Dr Bern Nicholls is an experienced teacher, school leader and research lead in schools both nationally and internationally.
Bern has co-facilitated senior and middle leadership programs in partnership with Fieldwork Education (UK); designed and delivered blended learning modules for leaders in South-East Asia and Australia – Women in Leadership, Neuroscience of Learning and Mindfulness for Educators; developed a year-long program for teams of teachers from diverse schools to collaboratively learn how to grow their students’ thinking dispositions and skills for 21st Century learning; designed programs that enable leaders to examine the importance of emotional intelligence in leading change.
In Bern’s recent school as Research Lead, Leadership Coordinator and Humanities teacher, she designed curriculum to increase independent inquiry; mentored Year 12 students undertaking an individual research project on a topic of curiosity; and co-designed an inquiry approach to learning in the Humanities Department to develop choice, agency, independent learning and thinking. School-based research projects include a longitudinal study examining ways to reduce academic anxiety in girls; designing and analysing multiple surveys to establish the impact of distance learning on student learning and wellbeing; and working with the SRC to ethically collect student voice on issues of concern.
Bern is co-author of Students Driving Learning, has peer reviewed articles published, and presented at national and international conferences on topics ranging from Learning that Matters in a Changing World to The Vulnerability and Reality of Leading in the 21st Century.