From the Director of the Pymble Institute

Pymble Institute News

Patience, Kindness and Collaboration in research

Over the past few weeks, I have noticed a theme emerging in my interactions with researchers. These are the areas of patience, kindness and collaboration and they are popping up whether I am working with student researchers or meeting and connecting with experienced education academics from universities around the world. My ideas about research are expanding equally, whether I am with Year 5 discussing visual data analysis, or professors, discussing ways to have impact in research. The themes mentioned above just keep popping up. It’s like the universe is trying to send me a message!

Patience in research is an idea I was discussing over email with Professor Nick Hopwood, from Education at the University of Technology Sydney. Nick wrote to me recently with some feedback on a paper I am writing. He reflected on the opportunity we have to help young researchers, ‘take the time to really listen, to dwell, to explore implications, to secure the best possible impact’. I have been thinking about my own busy job and the amount I try to pack into a day. Am I modelling patience for the teachers and students in my orbit? How could I change my own habits to embody a patient approach?

Kindness in research, as well as researching kindness, are active topics of consideration in our Junior School at the moment. Year 5 is preparing to host Pymble’s inaugural Kindness Convention on Wednesday 15 June, where groups of Year 5 students from schools across Sydney will gather to consider ways communities can become kinder – to the planet, to other people and to ourselves. I have had the privilege of working with a dynamic group of Year 5 students, analysing visual data from photographs of students in human bar graphs. The bar graphs depict student votes on how kind they believe we are to the environment, others and ourselves. Concerningly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, kindness to self rates quite poorly, so raising awareness to kindness and making kindness a theme of research is an important message for us to speak more about. I have recently become aware of the policy of the Wellcome Trust, a British philanthropic organisation which funds health research. The core tenets for successful funding from the Wellcome Trust include supporting equity, diversity and inclusion in the design of the research, the people who will be involved and the outcomes being sought. These tenets are more important than notions of ‘excellence’, which are frequently foregrounded in research proposals. Pymble’s focus on kindness and its connection to research is one way we are modelling ways that research contributes to a better world.

Collaboration in research is another area that has been popping up recently. This was beautifully demonstrated in Associate Professor Willa Huston’s (Science, University of Technology Sydney) presentation at our student research conference. Willa’s very first slide listed the names of her team, all the people who had contributed to the powerful work on microbiological breakthroughs for koala health, that she was sharing with the conference. Whilst many think of collaboration when putting a research proposal together, Willa role-modelled ways to acknowledge the team effort all the way through her presentation. 

With patience, kindness and collaboration at the heart of the Pymble Institute’s approach, we aim to play our part in changing the world through researching differently and even educating researchers to think differently.

I hope you enjoy the updates in this newsletter.

Dr Sarah Loch
Director – Pymble Institute

Research conversations at the 3rd Pymble Research Conference

Pymble Research Conference (adult version), Tuesday 26 July, 5.00pm-7.30pm, Pymble Ladies’ College, Conde Library

It certainly doesn’t seem right to add ‘adult version’ to the title of a school conference, but now that we have a student research conference, I need to differentiate the two. This is, of course, an excellent problem to have!

This year’s conference theme is ‘research conversations’ and with a couple of years of separation and so much happening in our fast paced local and global spheres, the opportunity to come together and converse cannot be overstated. Dr Kate Highfield, member of our College Board, Early Childhood Australia leader and Senior Lecturer at the Australian Catholic University, will deliver the keynote address, Five big ideas from under 5s: Early Childhood Education – why do we all need to know about this? The topic of early childhood education is now squarely on the national political agenda and requires attention as we upskill about the role, responsibility and rewards of early years education. Nine short research conversation opportunities will follow, with participants able to select three to attend.

The program includes:

• Victoria Adamovich, Pymble Ladies’ College, Wellbeing of EALD students: A look at family dynamics
• Cristi Wilsmore, SCEGGS Darlinghurst,Teaching and learning experiences in ability-grouped mathematics primary classrooms
• Natasha Stanfield, Pymble Ladies’ College, Ethics Committees: Training students to take an active role in the Pymble Ethics Committee
• Karen Ahearn and Lexi Ibbotson, Pymble Ladies’ College, Exploring the benefits of play in a transition to school context
• Liam Hume and Deb Owens, Pymble Ladies’ College, The impact of research on teacher practice in Elective Geography
• Rev Punam Bent, Pymble Ladies’ College, Deities of our time: Social media influencing and impact on senior high school girls
• Katie Jackson, Oakhill College, Making maths visible: Using vertical whiteboards to engage and encourage Year 10 girls to take risks when solving problems in Mathematics
• Ryan Stewart, Pymble Ladies’ College, First Nations representation in twentieth century local histories: From Gilgandra to Pymble
• Kate Brown, Pymble Ladies’ College, The kindness revolution: Enabling children to flourish as learners and leaders

Teachers, parents, educators from other schools, centres and universities, as well as interested students are warmly welcome. There is no charge for this event and all are very welcome to join us for what should prove to be an excellent afternoon of research conversations. Click here for Conference Registration of here to view the Conference Program

Kindness research empowers Junior School girls as advocates for change

To the Head of Junior School, Mrs Kate Brown, giving children the opportunity to collaborate, to think critically and creatively and to act as advocates for change is important to develop their sense of self, as well as their sense of social responsibility. As a Junior School at Pymble, we are using kindness as a way to empower our girls as learners and leaders.

Kindness is a simple word, easily understood by children and, therefore, accessible as a concept for them to unpack and lead. The Oxford English Dictionary defines kindness as ‘the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate’. Within our Junior School context, one of the many activities on embedding and interrogating the concept of kindness, Mrs Kate Brown conducted an action research to scrutinise kindness through three lenses; kindness to self, kindness to others and kindness to the environment.

 Action research into kindness

Action research was undertaken throughout 2021 and 2022 to explore and analyse how a focus on kindness (as part of our social/emotional learning) could help the girls flourish as learners and leaders. As part of the action research data collection, 150 Junior School students completed a survey to track their perceptions around how kind we are currently within our Junior School and as a nation.

Some students supplied comments to show their thinking behind the score they attributed to their response. Students were asked to record a numerical score out of ten for these questions:

• How kind are we to ourselves?
• How kind are we as a school (kindness to others)?
• How kind are we, as a nation, to our environment?

Working with Dr Sarah Loch, Director – Pymble Institute, Mrs Nerissa Davey, Deputy Head of Junior School Operations and Mrs Kimberley Tyson, Deputy Head of Junior School Students, we asked the Year 5 students to form human bar graphs in response to each question using A3 sized numbers as the key. Students formed a human number line to represent their score out of ten. A teacher took photos of these human graphs.

Following this, student representatives from each Year 5 class worked with Dr Sarah Loch and Mrs Kate Brown to analyse the data, creating graphs and collecting anecdotal evidence as the narrative behind the data. The research data showed the significant disparity between “kindness to self” vs “kindness to others”.

On the question ‘How kind are we to ourselves?’ 0% of students attributed a score of nine or ten to this question. Only 9% attributed a score of seven or eight to this question. By contrast, on the question ‘How kind are we as a school (kindness to others)?’ , 54% of students attributed a score of nine or ten and 42% attributed a score of seven or eight in response to the question. Students reflected on why this could be.

By involving Year 5 student representatives in the analysis of the data, students not only learnt to read the data and draw conclusions; they also reflected on the methodology of research. Students had excellent insights on the research questions, along with the recording of data, even to the day it was carried out and how that could have impacted the results.

Suggestions for ways to improve the research include:

• “Could have the survey online so people could be more honest or not afraid to share as they are the only ones to see the answer, rather than the whole year group seeing. This could provide more from (the) heart answers.” “We could have done this at the start of term, then the end of term, because your feelings and relationships change over time.”- Polly, Zoe and Phoebe

• “Next time I would keep better records of which photo went with which data and questions”. “We may (need to write and) ask more exact questions.”-  Rachel, Annabel, Charlie, Charlotte

• “Next time we could use tape for the number signs and make it easier to see them. Or make a video so we can see more” – Gloria, Chelsea, Charlotte

The action research project not only gave staff valuable insights into kindness in the Junior School, but, by involving the students, it started to build research skills and a critical mindset when interpreting data. Students also reflected on academic writing with some feeling they would be better at presenting the project verbally than writing up the results. Students are now working on what steps are needed next. Empowered with their research data – Junior School girls are certainly becoming advocates for change!

Research-invested schools working together

The Research-Invested Schools network is an exciting initiative of colleagues at The Scots College, Sydney; namely, Dr Hugh Chilton and Dr Caitlin Munday. Hugh and Caitlin utilised their ongoing relationship with Professor Peter Twining, Dr Carl Leonard and Professor Allyson Holbrook from the University of Newcastle, Australia to create immediate links between schools and Education academics. The network includes around 30 schools from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland and represents schools who are ‘charting a new course for the future of innovation and leadership in education’ (see http://www.researchinvestedschools.net).​

Research-invested schools actively encourage research activity and use in schools in all sorts of different contexts. Whilst there is much diversity in the ways research-invested schools approach research, together we are positioning schools as active contributors to the knowledge produced in and for Education and as dynamic participants in building the knowledge economy.

There is a move away from schools and teachers being solely consumers of research or being “researched on”. Instead, staff, teachers, and students are encouraged to be contributors, creators and researchers. To have evidence-informed teaching practices, teachers need to become research-literate themselves. There is an exciting shift that values the teacher and their expertise, with Michael Fullan (2018) saying that his best ideas came from lead practitioners – the message being that practitioners are actually the experts on education (rather than academics).

For our Pymble students, as they step into higher education and then into futures, most likely in the knowledge economy, they need research literacy, too. Our Student Research Conference was an excellent forum for students to share their research and network with students from other schools and university academics. Student voice as part of our Ethics Committee is crucial for evaluating research planned at the College and the overwhelming interest from Year 9 to 11 students in our Data Science course is testament to their desire to upskill in data analysis.

There are a wide range of activities a “research-invested school” may be involved in:

• Work with universities or academics to enable research at their schools.
• Seek best practice and latest research to inform teachers to improve curriculum, pedagogy, and wellbeing initiatives.
• Facilitate teachers undertaking action research, professional learning and accreditation.
• Support staff in their postgraduate studies.
• Upskill staff and students in research competencies such as literature review, survey design, ethics proposals, data analysis and academic writing.
• Design action research or longitudinal studies into strategic initiatives at the school, such as our research into the impacts of outdoor education on learning and wellbeing.
• Create platforms for researchers to share results in publications, conferences and professional networks.

In the last seven years, more than 30 Australian schools have either established a research centre, and/or appointed a ‘research lead’ to explicitly focus on building research capacity within their school. The movement is also global with schools investing in research activity in Europe and Americas. Research is no longer a “luxury” but a necessity.

You can read more about the Pymble Institute and Pymble’s journey to developing a research centre in this article by Anders Furze of the Australian Financial Review – australian-financial-review-afr-20220422 (1)

References

Fullan, M. (2018). Surreal Change: the real life of transforming public education. Oxfordshire: Routledge. 

http://www.researchinvestedschools.net/

Students talking about research

Congratulations to the students and presenters who participated in the inaugural Pymble Student Research Conference on 17 May 2022. The event was a fantastic experience with so much enthusiasm, interest and discussion. This conference was unique in that it was student-designed and student-led, and it brought together students from a number of schools to learn about research from those immersed in their fields. With over 175 attendees (face to face and online), it looks like national and global research is in good hands with so many caring and committed researchers in our midst.

The conference also included its own research activity which was taking place before, during and after the conference itself. This was in the guise of an amazing foyer display which invited guests to scan QR codes and respond to quick surveys of skill and interest in research, and to physically post comments on display boards sharing why they had come to the conference, their confidence level with research and what they saw as the purpose of research. Student leaders, Charlotte Hartin and Lucy Clark, Year 11, will be researching the topic of student skill, interest and confidence in research using data from the conference, which will be a great paper!

Lucy and Charlotte have been co-planning the conference for the best part of the year and I am truly in awe of their vision and determination. This event showcased research through a student lens, bringing together children and young people from Year 5 to 12, teachers, Education undergraduates, parents, professors and school leaders; all enthused to learn more about research. One of the foyer displays highlighted the data collection and analysis work of a group of Year 5 students, many of whom attended on the night. The students are currently analysing visual data to explore how Junior School students rate themselves in relation to kindness to self, others and the environment. 

We were honoured to have a diverse and experienced range of speakers from different career stages and backgrounds. I’d like to acknowledge:

• Associate Professor Willa Huston, Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Science, UTS whose research area is molecular microbiology. Willa spoke about the twists and turns of research journeys, and gave examples from her team’s work in chlamydia research and how one set of data is now being re-used to save NSW koala populations.
• Ms Thomasina Buchner, Honours student in the School of Education and Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney. A Pymble graduate and one of our beloved dance teachers, Tommy spoke about her Honours project where she is researching teaching mathematics to Year 1 students through dance.
• Ms Erica Bell, PhD Candidate, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, shared insights into her PhD work on the feeling of irritability in mental health for adolescents. Erica explained how she became interested in this area and what it’s like to plan and run a large research project.
• 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, is a highly accomplished academic in her field of education and social justice. Amanda reflected on different ways to do research, including Youth Participatory Action Research methods.
• I also spoke about my PhD which examined how young adolescent girls navigate their subject selection (in the middle years of schooling) and how they plot pathways to their futures. My qualitative methods gave the audience ideas about ways to use non-traditional approaches and how valuable it has been for me to explore a question closely connected to my work in schools.

The 2023 Pymble Student Research conference will take place on the afternoon of Tuesday 16 May. Save the date for this event! All are warmly welcome to join us.

Perspective – Pymble’s student research journal

The 2nd Edition of the student research journal, Perspective, was launched at the Student Research Conference. It celebrates the scholarship of students from Year 7 to Year 12, including exemplars of research in Extension Science and Extension History. These courses provide excellent opportunities for student research, which in turn provides a firm foundation for embracing extensive inquiry and research projects at university. There are also articles from students who entered competitions, such as The National History Challenge, and who completed passion projects in courses or on their own.

The research topics indicate areas of interest and importance for young people, including equine health, the future of coal, Australian First Nations’ history, culture and truth telling, feminist perspectives on history, curatorial policies in Australian museums, Chinese-Australian culture and Little Big Histories of everyday items like chopsticks and paper.

We are proud to give our students a voice and a way of communicating their research to the world.

Perspective, Edition 2, is available online – Perspective Edition 2

For the complete list of Pymble Institute publications, visit the website.

Publications from the Pymble Institute

The most recent edition of Illuminate, Edition 6, takes the theme of wellbeing and presents papers through a range of lens, including music, literature, resilience, rites of passage, mentoring and learning.

Editions of Illuminate are available here. 

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