Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education The Final Report of ...

Lanyon Cluster of Schools
Australian Capital Territory
Values Investigators: Teachers and Students
Researching Values Together
Participating schools
• Lanyon High School
• Bonython Primary School
• Charles Conder Primary School
• Gordon Primary School
• Birrigai Outdoor School
Cluster Coordinator: Ms Rita van Haren, Lanyon High School, Canberra
Deputy Coordinator: Ms Lesley Crawford, Gordon Primary School, Canberra
University Advisor: Dr Thomas Nielsen, University of Canberra
The project
The Canberra-based Lanyon Cluster of schools
comprised one government high school, three
primary schools and the Birrigai Outdoor School.
The cluster group had previously worked together
in Stage 2 of the VEGPSP. The Values Investigators:
Teachers and Students Researching Values Together
project focused on teachers as designers and
implementers of high quality curriculum that
is values-based, engaging and connected to
students’ life worlds. The project saw teachers
and students as action researchers: collecting,
analysing and presenting evidence of learning,
particularly learning about values. The five cluster
schools built upon the values work they began
in 2007, in which they integrated values across
the curriculum using the Learning by Design
approach (see Curriculum Corporation 2008,
pp 50–52).
The VASP project designed curriculum to establish
continuum in values education from preschool to
Year 10. In the design of specific learning elements
(see Kalantzis, Cope & LDPG 2005), teachers in the
cluster developed students’ deep understanding of
values and sense of agency through the creation
of a ‘culture of giving’.
Central to this project was the focus on teachers
as scholars, where an action research model was
implemented to deepen teachers’ understanding
of pedagogy, curriculum and assessment, to
evaluate the impact of teaching values and to
produce evidence of student learning in relation
to both values and academic learning.
To further develop their resilience and wellbeing,
students also acted as co-researchers with their
teachers. Mirroring the research practice of their
teachers, students collected and documented their
own evidence of how they had been transformed
in relation to the values being studied.
A feature of the Lanyon Cluster values work was
a strong sense of collaboration and sharing. The
professional learning community extended across
all schools and was strongly supported by school
leaders in sustained and practical ways. Clusterwide
whole staff professional development events
held after school hours built a strong professional
learning community. Teachers routinely shared
the outcomes of action research projects, and
careful documentation of outcomes encouraged
and facilitated uptake of successful approaches
by others.
96 Giving Voice to the Impacts of Values Education: The Final Report of the Values in Action Schools Project