Academic Buoyancy: Empowering Year 9 and 10 Girls to Take Risks and Own Their Learning as They Problem-Solve in the Science Classroom · ICGS Research Library

Title

Academic Buoyancy: Empowering Year 9 and 10 Girls to Take Risks and Own Their Learning as They Problem-Solve in the Science Classroom

Author

Linda Douglas (2021)

Year Published

2021

Description

This action research project sought to explore how supporting Year 9 and 10 girls’ understanding of their personal academic buoyancy and associated strategies impacted their academic risk-taking and ownership of learning when problem-solving in Science. In July 2021, a class of 23 Year 9 and 10 girls at Ruyton Girls’ School commenced a one semester Science elective entitled Marine Encounters. Early in this course, they were introduced to the concept of “academic buoyancy” through a bespoke workshop delivered over two fifty-minute sessions. The workshop focused on understanding cognition, behaviours, and emotions to support personal academic buoyancy, particularly during problem-solving exercises. The students then engaged in a series of authentic scientific problem-solving activities as part of their scientific study, which provided opportunities to put the academic buoyancy strategies into practice. In a mixed methods research design, data were collected through a pre-activity and post-activity survey, written student and staff reflections, and focus-group interviews towards the end of the elective. Analysis of the data indicated increased students’ awareness of negative thoughts about their own learning, recognition of their own personal signs of anxiety and worry, and greater recognition of the aspects they could control and develop. Student agency emerged as a strong theme, with students identifying not only how the action supported them in taking greater control of their own learning, but also how it could be improved in the future to support younger students. The results of this project indicate that a deliberate and embedded approach to teaching girls’ academic buoyancy and associated strategies enhanced openness to academic risk-taking and increased ownership of learning.