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Shane Giles is Assistant Principal at Lumen Christi, a K-12 Catholic college at Pambula on the NSW south coast. Shane was one of three recipients of the NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarship for teachers (another was his Lumen Christi colleague, Kelly Evans. Shane spoke with Scholaris about his proposed research.
Pictured: Premier’s Award recipients Kelly Evans, Shane Giles, Danielle Cronin (CSNSW) & Kirsty Thorpe
What was your scholarship awarded for?
The study aims to investigate smooth transitions from primary to secondary school by developing structures and pedagogies that foster engagement and create continua of learning. The study tour enriches the body of professional knowledge about 21st century pedagogies for teachers in rural and regional NSW, contributing to the development of student engagement through the development of authoritative, contemporary and integrative pedagogies for schools, classrooms, and online communities.
How will your use the scholarship?
I’ll be travelling to the US, Canada, UK and Singapore with the aim of examining different school models, innovative programming and lesson delivery and integrations in the form of Project Based Learning (PBL). A focus will be on middle schooling models, particularly in regional schools. I want to see how regional schools develop a locally contextualised education, but also makes links globally through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)
Why did you feel there is a need to focus on this subject?
The project addresses the sudden drop-off of student enthusiasm for, and engagement in schooling. As a student transitions from primary school to secondary school there is a sudden and sharp decline in their levels of engagement. It freefalls for a couple of years, bottoms out in years 9 and 10 and makes only slight improvements in the senior years. The study proposal was to examine this as a problem and to see what could be done to engage students more effectively as they developed identities as life-long learners.
I hope too to bridge the divide in educational opportunities for students in country schools. Distance is a contributing factor, as are problems of access to resources, deficiencies associated with small economies of scale, localised monocultures and the anchoring bonds of family and community. I want to find ways to keep kids strongly connected to their school, family and community, while engaging in the wider world of experience offered by cosmopolitan globalism. At the heart of that is finding ways to make school relevant and to develop a strong sense of the deep self that is driven by the spirit and a fruitful recognition of the importance of the inner life.
Tell us about yourself, where did you grow up and how long have you been teaching?
I grew up in western Sydney and attended Marist Brothers at Parramatta.
After working through a variety of jobs, I took up study, travelled for a while and later took up teaching English, History and RE. I worked briefly for CEO Canberra Goulburn and later at Marist College Canberra for 10 years. In 2006, along with my wife and three children, we moved to the Bega Valley NSW and took up positions at Lumen Christi Catholic College, Pambula Beach. I have held positions as REC, Head of faculty HSIE and my current role, Assistant Principal, Learning Enrichment. My wife teaches economics, business and legal studies. She is also the facilitator of pedagogy at Lumen and a Highly Accomplished Teacher.
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