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Dawn Boland

John Paul College
Dawn Louise Boland, a teacher at John Paul College, has a passion for design thinking in curriculum. And it is this passion which took her to study at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum of Design in New York in 2015 after being awarded the Cooper Hewitt Fellowship.

In New York she taught, researched and contributed to the programs at the museum that focused on the use of design thinking to underpin the curriculum.​ She was then able to share these new approaches to thinking and understanding with colleagues, leading conversations with teachers in Philadelphia, the Bronx and Manhattan and then at home.

“Dawn has a unique ability to translate her knowledge and adapt it to new ways of thinking about the standards of the Australian Curriculum and has since created design questions to frame thinking about the topics for study in this area,” principal Karen Spiller said.
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At John Paul College she has helped to organise and support professional learning through opportunities such as Teach Meets.  She has also been involved with the State Library of Queensland and contributed to professional learning programs for teachers including the ‘Out of the Box’ Festival in 2016.

This year Dawn received a scholarship to participate in the Australian Schools Leading Teachers Colloquium, where she is continuing to develop and hone her skills in Educational Leadership.
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Recently, Dawn has been leading small groups of staff through courses offered by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, including Visible Thinking, Creating Cultures of Thinking and Teaching for Understanding, and by IDEO in Leading for Creativity.
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Through these courses she has helped to manage meetings, both online and face-to-face, as well as supplying further reading, discussion and mentoring to staff.

Dawn’s current research is on the ideas of externalising thinking in a variety of forms and the use of action-orientated feedback for improved student outcomes.
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“Our college supports mentoring of professional learning and Dawn is excited to mentor staff from across the schools; she leads mentoring meetings through the framing of questions and looks not only at the what, but the why,” Karen said.

“Dawn is an avid writer of journals and keeps records of her learning journey since 2012. Staff and students alike are interested in her approaches to learning and often discuss these with her and the greater outcomes that are achieved by these strategies,” curriculum director Julie Robinson said.

Through her work in the Human Society department as a History Teacher, and through her roles as Excelsior Teacher and Head of Year 11, Dawn has taken full advantage of the opportunities to lead through innovative approaches and strategies.

As a planning leader for Years 9 and 7 she has been able to bring about change in planning and assessment to reflect a more student-centred approach, not just skills-based but also thinking-based, changing the nature of feedback between teachers and students.

Congratulations Dawn on your QCT Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning Award nomination.
Queensland College of Teachers
Level 5, 601 Coronation Drive
​Toowong Qld 4066
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  • Home
    • TEACHX AWARDS >
      • Beginning to Teach Award Nominees 2019
      • 2019 TEACHX Winners
      • 2019 TEACHX Finalists
      • 2019 TEACHX Nominees >
        • OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOOL COMMUNITY AWARD NOMINEES 2019
        • Excellence in Teaching Award Nominees 2019
        • Innovation in Teaching Award Nominees 2019
        • Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning Award Nominees 2019
        • Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Award Nominees 2019
  • Teacher Stories
    • Teaching graduates meet tough standards
    • Rachel Downie
    • The importance of teachers
    • Marsden State High School has the answer to keeping beginning teachers in the classroom
    • Exceptional support for early career teachers in Far North Queensland
    • QBECT
    • 2018 Awards >
      • 2018 Winners
      • 2018 Finalists
      • 2018 Nominees >
        • Excellence in Beginning to Teach Award
        • Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning Award
        • Excellence in Teaching Award
        • Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Award
        • Outstanding Contribution to School Community Award
    • 2017 Awards >
      • 2017 Winners
      • 2017finalists
      • 2017 nominees >
        • Excellence in Beginning to Teach
        • Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning
        • Excellence in Teaching
        • Outstanding Contribution to Teaching
    • 2016 Awards >
      • Excellence in Beginning to Teach
      • Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning
      • Excellence in Teaching
      • Outstanding Contribution to Teaching
    • HAT and LT >
      • Meet the Assessors
      • Ruth Graham
      • Tracey Peden
      • Helen and Dwayne
      • Carly Sopronick
      • Jessica Roberts
      • Jessica Roth
    • OAM >
      • Kathryn George, OAM
      • Keith Graham, OAM
      • Dr Judith Grimes, OAM
      • Michael Goodwin, OAM
      • Steve Parle, OAM
      • Dr Lyn Bishop, OAM
      • Dr Catherine Day, OAM
    • Taryn Gollshewsky
    • Vanuatu
    • NAIDOC >
      • NAIDOC Week 2017
      • NAIDOC Week 2016
    • QLD Day >
      • Bundaberg East State School
      • St Catherine's Catholic College
      • Mornington Island State School
      • Queensland Week 2016
    • ANZAC
  • Anxiety and trauma―an expert’s advice