Learning strategies – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Copy, cut, and paste: How does this shape what we know?

Introduction Copy, cut, and paste are functions naturalised and embedded across different software applications but are poorly understood as tools that shape our engagement with knowledge, culture and society in the 21st century (Livingstone, Wijnen, Papaioannou, Costa, & Grandio, 2014). Most people develop proficiency with ubiquitous software packages, such as those on cell phones, informally through their everyday engagement. Tertiary students as so-called “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001) are assumed to be able to translate this informally developed knowledge and skills into formal settings to successfully accomplish learning tasks. Educators often assume that students already possess the necessary skills and conceptual frameworks to learn with and through generic software packages, and tend

Learning wisdom: Young children and teachers recognising the learning

Introduction This project aimed to explore the ways in which young children could become more wise about their learning journeys, and perhaps the learning journeys of others. In particular, we wanted to explore how—and whether—four-year-olds could develop some understandings about what they were learning and why it might have been valuable. We wondered whether they could articulate these ideas, and we explored the revisiting of episodes of learning as a location for the research. We called this ‘learning wisdom’, building on a growing literature on this topic. Sternberg, Reznitskaya, & Jarvin (2007) had suggested that wisdom in education includes a balancing of short- and long-term goals, and a balancing of intrapersonal,

Designing effective extended learning episodes: The Alfriston College Experience

1. Introduction This report documents the research activities and findings of the TLRI-funded project entitled A School for the 21st Century: Researching the impact of changing teaching practice on student learning. The project was a two-year long collaboration between key members of the teaching staff at Alfriston College and an experienced researcher from NZCER (collectively called the Professional Learning Group or PLG throughout this report). Together the PLG investigated ways teachers understood and responded to innovative approaches to scheduling time for teaching and learning, and sought evidence that the innovations had a significant effect on student learning. At the outset the PLG team hoped to be able to identify the best

A collaborative self-study into the development and integration of critical literacy practices

1. Introduction This report discusses findings from a two-year Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI)funded project entitled A collaborative self-study into the development and integration of critical literacy practices. During this time, 2006–7, four Dunedin primary schools and one secondary school, involving a total of 16 teachers, took part in the project. The participating teachers became familiar with the literature on the theory and practice of critical literacy and developed, implemented, and evaluated critical literacy strategies in their regular classroom programmes. Critical literacy has a long history and a number of different theoretical influences (Larson & Marsh, 2005). We use the term “critical literacy” to describe ways in which teachers and