like to support outstanding teaching and research, please consider a donation to the Brian Webber Fund. For more information, please contact Helen Karapandzic, Director of Philanthropy on (08) 8334 1220.
