When Students Become Teachers
One of the CCBE’s priorities is to develop and nurture our student research program. Over the last four years, we have enlisted dozens of boys to share insights, build research competencies and inspire change in the Crescent School student experience. According to Sandoval and Messiou (2020), studies that employ students as researchers/co-researchers focusing on school improvement and inclusion are a powerful way to support school change and empower students.
Crescent has applied these findings in several ways. The Student Participatory Action Research Collaborative (SPARC) is our signature Grade 10 program. A key feature of the SPARC experience is that it allows students to reveal ‘the hidden curriculum’ at school, the lived experience of the students that is not evident to teachers. Each year, the boys introduce topics and create timely research questions. The research concludes with a visit to the University of Philadelphia in April to share their findings. We have just begun the fifth cycle of this experience with our biggest team yet.
For the past three years, the program has expanded to ‘Tracking the Impact’ of SPARC findings, supported by our partnership with Challenge Success. The now Grade 11&12 boys continue to invest in their Grade 10 SPARC efforts to drive change.
We are excited to announce the Middle School Research Institute, a pilot project with Bishop Strachan School that is now underway. We have learned that we need to amplify the Middle School experience and that student-led research is a powerful way to do so. The student’s research this year will focus on digital versus paper agendas to determine which method better supports their executive functioning skills.
These experiences have resulted in creating a school improvement plan led by a team of Grade 11 and 12 students, aka “Student Strategic Solutions” (S3). This team is doing a ‘deep dive’ into our many years of data to discover recurring themes important to our boys. The goal is to celebrate changes initiated by the research, track the impact, and acknowledge how Crescent is listening to the boys' voices.
There is a clear desire by many boys at Crescent to determine what they value and respond to leadership opportunities. By investing in the research process, our student researchers are making their mark on the Crescent Community as they strive for continuous improvement.
Reference:
Sandoval, M., & Messiou, K. (2020). Students as researchers for promoting school improvement and inclusion: a review of studies. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26(8), 780–795. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2020.1730456
