PACIFIC PARTNERS WITH UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

A team of Middle College teachers have embarked on an exciting year-long partnership with researchers from the University of Queensland’s Learning Lab to investigate Middle College students’ learning at Pacific Lutheran College.

UQ’s Learning Lab involves researchers from across the scientific disciplines of education, psychology, and neuroscience. The collective aim of the Learning Lab is to convert research into practice in Pacific classrooms. The Learning Lab uses the lens of the Science of Learning research to connect cognitive neuroscience and teaching practice to improve student learning outcomes.

Mrs Melanie Percival (Year 6 teacher), Mrs Linda Sydes (Year 7 teacher), Ms Michelle McMillan (Year 8 teacher), Miss Tiffany Harman (Year 9 teacher) and Mrs Jo Belchamber (Head of Learning Middle College) will take on the role of teachers as researchers to investigate the power of self-regulated learning, in particular metacognition, across Years 6-9 classrooms. The research focus will be on the metacognitive strategies employed by students as they face academic challenges, investigating the extent to which challenge activates and supports positive metacognitive strategies, like goal setting.

This exploratory project is based on the Science of Learning research that changes in the brain during pre-adolescence and adolescence provide opportunity to establish neural pathways that enhance student responses to academic challenge.

Through this approach, we aim to assist our Middle College students to develop the intellectual dispositions of the Pacific Lutheran College’s Four Pillars of Learning.

Mrs Jo Belchamber, Head of Learning Middle College