An ACT public school teacher has designed an elective to help re-engage students who have not succeeded in traditional education.
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Kate Greeney introduced the program in 2015 at Harrison School, where she was executive teacher for student engagement and pastoral care.
Initially delivered to 15 students, the elective allows students to focus on a passion project. It has expanded and is now one of the most popular at the school.
It came about as part of the aspiring leaders program for ACT teachers, run by the University of Melbourne on behalf of the ACT education directorate. Ms Greeney was part of the first cohort to go through the program two years ago.
The program was launched for the second time this week. The aim is to help improve learning outcomes in schools and develop future leaders in the system.
Selected participants are involved in a series of workshops and are mentored for a year during which they produce a research project aimed at implementing a measure to directly address an issue at their school.
Lisa Grech is one of about 30 teachers taking part. She hopes to design a program in her area of interest, instructional leadership in numeracy.
"I'm really thankful to be part of it," she said.
"We're really aimed at improving instructional leadership and practise across the system. It's going to have a positive impact."
University of Melbourne lead academic associate professor Helen Stokes said the program was specifically designed for the ACT and aimed to improve teaching and learning in schools in order to increase student achievement.
She said the program also gave teachers the skills to look at the impact of their teaching.
At the end of the program, the projects are evaluated.
"Some of the projects have had quite significant impact," associate professor Stokes said.
One of those is the elective implemented by Ms Greeney at Harrison School. She embarked on the project to answer the question of whether greater student voice leads to greater student engagement. She attributes the success of the trial to the aspiring leaders program, where mentors guided her to develop a cohesive implementation plan.
"My research led to the development of a new elective around some of our more disengaged students," she said.
"It looked at using a personalised and flexible approach to teaching and learning, placing student voice at the centre of the program."
Ms Greeney targeted students "that had not succeeded in traditional education environments or traditional classrooms".
"We wanted to change what education looked like to them, make it a little less daunting."
Over the course of the elective, one student wrote a novel, another wrote a school song complete with music, a team of boys made a go-kart and others made skateboards. The students started by writing proposals for their plans, creating a budget and developing a fundraising plan. They had to ensure their project had an element of giving back to the community.
It was deemed a success, particularly as it improved academic grades among the students.
"Watching students realise that they have limitless potential, and as a teacher you can help them foresee that, that's what you do the job for really," Ms Greeney said.
