Year 7 students at St Joseph’s College are participating in a pilot program called STRIVE aimed at developing the skills required to become independent learners.

The STRIVE program is informed by the Harvard Teaching for Understanding framework, a collaborative approach for effective teaching developed by faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education along with many experienced teachers and researchers. It is designed to gradually build skills, behaviours and attitudes which enable students to learn “how to learn” and supports students in moving from “knowing and doing” to “understanding and applying”.

STRIVE has helped me cope with assessments and homework and has taught me how to use my diary and laptop more effectively.” Max Redden – Year 7

STRIVE has taught me to be more organised, to be brave, to come to time on class, to be fair and how to use my time productively.” Sam Nikandrow – Year 7

The initial phase of the STRIVE program has focussed on “Self-manage” (the S in STRIVE) with the objective of students being able to self-manage their learning. Lessons cover organisation and management skills including creating folders in one drive, saving work correctly, keeping diaries up to date, setting goals, and managing stress. In Term 3, students will be instructed in the research process, learning valuable research skills which underpin all elements of the STRIVE program.

To evaluate and refine the program, the Year 7 students completed a survey on STRIVE, and several students were also interviewed about their thoughts and attitudes towards learning and Joeys. These interviews can be viewed in this link STRIVE student feedback video above.

“STRIVE is going a long way to make skills and dispositions explicit and aiding a language of learning.” Mr Howe

Anything that gets students to think about and take ownership of their progress is powerful and will be hard to measure immediately. I believe you will see the growth trajectory more over the course of their Joeys career and beyond. I have noticed students Year 7 students are taking more ownership and reflecting on their own preparation.” Ms Jennifer Barange

“Lessons cover organisation and management skills including creating folders in OneDrive, saving work correctly, keeping diaries up to date, setting goals, and managing stress, to name a few..”

MRS RODEN