The Caledonian Institute provides professional learning and development at The Scots College by being the bridge between research and practice.
Our plan is simple, but profound:
- Embrace our own research and the best research on offer from across the globe.
- Convert this distilled evidence into practical collaborations to further build staff capacity and enable a clear pathway from research lab to classroom.
- Innovate. Refine. Repeat.
Programs
The Caledonian Institute convenes a range of programs for students, staff, parents, alumni and the wider community, including:
- Insight Tours: Student excursions to international summer schools including the University of Oxford and the University of St Andrews as well as professional learning opportunities overseas.
- The Clark Lecture Series: a unique annual visiting fellowship, conference and public lecture series, inspiring the best of thinking about faith, learning and leadership by bringing to Sydney the world’s finest scholars.
- ScotsIdeas: a regular public forum bringing leading academics and practitioners together for compelling conversations in education.
- Conferences for teachers and students: including teacher training and development gatherings, instructional coaching intensives.
- Research Studies: Individual and student research engagements.
Clark Lecture
Named after eminent Old Boy and inventor of the bionic ear, Professor Graeme Clark AC, the annual Clark Lectures inspire the best of thinking about faith, learning and leadership by bringing to Sydney the world’s finest Christian scholars.
Among past Fellows have included Professor John G Stackhouse, Jr. (Theology, Regent College), Professor David Bebbington (History, University of Stirling), Professor Ian Hutchinson (Physics, MIT), Professor Francis Su (Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College) and Professor Tyler J VanderWeele (Epidemiology, Harvard University).
Projects
The Caledonian Institute develops and supports a growing number of research projects, including:
- Master Teacher mentoring project.
- Collaborative research projects with universities and other schools in Australia and overseas, such as a major study of graduate outcomes with the University of Notre Dame and other partner schools.
- Action Research cycles for teachers, including those with the International Boys’ Schools Coalition Action Research Program.
- Support for staff undertaking higher degrees by research, with over 15 staff involved in pedagogical or discipline-specific degree programs.
About The Caledonian Institute
In the last decade, a growing number of schools around the world have moved to embed research or ‘evidence-informed’ practice as a key part of their professional learning and improvement agendas. Scots Research, established in 2012 was one of the first of these institutes embedded at The Scots College.
Scots Research is now relaunched as The Caledonian Institute.
Why ‘The Caledonian Institute’? The foundations of The Caledonian Institute can be traced back to the vision of our founding Principal’s mentor, Reverend John Dunmore Lang. In 1826 he penned a prospectus for the Caledonian Academy, to be a ‘model’ or ‘training school’ for teachers.
With the knowledge gained in the last decade, now is the time to apply it with bespoke professional learning and development for each staff member and all our campuses. The Caledonian Institute is our bridge between research and practice and how we do better tomorrow.
