Is our subject an adolescent, an adult or both?
Janelle O'Neill,Director of Professional Learning, Mt St Michael's College

Amid the media hype of a crowded curriculum, we teach people not subjects. As such we need to be able to connect with their world and adapt to their needs. There is a reciprocal relationship between the adolescent and adult as both serve as external influences on learning. Surveys were devised to understand this environment and cultivate its development within the realms of Bandura’s self-system. The student perception survey included carefully drafted statements that messaged expectation and strategies. Every student completed this for all subjects as a reflective tool at the end of each semester. The essence of using a collection of self-perceptions to inform our practice, was also used in a staff perception survey for the end of the year reflection on professional growth. Both enable a lens towards an understanding of the confidence, or self-efficacy, standings and positive growth in staff and students. The reflection surveys that allowed perception, evaluation, and regulation of behavior for students and staff, will be shared and discussed in the workshop.