QCT TEACHER STORIES
  • Home
  • TEACHX AWARDS
    • 2019 TEACHX Winners
    • 2019 TEACHX Finalists
    • 2019 TEACHX Nominees >
      • Beginning to Teach Award Nominees 2019
      • 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

Meagan Pearse
Anglican Church
​Grammar School

Picture
One of the state’s leading music educators is pioneering research into how a teacher’s physiology and gender stereotypes might play a role in how boys are taught music, as part of her latest push to advocate for the subject and her students.
​
Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) Specialist Senior Music teacher, Meagan Pearse, who was part of a team which wrote Queensland’s 2013 Music Syllabus and is now one of the lead writers of the new Music Extension Syllabus, lives and breathes music. She even has musical notation on the soles of her shoes.
Her exceptional leadership at her school and state-wide is one of the reasons she is a finalist in this year’s Queensland College of Teaching TEACHX Excellence in Teaching Award.

Ms Pearse undertook a Master of Educational Leadership program partly to learn how to talk with principals and deputy principals to help improve the value placed on music education.

“I have always been an advocate for the study of music to enhance academic success; it provides us with an avenue for communication, builds resilience and confidence and improves organisation just to name a few. In addition, neuroscience continues to show that throughout adolescence learning music helps the brain develop its ability to function more efficiently,” she said.

Having played a musical instrument from every family except brass, having taught in all-boys schools for years and being a PhD student herself, Ms Pearse has an in-depth knowledge of how best to teach boys, but she is always pushing to learn more.

“Boys need to know why they are doing it,” Ms Pearse said. “They need to believe that you know what you are doing and you need to respect them and show an interest in their lives. They are very relationship focussed … I have found that if boys don’t trust and respect you, they disengage.”

Ms Pearse uses a variety of strategies to engage students, including flipped learning and “How to” videos, which she is also embedding in OneNote for all of Churchie’s music teachers. She also uses ‘the reverse chronology approach’.

“We start with the music of their generation and move backwards. The interesting thing about music, is that what we may think is new, is actually an innovation from a long time ago. Knowing about the history of music and how current music has been influenced by it challenges boys to apply a variety of techniques and devices to their own work,” she said. This term the Year 9s are looking at Aussie Rock.

Ms Pearse said her PhD study was not about whether males or females taught boys better, but about awareness of how teacher physiology and gender stereotypes may influence the pedagogy of male and female teachers differently, and how they engage boys in music-making. As part of her research she is also hoping to gain insight into the psychological pressures facing adolescent boys, especially in the lead-up to the return of external exams in Queensland. Having a teacher who is also a curriculum writer is an advantage, she said.

“I have travelled the state to present to teachers how to implement the syllabus … I understand the syllabus and believe in the importance of sharing knowledge with my colleagues across the state; I understand the premise and the reasons for it and as such, I know exactly what the students are required to do in order to achieve success,” she said.

As a finalist, Meagan received $500 for professional development.
Queensland College of Teachers
Level 5, 601 Coronation Drive
​Toowong Qld 4066
Call (07) 3377 4777
Search the QCT Teacher Stories website
Visit the Queensland College of Teachers website 
Privacy Policy
Disclaimer

    Do you or a registered teacher you know have an inspirational story to share?
    ​We'd love to hear about it!

Submit
  • Home
  • TEACHX AWARDS
    • 2019 TEACHX Winners
    • 2019 TEACHX Finalists
    • 2019 TEACHX Nominees >
      • Beginning to Teach Award Nominees 2019
      • 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