Peter Duncan is living proof that there is no age limit on curiosity and that the mind never really retires.<\/p>\n
The 88-year-old has never stopped learning and today he will become what is believed to be the oldest person to graduate with a doctorate from the University of Otago.<\/p>\n
“I began at Dunedin Teachers\u2019 College and Otago University in 1956 and spent many years working in the education sector.<\/p>\n
“And I retired \u2014 well, I haven\u2019t. You know what I mean?<\/p>\n
“My interest in education has been sustained right through those years.”<\/p>\n
Mr Duncan already has a bachelor of arts from Otago and two master\u2019s degrees from Victoria.<\/p>\n
His career in education began as an art adviser in Otago, before he was appointed as a lecturer at the Wellington College of Education.<\/p>\n
He went on to work at the Ministry of Education where he was eventually appointed as director of teacher education.<\/p>\n
It was there that he worked with education ministers David Lange and Lockwood Smith as part of the implementation of the “Tomorrow\u2019s Schools” programme.<\/p>\n
The last 20 years of his working career was spent as a consultant, supporting principals and district education leaders from across the United States seeking to improve literacy learning.<\/p>\n
All of his experiences led him to start his PhD in education, titling his thesis, “Teachers\u2019 Reflections of Changed Beliefs and Practices”.<\/p>\n
“I felt I had a really good story.<\/p>\n
“My son has told me that research is nothing more than telling a good story.<\/p>\n
“So, that\u2019s basically where I took off from.”<\/p>\n
His PhD thesis follows 25 teachers from the 1990s and the impact that quality teacher development had on changing their teaching practice and the sustainability of that change.<\/p>\n
“What I found was that, inevitably, they had changed from teachers who saw only whole-class teaching when they began to teachers who began to understand how it was possible to meet the needs of every individual kid in the class.<\/p>\n
“They all felt that they had made tremendous changes and that these changes were sustained for up to 30 years \u2014 even when they took up leadership positions.”<\/p>\n
Mr Duncan hoped his research would be his legacy for future educators to learn from.<\/p>\n
“Most younger PhD students have a view of the world that they look upwards and outwards \u2014 that they\u2019re going to try to influence the world in some way with their learning.<\/p>\n
“I think mine was more reflective and I looked more to my experience and tried to make this thesis a summation of everything I know and believe about teaching and learning, particularly the education of teachers.”<\/p>\n
While his family and friends were in awe of his PhD achievement, many initially questioned why he was doing it at his age.<\/p>\n
Mr Duncan said he still had all of his faculties and he wanted to use them.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m perhaps not as physically able as I used to be.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m not going to run a four-minute mile, but my brain is still working, so it seemed a logical thing to do.<\/p>\n
“Actually, I may not even make it on the parade from the dental school to the town hall \u2014 no, that\u2019s a joke. Of course I will.<\/p>\n
“Wouldn\u2019t miss it for anything.”<\/p>\n