Day 7: John Monash Science School and NVSES at Monash University

Today I visited Barbara McKinnon at the John Monash School for the Sciences (JMSS). It was unlike any other school I've visited- anywhere. It's a select entry school focused on the sciences. Students come from the area around the school, but they also have a program where students from rural schools attend remotely for most of the year and then come in person to spend a 3-week stint at the school. 

Stock photo from: http://www.patrickredmond.com.au/data/photos/93_1untitled_w.jpg

The layout of the school was groundbreaking when it first opened, and it's still fairly unique (more on that in a moment). The layout is very open, to the point where there are classes going on simultaneously on either side of a “bridge” without any dividers. This means that there is always some background noise from other classes, even in the enclosed classrooms and labs. Part of this is due to the glassed-in separators between the rooms, but the other reason for it is due to the class sizes. Every period is essentially a double period and is either 70 or 75 minutes in length. There are 4 periods in a typical day, unless it's Wednesday, when there are only 3. The students spend Wednesday afternoons doing extracurricular activities and the staff have professional development.  A normal class is 50 students and is team taught by two teachers. One usually takes the lead while the other circulates and answers questions that crop up without interrupting the flow of the rest of the class. This seemed to work remarkably well, but there was a lot of background noise. The pros of this model are numerous and have been documented by Greg Lancaster of Monash University. One of the biggest positives that Greg noted during our discussion was the continuity if a teacher happens to be absent: their partner can simply step in and teach the lesson with the support of someone else filling in. This also means that the pair can divide the lessons so that each teaches the material they feel most comfortable with. 

The students at JMSS are very focused, and that's what makes this model works. One student told me that the noise can be distracting at times, but that she really likes the model with two teachers and the open classrooms. This was echoed by many students, who also enjoy taking classes with other dedicated students with s genuine interest in science. The open model has been tried at other schools, with what I understand to be limited success. Students who are apathetic toward their studies or tend to have behavior issues can take advantage of the freedom the model offers to goof off or misbehave. The biggest issue JMSS appears to face in terms of discipline seems to be attendance issues with students who aren't as dedicated as they ought to be, and subsequently getting these students caught up. Missing a 70 minute lesson is challenging to make up, especially when the students have very full schedules. Speaking of which, they take approximately 7 different courses: math, a core science, an elective science, English, humanities, language, and gym. Languages are either French or Japanese (nearly positive that this is the case, but to be honest the schools visits are blending together a bit at this stage, so take that with a grain of salt).. The range of courses that are under the umbrella of humanities is somewhat surprising: they include environmental science and IT courses. 

A standard teaching load is 4 courses plus extra duties. Since the courses are team-taught, this prep load is slightly better than it appears at first blush. Also, it is mandated that all of the sections of a particular course stay in sync and use a similar approach. This keeps the students on the same page, but decreases the flexibility allowed to individual teachers. As one student noted, it gives extra prep time for tests because the test cannot be administered until all of the sections have completed the material, but it also means that feedback is delayed because the test is not returned until all of the students enrolled in the course have taken the assessment. It can be 2+ weeks before students find out their scores on a test. 

On a side note, you being such intrepid readers have probably noticed a distinct dearth of students in my photos. This is not accidental, but rather because there are strict rules here about getting permission before publishing photographs of students. Given the extraordinarily short nature of this trip, it wasn't feasible to get the suitable permission so I am only able to share images of teachers and their classrooms. Barbara told me that the students and teachers would be very comfortable with my coming and going, and this was certainly the case. They were also very comfortable answering questions, both about the content they were learning, the process of learning, and how their experience at JMSS compares to their previous schools. 

This is already a long entry, but there is more to come. This is possibly the most applicable bit too, because it involves rural students. The original goal of my fellowship was to visit schools in rural areas similar to the region I live in back in the United States. Dan O’Keeffe from Vicphysics was instrumental in setting up my itinerary, and he sent an invitation to their mailing list of teachers asking for volunteers to have me come visit their schools. Nobody from rural schools responded, and after arriving I learned that many rural schools simply do not teach physics because they do not have a teacher who knows the content. This explains why I haven't been able to visit rural schools!

The program at JMSS for rural students is pretty unique. Two teachers sit in a recording studio and have class with students who are connected remotely from all over the state. The ideal setup is for the students to attend in real-time, but the videos are published to an unlisted youtube channel for students to review if they happen to miss class. This is a good way for students in remote areas to get access to material that they would not otherwise be able to learn. 

Today while I was chatting with Simon Tyler, one of the teachers at JMSS, he said that my name sounded familiar. Turns out that he recognized it from the Global Physics Department! Small world...

I had lunch today with Greg and a visiting researcher. We had a great discussion about how to make good videos for education and what it takes to do that from a pedagogical perspective. Among other things, Greg works on a project called the National Virtual School of Emerging Sciences.  Fascinating stuff- perhaps the model of remote delivery could work for small rural schools in America? In NY we'd have to sort out how to handle the hands-on lab component, but it certainly has potential. It would take some work to do it right though.

I liked the look of this building on Monash's campus: