On April 21, 14 students from Belmont Hill went to the University of Pennsylvania to present their Advanced Action Research (AAR) topics developed over the course of the school year. These students looked into 4 topics that relate to the student experience at Belmont Hill: Character education, boy’s school pressures, social media, and controversial conversations. The Belmont Hill website describes the AAR program as a course with “college-level social-science research…to improve school culture, policy, and practice.”
The students collected data from a series of surveys that they sent out to the school, which focused on gathering baseline information on the specific aspects of problems most relevant to the Belmont Hill community. Then, the groups hosted multiple “focus groups”—discussions between researchers and students to grasp a better understanding of the nuances of their topics—and discover new perspectives that students held on issues. Students in the AAR group met throughout the year on Tuesdays and Thursdays during lunch, as well as in more official meetings every Tuesday afternoon.
After preparing their presentations on their topics, the groups headed to Philadelphia to share their findings with an audience. Max Ramanathan ‘25 described the experience as “an extremely fun opportunity that allowed me to showcase my research in professional environment.” Belmont Hill, a member of the School Participatory Action Research Collaborative (SPARC), as well as 10 other independent schools made their way down to the University of Pennsylvania.
The students will now look to prepare for a school-wide Chapel presentation, and will then later demonstrate their understanding of the topic to faculty members in the coming weeks. AAR serves as an additional course for all Juniors to take, and any current sophomores should look out for an application for Dr. Tift if they are interested in applying to the program.
