From the PDHPE classroom to history, science and beyond, teachers at Queenwood School are working to raise the bar in discipline-specific writing skills – and an instructional framework is paving the way.
Most of what we do know about learning comes from a trial-and-error approach in cognitive psychology. Basically, researchers try something out, see if the kids learn from it and then build a theory about what might be going on underneath. The results are fascinating and increasingly robust, but it’s psychology and not neuroanatomy. There is much we don’t know, and which we have no reasonable prospect of knowing.
If you were asked what quality you would most like your daughter’s teacher to have, would you favour kindness or intelligence?
There are myriad ways in which a Queenwood education is shaped by our single-sex learning environment. You won’t be surprised to know that we think (and write) about this rather a lot; but in this newsletter, I will focus on just one aspect: confidence.
Defining gratitude is not easy. It is more than a synonym for thanks. It plays an important role in many spiritual traditions as well as in the modern positive psychology movement.
Innate intelligence certainly varies amongst people, but having a high level of background knowledge can have a similar effect to having high innate intelligence. Someone who already knows a lot will pick things up faster, efficiently integrate new information into an existing conceptual schema and be able to bring critical faculties to bear more powerfully on new problems.
One of the greatest gifts we give our children is the ability to be empathetic towards others. The first step to creating a more harmonious world is to practise empathy and to connect with the beauty, challenges and agency that create another person’s story.
The process of decision-making, of assessing the pros and cons in order to decide between options, is described by cognitive scientists as executive function. Exercising executive function engages the prefrontal structures in the brain, muscle structures that tire with the number rather than the gravity of decisions.
First impressions are lasting impressions, and the heat and red dust that greeted us on our arrival in Arnhem Land certainly permeated the Mother/Daughter trip - but our eight days together were much more than just this.
Our job is to draw our girls into the unfamiliar. We do not seek to make things easy and comfortable: instead, we expect all of our girls to engage with serious (and interesting!) ideas about the world.
Gap Year students can apply years of classroom knowledge to life experiences, resulting in greater clarity about career goals. Their Gap Year experiences gained can set them on a different track or confirm their direction. Either way, they enter university with a much clearer path.