Research set to thrive at Trinity in 2025

Trinity’s Executive Leadership team has recently welcomed Dr Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn to their number as Head of Research and Professional Growth. This appointment is an acknowledgement of Trinity’s commitment to engaging with research and recognition of the connections and intersections with teacher professional learning.

“This newly created role within the Executive team highlights that research is seen as an integral thread through all the different spheres of life at the School,” Dr Pressick-Kilborn says. “It focuses on how we can foster teacher development and growth in the profession through research. Day to day, it is very much an Educator-facing role.” 

“There’s a nexus between education innovation and the way that research can inform teachers’ practice, particularly in how we use research to evaluate and share what is working.” 

Evidence of this can be seen throughout the research activities at Trinity in 2024, including : 

Field Studies Program (FSP) Research 

• Through a three-year partnership with the University of Newcastle, focus groups with students and staff, as well as student surveys, have provided insights into the boys’ wellbeing and growth throughout the FSP experience and beyond. A final report will  be prepared by the University of Newcastle team later in 2025, presenting their findings to the School.
• Additionally, the Field Studies Centre staff has been working on designing and implementing Environmental Studies, which takes an interdisciplinary, place-based approach to teaching Geography and Science. Led by Ms Leah Arthur, FSP teachers have been engaged in monitoring and evaluating the initiative and are looking forward to sharing the success of that program more widely this year. 

International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC)

• 2024 saw Ms Nadene O’Neill and Ms Leah Arthur presenting their Action Research at the London IBSC conference.
• Ms Melinda Bargwanna also attended the London conference, and has been engaged in her own Action Research Project in Trinity’s Green Patch over the last six months. She is looking forward to sharing her findings at the 2025 IBSC Conference in Boston.
• It was recently announced that Ms Michaela Janes will be joining the IBSC Action Research cohort in 2025-2026 with a project that looks at the role of play in executive functioning for boys. She’s excited to get started, diving into this research with her Year 1 Preparatory School students later in 2025.
• Headmaster Tim Bowden and Dr Pressick-Kilborn will be presenting at the Boston IBSC conference in a workshop that will enable them to share their approach to building a research culture at Trinity. 

Professional Learning Teams (PLTs)

• In 2024, one PLT focused on the use of Generative AI in the classroom, particularly for Secondary Teachers. With support from Dr Damian Maher and Dr Keith Heggart from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), staff were engaged in this research project and the findings are being shared with the education community more broadly.
  
• Another PLT, dubbed ‘Teachers as Researchers’, looked at ‘Co-teaching at Trinity’, particularly in preparation for using the new buildings provided through the Renewal Project. These new learning spaces will be flexible and supportive of different modes of teaching, including co-teaching. The PLT reviewed and discussed the existing research literature, created an annotated bibliography on co-teaching and followed it up with teacher interviews and observations of co-teaching in action at the School. 

Other research initiatives at Trinity 

• Mr Chris Wyatt, Head of the Preparatory School, introduced the After School Play initiative, a Co-curricular option. The evaluation of this initiative is ongoing and findings will be shared both internally and externally.
• Trinity’s Research Breakfasts continue. In 2024, two of these events were held, to engage teachers with contemporary research. Dr Damian Maher and Dr Keith Heggart from UTS presented on Generative AI in Education and Associate Professor Rebecca Collie from UNSW presented on Academic Wellbeing.
  
  “These breakfasts really do provide direct contact with leading researchers who are doing work in areas that align with our priorities,” Dr Pressick-Kilborn says. “They’re ‘research outreach’ into our community, in terms of engaging teachers who have an interest in the topic that’s being presented.” The first Research Breakfast in 2025 will feature Dr Christine Grice from the University of Sydney, presenting on leadership in schools.

• In 2025 Trinity will be looking to evaluate the new Social and Emotional Learning program that is part of the Whole School Wellbeing initiative.
  

It’s clear that research is not slowing down at Trinity any time soon and, for good reason. The research happening on site and being conducted by Trinity staff is directly informing pedagogical practice here at Trinity and beyond. As a result, student learning experiences are also evolving, for the better. 

“Research really helps us to be outward looking,” Dr Pressick-Kilborn says. “This can be in terms of thinking about how research can impact our School’s practice, what’s happening in the wider education research landscape, and considering how we can contribute to research conversations beyond Trinity.”