CROFTON HOUSE SCHOOL
EST. 1898
Research Chair 2026–2029 · Crofton House School
A joint Research Chair by Gavin Yip & Jacob Tran exploring how rethinking the timetable through concurrent scheduling and rotational specialization can maximize student agency and unlock deeper teacher expertise.
Gavin Yip & Jacob Tran · Arts & Applied Design Skills & Technology
Our ICT program is highly successful. To push further, we ask a structural question, one that requires rethinking how time, space, and expertise are deployed inside the school day.
Traditional single-teacher classrooms require educators to be generalists. While effective, this dilutes the opportunity for students to experience the depth of an educator's specific niche expertise, and restricts collaboration to arbitrary roster assignments.
“How can we innovate structurally, rethinking traditional timetabling, to maximize student agency and allow teachers to instruct within their deepest areas of expertise?”
Year 1 · 2026–27
WD10 and CS10 are scheduled as concurrent blocks. Cohorts rotate mid-semester so every student experiences both teachers' specialist depth. Use the controls below to step through the model.
Gavin
Back-end & Logic
Jacob
UI/UX & Front-end
Cohort A
UI/UX · Front-end
Cohort B
Back-end · Logic
Cohort A learns UI/UX & front-end with Jacob (WD10). Cohort B learns computational logic & back-end with Gavin (CS10). Both classes run simultaneously.
Projected Impact
The Rotational Specialization model creates compounding value across the entire learning community. Explore each stakeholder perspective below.
Pedagogical Novelty Effect
Experiencing two distinct teaching styles and expert voices mid-semester improves memory retention, sustains engagement, and builds academic resilience, grounded in cognitive science.
University-Style Inquiry
The environment transitions from a generalized overview into an inquiry-based ecosystem where students receive deep specialist instruction, mirroring the best of post-secondary learning.
Cross-Class Team Formation
Students form teams across WD10 & CS10 based entirely on skill-complement and shared interest; a front-end designer pairs with a back-end engineer to build complete software prototypes.
Agency-Driven Passion Projects
The semester culminates in a self-directed Passion Project with Dynamic Expert Mentorship. As the project evolves, students seek the mentor whose expertise best matches their current phase.
Informed Senior Course Selection
Earlier exposure to diverse specializations helps students identify their passions, leading to highly informed, agency-driven senior course and pathway selections.
CHS Strategic Alignment
In the third year of enacting the five strategies outlined in Thriving in Possibility, CHS has defined specific objectives guiding work in 2025–26. This Research Chair directly advances three Year Three priorities under Purposeful Learning, making it the most direct structural response to the school's current strategic direction.
Ensuring individuals have the psychological, social, or physical resources to meet challenges so they can experience life in a full and satisfying way.
Year Three 2025–26
Well-being framework developed with community input (implementation 2026–27)
SEL curriculum enhanced; Senior School Advisory Program refined
Graydin coaching expanded across five key areas including Peer Support
Co-curricular program expanded with new recreational options
Nurturing visible and nonvisible diversity to foster positive understanding, deep appreciation, and respectful engagement with all individuals, cultures, and viewpoints.
Year Three 2025–26
Financial Assistance Program review completed with refined processes
Bridging Conversations Framework piloted in Junior and Senior Schools
Applicant diversity outreach to underrepresented communities
Neurodiversity understanding deepened through staff Professional Learning Communities
Creating conditions in which students and staff can think critically and creatively about complex local and global issues, work collaboratively, and develop as lifelong learners.
Year Three 2025–26
Student agency enhanced, with metacognitive skills and Learning Habits developed in Senior School
RCChair of Teaching and Learning model updated, creating new opportunities for action research
RCSenior School timetabling options for cross-curricular learning explored
RCCHS AI standards introduced; educational AI platforms piloted in specific areas
This Research Chair directly enacts three of these four Year Three objectives.
Building community relationships based on shared goals and values, role modeling the importance of collaboration and civic engagement for students.
Year Three 2025–26
Partnership Advisory Group evaluates and strengthens mission-aligned partnerships
Crofton Connect expanded for post-secondary and career exploration
Service-related work exploration offered to all Grade 10 students
Alumnae Ambassadors trained to support the Admissions process
Managing resources to reduce the School's ecological footprint and ensure CHS can continue to contribute positively to the broader community.
Year Three 2025–26
Climate Action Accelerator Program team develops the CHS Sustainability vision
Staff Matters Task Force Year 3 recommendations implemented
Comprehensive community surveys completed across all stakeholder groups
Advancement Implementation Plan Year 2 developed with focus on planned giving
STEM · Technology Education · Year Three Focus
Under Purposeful Learning, the Year Three implementation document identifies three priorities that this Research Chair was designed to advance, rooting our structural timetable innovation in a live, documented action research cycle within CHS's STEM Technology program.
“The Chair of Teaching and Learning model will be updated with new opportunities for students to engage in action research.”
This proposal is itself the action research vehicle: a live, documented, three-year experiment in structural pedagogy.
“Building on recent progress to develop student agency, including assessment practices and Learning Habits in the Senior School.”
Concurrent scheduling and self-directed passion projects are the structural mechanism for deepening agency.
“Senior School curriculum planners enhanced; timetabling options for cross-curricular learning will be explored.”
The WD10/CS10 concurrent block is a live pilot of exactly this objective, grounded in STEM.
Impact Across Year Three Priorities
Estimated impact of Rotational Specialization against the traditional model, mapped to Year Three priorities from Thriving in Possibility: Student Agency, Purposeful Learning, Meaningful Partnerships, Teacher Mastery, and Cross-Curricular Depth.
The green polygon represents the expanded capability when teachers specialise and cohorts rotate. Each axis maps to a Year Three Thriving in Possibility priority, three of which this Research Chair directly advances.
Student Agency
Passion projects and dynamic mentorship empower authentic choice, a direct Year Three Purposeful Learning target.
Teacher Mastery
Specialization lets teachers instruct within their deepest niche, restoring professional depth and reducing generalist fatigue.
Cross-Curricular Depth
WD10/CS10 concurrent scheduling is a live pilot of the Year Three timetabling objective for cross-curricular learning.
Meaningful Partnerships
Cross-class teams and industry guest mentors in Phase 3 embody the Meaningful Partnerships strategy.