From the Director of the Pymble Institute

Pymble Institute News

“There is no doubt: the time for girls – and for girls’ schools – is now”.

This phrase popped out to me from the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (USA) website and I gave a little fist pump as I thought about my own work as Director of the Pymble Institute. Through its development and launch in 2021, the Institute’s mission to make a positive impact in the lives of girls and women was established, but what are we doing about this goal?

The National Coalition of Girls’ School website points to three key elements to lift up ‘global changemakers’ (https://www.ncgs.org/girls-as-global-changemakers). You will see these elements, and more, in the work of the Pymble Institute:

• Stronger community involvement
• Greater cultural competency
• Increased political engagement

I’m delighted to announce that Rev Punam Bent, with a colleague from St Catherine’s School, Bramley in England, has been successful in her application to present a research paper entitled, “The impact of social media influencers in senior high school years for girls”, at the Global Forum on Girls’ Education for the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS), USA. The research also involves a girls’ high school in India which connects students from three countries in an investigation into the shifting paradigms of who an influencer is and the catalysts that exist within school communities for impactful influencing.

Katie Jackson, from the Mathematics Department, will also be presenting at the NGCS conference this year. Katie has completed an action research project on the use of whiteboards as a dynamic and under-utilised teaching and learning tool. A summary of her findings is outlined below.

Congratulations to Punam and Katie for securing the opportunity to represent Pymble and Australian girls’ school education at this prestigious, international event. For those interested, the NGCS conference website https://www.ncgs.org/professional-development/global-forum-on-girls-education-iii/ outlines further information and a range of excellent resources for girls’ civic engagement and advocacy.

Dr Sarah Loch

Director – Pymble Institute

Year 10 Mathematics and problem solving

Katie Jackson, Mathematics Department, and a Fellow of the Global Action Research Collaborative of Girls’ Education (2021/22), has been working on her project of making mathematics visible in girls’ education. The result is the paper, “How does the use of vertical whiteboards encourage Year 10 girls to take risks when solving problems in Mathematics?” which will be presented at the National Coalition Girls’ Schools (USA) conference in June 2022.

Katie has been part of a group of educators from around the world whose online meetings have resulted in confidence and skills in action research, as well as the formation of friendships and new connections. In her classroom at Pymble, in the room known as C16, two walls of ceiling to floor whiteboards were installed. This simple, relatively affordable, ‘no-tech’ solution now sees students gather in small groups to discuss their mathematics and more openly and confidently demonstrate and talk about their thinking.

Findings in this project include:

• teacher’s confidence that mathematical knowledge can become visible
• identification of ways learning is verbalised and can be shared in Maths lessons
• experiencing shifts in power as students begin to teach each other, and utilise the expertise of the teacher differently
• promoting increased risk taking due to the impermanence of writing on white boards.

As well as benefits for our students which will be explored further at Pymble as the C16 classroom is used by many classes, Katie commends the opportunity provided by the grant. “It has been great to know I can research and write, and so nice to get to know participants from all around the world, such as those in my small group who are from Hawaii, America and Canada”.

More about the other 2021/22 GARC Fellows is available here: https://www.ncgs.org/research/garc/meet-the-2021-2022-fellows/

Applications for the 2023/24 GARC cohort will open shortly.

Researching outdoor education with Western Sydney University

Last year, Stuart Clark, Director of Vision Valley, and Pymble Institute Director, Dr Sarah Loch, initiated a joint project with academics from the School of Education at Western Sydney University. The goal was to establish a baseline to allow the College to measure how learning and wellbeing changes over time as the outdoor education campus, Vision Valley, and our program of outdoor education becomes more established.

Franklin D. Roosevelt reflected that “a smooth sea never made a skilful sailor”. The College’s commitment to developing students’ emotional intelligence and character through experiences beyond familiar environments include ones that create challenges to personal comfort zones and act as catalysts for the development of new inter and intra-personal skills. This is the foundation of Pymble’s experiential outdoor learning continuum and a guiding vision for the programs we are establishing at our new bushland campus, Vision Valley.  

It is important to look ahead in research and predict what will be needed to guide decision making but designing a future-focused research project is a significant task. In the area of outdoor education, we were fortunate to connect with a team of experienced, passionate and highly skilled educational researchers in Professor Tonia Gray, Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman and Dr Christina Curry from the School of Education at Western Sydney University.

The result is a longitudinal research project titled, ‘Assessing the Impact of a School Outdoor Education Long-term Initiative at Pymble Ladies’ College’, which has commenced with Year 7 2022. We aim to have Year 5 to 12 students involved as their outdoor education experiences occur and to follow each year group through over subsequent years. Participating students – which we hope will be the whole College, making this a very large data set! – will be asked to complete a short survey before and after their outdoor education experience. The questions are designed to explore themes of resilience, persistence, coping, confidence and bravery. 

We are grateful to Professor Tonia Gray and her team for working with Pymble to set up the project and look forward to many years of research together.

For more information on research at Pymble contact Dr Sarah Loch, Director – Pymble Institute, pymbleinstitute@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au.

Primary mathematics and the question of grouping

We are delighted to be supporting this research by Ms Cristi Wilsmore, an experienced teacher at another primary school and PhD candidate at Western Sydney University. The opportunity to see a PhD Education research project up close is a great experience for our teachers.

Cristi is investigating how teachers’ beliefs affect the teaching and learning of mathematics in primary classrooms. The Pymble Junior School has a focus on numeracy and is committed to improving the way we teach mathematics to girls. The opportunity to contribute to this area of research is meaningful as it will benefit teachers and students in other schools.

We are pleased that Cristi has asked Pymble to be involved in her research as the process and results will contribute to our own teachers’ professional learning.

Students researching, Researching students

Researching students? Students as researchers and students being researched

The inaugural Pymble student research conference will take place on Tuesday 17 May, 5.00pm to 7.30pm, with an optional pizza picnic networking event at the conclusion. Student organisers, Lucy and Charlotte (Year 11), invite research-interested students from all schools to join the conference either on campus at Pymble Ladies’ College or online via a MS Teams livestream. The conference will be most suitable for Secondary students but all are welcome.

The conference aims to encourage students to participate in research. Learn about how research works at university and the difference you can make, as well as meeting other students and sharing ideas. We are excited to announce the list of speakers, including:

• Opening keynote speaker: Associate Professor Willa Huston, Acting Head of School – Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, UTS. A/Professor Huston’s research area is molecular microbiology
• Closing keynote speaker: Professor Amanda Keddie, Chair in Education, Faculty of Arts and Education, and leader of the Children, Young People and their Communities team within the REDI (Research for Educational Impact) Centre, Deakin University. Professor Keddie’s research area is social justice and schooling.
• Bachelor or Education (Honours) student: Ms Thomasina Buchner, student in the School of Education and Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney and a dance teacher at Pymble. Ms Buchner is conducting research into teaching mathematics for young students (Year 1) through dance.
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Candidate, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney: Ms Erica Bell. Ms Bell is conducting research into the feeling of irritability in mental health for adolescents.
• Pymble Institute Director, Pymble Ladies’ College: Dr Sarah Loch. Dr Loch is the Director of the Pymble Institute and leads research and professional learning at the College. Her research area is young people’s engagement in research, as well as futures and career directions for adolescent girls.

As part of our students’ ongoing passion to understand the student perspective of research, we hope to undertake research with the students attending the conference. The research question is ‘How can schools support and enable a research culture for students?’ This involves understanding what motivates students to involve themselves in academia. This will hopefully enable us to be more informed as to what inspires students to be interested in the world of academia.

Save the date – 17 May 5.00pm to 8.00pm, and click here for registration.

The Academic Research Club is now in action

A new student-initiated club has begun at Pymble – the Academic Research Club – led by Charlotte Hartin and Lucy Clark, Year 11. Students in Years 7 to 12 are welcome to join.

The aim of the club is to create an opportunity for students to develop research-related skills through a ‘real-world’ application. Students can collaborate in research projects that will provide experience and the opportunity to apply a range of skills required in academia. There is also the opportunity to be exposed to new concepts and ideas, with access to resources and mentor support. As ARC club initiators and leaders, Charlotte and Lucy hope this will encourage further participation in the program, and provide sufficient learning opportunities to stretch the imaginations and skills of all interested students.

What happens in ARC meetings? Research-based skills are taught in a ‘guided’ manner, as they are novel and outside of the curriculum. In producing a research paper collaboratively, a greater sense of ‘club spirit’ will hopefully be achieved. Through formulating the paper together, students will have the opportunity to engage in strong mentorship, and harness their skills for further development. 

What benefits can students expect?

• A greater sense of ownership. Students will have their ‘name’ on a piece of research that could possibly be published later on. 
• An opportunity to apply research-related skills in a challenging environment. 
• To provide experience in creating a research paper, for future opportunities in university and beyond.  
• Immersion and skill development in a practical manner (real-world application). 
• Greater engagement in the program. Students are not just being taught the ‘theory’, but can interact with information at a conceptual level.
• The application of theory increases skill retention. 

Why don’t you consider starting a journal club, academic writing club or research club at your school? The Pymble ARC would love to hear of other schools around the world who encourage student research. Contact pymbleinstitute@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au for more information.

Our vision and mission

Introducing our vision – Driving thinking forward. The Pymble Institute drives our thinking forward with a commitment to research, innovation and professional learning, enabling staff and students at the College to make a positive impact in the lives of girls and women.

Together, we are committed to building capacity in Pymble students and staff and playing a role in empowering them to change the world.

The mission of the PI is to aid the College’s vision of creating influential and compassionate women through promoting awareness of research and creating opportunities to instigate, contribute to and learn from impactful projects, especially those that support girls, women and our community.

We are driven by a commitment to building our own skills in research, education and innovation and in sharing what we learn so that others are also inspired to find new ways of doing.

The Pymble Institute supports the College’s Strategic Pillars of Academic, Social, Emotional and Digital Intelligence.

Publications from the Pymble Institute

Edition 6 of the College’s research journal, Illuminate: Research and Innovation is now available.

This edition takes the theme of wellbeing and presents papers through a range of lens, including music, literature, resilience, rites of passage, mentoring and learning.

As the proud editor of this publication, I would like to highlight the wellbeing benefits of researching and writing in ways not encountered everyday. Amongst the authors of each edition, we usually have a couple of academics for whom writing and publishing is an expectation – although that doesn’t make it easy! We have teachers and other educators within the College and beyond whose daily work does not cross into research and the associated steps of writing for publication. Readers will also note papers from two of our Upper School students at the calibre of scholars at a much more advanced stage of learning.

The empathy derived from being a learner and moving out of your comfort zone to explore new territory is something I personally believe to be priceless. Add to this the steps of receiving feedback, re-writing and re-submitting – the learning involved in publishing in Illuminate is extremely powerful and I celebrate with each author as his or her work now takes its place in the public domain. As educators in a girls’ school, we have a lot to say about ways to improve education, and being brave and bold enough to do so in print is an achievement to celebrate.

Editions of Illuminate are available here. 

To contact any authors, contact the Pymble Institute on pymbleinstitute@pymblelc.nsw.edu.au.