How an old dog taught himself new tricks - One teacher’s journey into Extended Investigation

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Paura

Alan James shares a teacher’s personal journey into VCE Extended Investigation (EI), reflecting on how teaching literature and student-centered learning shaped his approach. He traces his experience from starting as an English teacher in 1984, to discussions influencing EI’s purpose as both an alternative thinking task and a compulsory Baccalaureate requirement. James describes building EI acceptance at his school, the early challenges, and why many students and colleagues remain hesitant despite EI’s focus on student agency and research skills that later impress university peers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Snapshot

Early teaching background and philosophy

How Extended Investigation was conceived

Building EI in the curriculum

Classroom impact and ongoing challenges

How an old dog taught himself new tricks: One teacher’s journey into Extended Investigation By Alan James Snapshot Alan James, experienced, longstanding Extended Investigation teacher, explores the benefit of the teaching the Extended Investigation subject to both the teacher and the student. Alan also shares his insights into establishing and maintaining the subject and how his rewarding journey has unfolded. I started teaching in 1984. Ergo, I’m old and in some ways, it would be easy to consider me an educational dinosaur. I know that this was the year I first stood in front of a classroom – as an English teacher – because the exam board in the UK had ‘wittily’ insisted that the set text for “O”Level that year would be a certain novel by George Orwell. After arriving in Australia in 2004, I continued to teach English in all of its forms. Literature was always my favourite strand and I now wonder if the reason for that was not just my fascination for the compelling way in which certain words resonate whilst others don’t but also the way that teaching Literature, provided one had a sufficient knowledge base, permitted a certain freedom, an understanding that there are numerous ways to reach the same end, and allowed a liberty of approach not shared by those colleagues in other disciplines bound by their text books, their pre-prepared summaries, and their meticulous lesson plans. In short, to me at least, it was about putting the student at the heart of the learning or as my first serious teacher-mentor put it in a way that would certainly not be acceptable these days; ‘Never prepare a lesson until you see the whites of their eyes.’ I’d held senior positions of responsibility but knew it was in the classroom that my heart belonged. As a teacher, teaching senior Literature seemed as good as it could be. My students were always enthusiastic, their results were, on the whole, pretty good and I think I was prepared for this to be the pattern for the remainder of my teaching career. And then, something at VCAA stirred, a series of discussions began and this, in time, led to my brave new world. The more I listened, the more I was hooked – ‘allow students to follow their own passions,’‘give them the chance to direct their own learning,’ It is my understanding, based on conversations held back in 2012, that VCE Extended Investigation was conceived as two things – a credible alternative within the VCE to the explicit thinking tasks that were a cornerstone of the IB program, and as a compulsory requirement of study as part of the newly conceived VCE Baccalaureate which, at the time was referred to as the VB. Honestly, how did no one in Melbourne see the potential problem with that? To me, listening to these discussions I couldn’t have cared less about the subject’s place in the grand scheme of things, all I heard was opportunity. The more I listened, the more I was hooked – ‘allow students to follow their own passions,’‘give them the chance to direct their own learning,’‘equip young people with the strategies for success beyond school,’ were phrases that connected with my purpose as a teacher. Suddenly, the nearly 30 year veteran classroom practitioner felt like the ‘’dynamic young thruster’ which, according to one former Headmaster, I once was. To this day, EI remains the best kept secret in the VCE... However, as we all know in education, theory and practice do not easily coincide. I began my fight (which continues to this day) to cement a place in the curriculum at my school for EI. I gave lectures, talked (endlessly) to colleagues, preached to parents about the possibilities that this subject offered whilst having nothing more than my enthusiasm and my own dimly remembered research papers as grounds for my positivity. Miraculously, in 2015, the school gave the green light to EI and the journey began for real. My first class had seven students. Within a month, there were four left. An obvious reality dawned

FAQs

What is Alan James’s overall purpose in sharing his EI journey?

He explains the benefits of teaching Extended Investigation for both teachers and students, and how he established and sustained the subject at his school.

How does Alan connect EI to student agency and independent learning?

He emphasizes allowing students to follow their passions, direct their own learning, and develop strategies for success beyond school.

What challenge did Alan face when introducing EI at his school?

He struggled to secure curriculum space and initially saw poor retention after launching, noting that the subject’s direction differed from conventional VCE delivery.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Paura