The Global Reset – New Opportunities for Educating Girls
Global Action Research Collaborative on Girls’ Education
Cohort 2023
As educators around the world, we negotiated the multiple ways the pandemic impacted our schools and our students. Driven into quick pivots, experimentation, and navigating familiar approaches in fundamentally new settings, teachers explored different tools and creative strategies in their classrooms. Some initiatives revealed the potential for positive long-term adoption in spaces of girls’ learning while others were readily sunset when schedules and facetime meandered back to the more familiar. The GARC Cohort of 2023 captured this unique moment in time by researching their own “resets” – what they were inspired to change and what the research yielded of the efficacy of those changes. This cohort, 25 teachers from girls’ schools in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, explored a diversity of tools, strategies, and skill-building approaches born from lessons learned, and the new post-pandemic needs of their students. From the vast range of studies conducted, several themes emerged that support the education of girls today.
Co-Design: Involving girls in designing their learning experience.
Several studies explored incorporating student voice by co-designing elements of their learning. Nicole Johnston at Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child in the United States worked with her year 11 students on designing skills-focused rubrics and observed shifts in her classroom. Johnston observed, “My students demonstrated a new enthusiasm and better understanding of their learning. They also expressed a better understanding of why they received their specific grade. Students openly discussed skills, both those they had mastered and those needing work, showing maturity in their learning.” She went on to note that an unintended outcome “was improvement in the students’ mental health. I did not expect the overwhelming positive responses students provided. Students reflected on feeling improvement in their mental health and seeing it in others.” Ellen Savill at Ruyton Girls’ School in Australia noted that in working with her class of “9-year-old girls to co-design success criteria and assessment continuums based upon experiential learning tasks in the kitchen and garden, this research project revealed some effective techniques to combat perfectionist mindsets and enhance girls’ appreciation for the diverse construct surrounding the term ‘success.’” Her findings illustrated the journey these students travelled in discussing the concept of success, building categories to define it, and finally determining the success of the outcome. Savill noted that “there was an apparent shift in many girls’ mindsets to what is valued as successful. This was predominantly revealed in their feedback and subsequent modification of the success criteria language. From the commencement of the project, contrasted to the end, there was a transference from using deficit-based language to describe key attributes and success continuums (product/finite-driven vocabulary) into strength-based language that focused on the value and stages of the process within the learning journey.” Other research reports noted the value of student voice in the learning journey, irrespective of the extent of the involvement. Students gained deeper understanding of and appreciation for the reasons for the work they were doing, and thus engaged with the content in a more intentional manner.
My Learning: Building girls’ independence and self-efficacy.
A common theme that emerged from this cohort’s research was the outcome of ownership and independence in the students’ journeys. In addition to the positive impact of the various tools and techniques explored in these studies was the finding that in gaining a clear understanding of what was expected and seeing the connection of their studies to their lives, the girls gained increased confidence and ownership in their learning. Florence Coghlan at All Hallows’ School in Australia studied asynchronous learning as a way to build autonomy and discovered that with students having more choice and opportunity to reflect, they were more collaborative and less teacher dependent. She noted that “Analysis of the data suggests an increase in goal setting and individualised scheduling of learning activities, more student choice about learning activity engagement, improved reflective practices, and increased teacher independence and peer collaboration. These findings suggest strengthened learner autonomy for the students who participated in the asynchronous learning program.” AnnMarie Zigrossi at St. Clement’s School in Canada co-created with her grade 3 students mindful routines that they could choose to practice during the day. She found that “students exhibited a sense of ownership in creating their unique mindful routine, which led to high levels of engagement and autonomy. The students used critical thinking skills to research various mindful practices and experimented, tested, and self-reflected to discern the practices that best suited them.” Laura Parkes at Northwood College for Girls in the United Kingdom discovered that utilizing small group discussions led to an increased enthusiasm for learning and confidence in their own ideas. Challenging her own reservations of group work, she observed, “It has made me realise that students relish the chance to work with a wider range of people, while the group set-up gives them the structure to explore literature with less reliance on their teacher.”
Engagement: Fostering confidence increases girls’ engagement.
A number of approaches researched this past year noted improvement students’ self-confidence, which in turn increased engagement. Connecting with a clear purpose and relevance drew girls’ interests and willingness to reflect more deeply on the work being covered. Small group discussions in particular demonstrated the positive impact of increased student engagement with a greater range of ideas being shared, greater curiosity, and an increased confidence in their ideas as they listened to their peers and worked through their own thoughts. Lucy Scovell from Portsmouth High School in the United Kingdom used Google’s Jamboard in her geography classroom and noted that “students engaged with complex content readily and with confidence; they developed critical evaluation skills to apply to examination style questions; they collaborated effectively with their peers; and the use of Jamboard facilitated dynamic learning in the classroom.” She concluded that the tool did “engage and enhance girls’ learning and outcomes.” Sheridan Sweeney from Kambala in Australia explored how to engage girls as global citizens and her research uncovered that “implementing a global competency learning program, which included opportunities for international peer connections and scaffolded learning with global thinking routines, unquestionably engaged Year 5 girls in global citizenship education. The data provided evidence that the girls developed their curiosity for global knowledge and willingness to participate in transformative global action. Throughout the program, the girls noticeably experienced stages of growth and change, which contributed to their overall experience.” Sweeney stated that through these stages of growth, the girls as a learning collective grew from “Individual Dreamers” to “Collective Doers.”
The resilience demonstrated by educators and students during the pandemic gave rise to the courage and confidence to explore new ways of doing what was familiar in girls’ learning and development. While some of the familiar was simply being used in new ways, each takeaway demonstrates an ongoing determination to always offer the best learning experience for students. No matter the challenge or environment, these tenacious teachers continue their lifelong learning and have shared with our girls’ school community a plethora of research-backed approaches to support the vital work of preparing girls to know their power, engage in their learning, and thrive in their unique strengths.
Join girls’ schools from around the world at upcoming Educating Girls Symposiums in Kent, UK and Los Angeles, USA, where GARC fellows and other girls’ school thought leaders will be sharing valuable findings and insights. The GARC cohort of 2024, exploring the topic of collaboration, will be presenting their research at the ICGS Conference in Baltimore, USA, in June 2024.
Apply now for the 2025 cohort of GARC fellows who will be exploring the topic of student agency.
The International Coalition of Girls’ Schools is the leading advocate for girls’ schools, connecting and collaborating globally with individuals, schools, and mission-aligned entities dedicated to educating and empowering girls. ICGS supports 550 member schools in 22 countries through advocacy, research, professional development, networking, and other strategic initiatives. Learn more at www.girlsschools.org.