Every week, “The Patriot” checks all its campus-wide sources to bring you the best of what’s happening at JC.
Barker’s dissertation initiated
In order to receive his doctorate in May 2011 from the University of Pennsylvania, Principal Paul Barker has begun his dissertation on how quiet students are engaged in the classroom.
Barker’s study focuses on members of the senior class, giving him a short timeframe to gather data. “The make or break part of my dissertation is going to be one-on-one interviews with seniors.”
The students chosen are those “that don’t talk a lot in class,” Barker said. “How teachers understand if they’re into it or not, I use the word ‘engagement’ in learning. I’m really interested in their experience as learners in school.”
Teachers will be asked to score their students on how “talkative or quiet” they are. Barker said, “I’ll basically score every senior through faculty feedback.”
However, according to Barker, this aspect is “very unscientific and very informal” to determine who to talk to. The goal is to interview approximately 10 percent of the class, but it is “all purely voluntary.”
Although Barker will need approximately an hour for each student, “the result will be that I will have hours of data.” He hopes to “describe the variations in how those students understand their own quietness and how it influences their learning.”
The ultimate purpose is “what can we learn about students that don’t say a lot in the classroom, how can we understand them better, and hopefully do a better job for them as learners,” said Barker.
Barker is using a method called “phenomenology,” or describing the “phenomenon of the engagement of these students.”
The motivation for this came from Barker’s own experience as a learner; he said, “At least in classroom settings, I tend to listen first and speak last.”
At St. John’s College in Annapolis, a discussion based setting, Barker “could sit in a classroom for two hours and not saying anything. How would people know whether I just didn’t say anything because I was stupid or lazy or not prepared or angry. I never said anything, so how would you know?”
This offers the possibility for greater discoveries. Barker said, “Potentially I might learn something that really helps us to understand that one can be very engaged and quiet.”
Spring break upgrades planned
Upgrades to campus will be completed over spring break, focusing on the idea of safety, then security, then aesthetics to prioritize the tasks, according to Director of Faculties Stewart Walker.
A sink in the boy’s bathroom will be replaced because “it took some heavy vandalism,” Walker said.
Minor light bulb replacements will be done as well, especially in the auditorium.
In addition, “a fair amount of work will be done in the convent,” including repairing the railings on the stairways.”
In the basement of the convent, Walker hopes to make the storage space “more effective by putting it to use.” Right now, it functions as “Parent Association storage, dumping grounds for the archives, and [spaces] for facilities,” according to Walker. He added, “[All of the organization] won’t happen this week, but I want to clean it out, like spring cleaning.”
To prepare for spring, mowing has begun, and facilities has begun preparing the mechanical systems for the warmer weather.
Walker hopes to have volunteers work on the flower beds over break to improve the aesthetic view of campus. There is also the possibility of adding new signage, including “No Smoking” after “a bunch of people” over the past several weeks have left cigarette butts on the grounds.
Overall, spring break will be used “to catch up on the little stuff,” Walker said.
Kate Froehlich can be reached for comment at [email protected]