BPEA Undertakes Major Research Project

Big Picture Learning (BPL) is at a crossroads in Australia. Its growth has been greater than anticipated and the profile of the Big Picture schools is, in many cases, very high indeed. Awareness of the advantages of Big Picture Learning has reached the stage where governments as well as the philanthropic sector are asking what is Big Picture and does it work?

So far our strategy has been to invite interested people into our schools and let the students and teachers do the talking. The visitors inevitably go away very impressed.

But this is no longer enough and both governments and State education departments want more. Big Picture Education Australia (BPEA) has now been funded by The Origin Foundation (Origin Energy) to undertake a substantial research project to prove the model.  Origin is not only funding the research but will support BPEA in its efforts to make governments sit up and notice.

BPEA has formed a research group, coordinated by Chris Bonnor, a BPEA Director and including academics, researchers, principals and others. Many of these people will be well known: Viv White, Deb Hayes, John Hogan, Joe Wickert, Steve Walley, Barry Down, Neil Day, Ivan Webb and Sue Pike from Social Ventures Australia. Origin Energy has invested considerable confidence as well as funding - and has given BPEA flexibility to develop the research plan.

Our research plan is now established and work has begun. Essentially we need to know and identify:

  • Difference – is BP different?
  • In what ways is it different?
  • Fidelity – how close to the model is BPL in practice?
  • Success – data and stories

How will the research be conducted? 

At earlier meetings we clarified what the BP distinguishers are and mean. We might claim success, but for what? We realized the need to be able to demonstrate how BPL is both different and better. How to measure, what criteria, what outcomes? Developing case studies is seen as a priority. We also considered the data coming out of My School, but more importantly the State data available about BPL schools in Tasmania, the State with a number of well-advanced BP schools. The group has also considered survey instruments – one of the advantages of the research project is that it will support the use of the School Research Framework to benefit our schools.

We also are planning to use students as researchers. We have already spoken to some students who are building their interests around research and their involvement will be important to both the students themselves and our research. This reflects our belief that the research project should also benefit schools and students.

In summary, our methodology includes:

Data  Two stages: State data for Tasmania, then Australia-wide data. Steve, Neil, Ivan are working in this area. They’ll have a report on the Tasmanian data by July and be able to generate a number of (interim) report types on this data. Australia-wide data on My School poses a particular challenge.

Case studies  The case studies should especially tell the stories. It should include teachers and students, parents, mentors. Barry and Deb are working together in this area. We need to build evidence around the important narratives – and need to identify representative students of interest. These students become the frame to the case studies. This is also consistent with the BP philosophy of one student at a time. The case studies will be undertaken by a researcher who will visit schools by arrangement. At the moment we are focusing on the longer established BPL sites, being also aware that we’ll need a spread across Australia.  

Surveys  We want to fund a research liaison person in each school, and/or a research assistant to work across all schools with a liaison person in each school. This will retain school ownership of the process in line with the School Research Framework (SRF).  This needs to be done and funded in a way that won’t burden the school. One of the tasks is to gather school level data, including from surveys.

Students/teachers

Our research team has spoken to both students and teachers. We are most impressed by the sophistication of students’ goals, their grasp of the language and their commitment/ownership of the learning. We are committed to the idea of longitudinal (3 years) student case studies, incorporated into (or even driving) the school case study work. This means selecting some Year 9 students. We realize the rich information that case studies will extract, not only from the students but others (e.g. parents) as well. In some cases students will be partners in doing research.

Conclusion

When you think about it there aren’t many (any?) school innovation programs which have been or are subject to the scrutiny which we are undertaking in this project. This is very significant and our research needs to have the credibility and also tell the stories about success – as well as the struggles - in our schools. Our schools are already making a difference for kids. We hope that you’ll be active participants in this research so that we can tell others.

Chris Bonnor
For the BPEA Research group.