Primary secondary education – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Developing a place-based approach to outdoor education in Aotearoa New Zealand: Outdoor ed in our place: “Keepin’ it real”

Introductory statement Outdoor education is often thought of as occurring in remote locations requiring specialist staff and equipment. Such an approach is resource intensive and potentially expensive. This project sought to develop ‘localised’ outdoor experiences that empowered teachers and students to better understand places of significance in their community. By being responsive to the geographical and cultural features in the local area both students and teachers were able to incorporate prior knowledge and experiences and connect these to life ‘outside school’. Key findings A place-responsive approach to outdoor education programmes is viable and sustainable and fits well with the intent of the NZ curriculum. Self-propelled journeys provide students with a sense

Integrating values in the New Zealand Curriculum: Caught or taught?

Introduction Currently, there are gaps in our knowledge about values development in New Zealand schools. we do not know what teachers, curriculum leaders and principals believe and know about values implementation in the new curriculum, nor do we know about the effect on student learning of current implementation strategies for teaching values. This study aims to explore (a) the ability of schools to integrate values into their teaching and learning programmes, and (b) the effect of approaches taken to implement values throughout the school. Key findings The most favoured strategies for teaching values included teacher role modelling, using the “teachable moment” and explicit teaching of values. The most preferred strategies for

Literacy and e-learning: Mining the action research data

Introduction In this project, researchers and teachers (ECE, primary, and secondary) worked together to analyse unpublished data from a range of action research inquiries on e-learning to articulate, investigate, and build theory about the literacy learning that takes place in e-learning contexts. This summary report provides an overview of our cross-project analysis. The teachers’ case studies can be found at: http://elearning.tki.org.nz/teaching/Literacyin-e-learning Key findings There was evidence of students in all sectors (ECE, primary, and secondary) encoding and decoding, making meaning with, using, and thinking critically about texts in visual, audio, gestural, spatial, print, and multimodal modes. There was less evidence of students developing critical literacy, and this was so across all

Sustainability of effective teaching and school practices: Developing a model for sustaining and extending literacy achievement. A summary

The focus of this TLRI project was on sustaining gains in reading comprehension made through TLRIfunded interventions in two clusters of schools in South Auckland. The aim was to develop a model for sustaining effective teaching and school practices so that student achievement continued to improve once the interventions ended. This involved identifying and explaining the conditions that enabled schools to continue improving achievement; explaining how the conditions interrelated; and how these relationships resulted in differing patterns of achievement after the intervention. Research questions Can two clusters decile 1 schools with mainly Māori and Pasifika students sustain student achievement gains one year after their participation in TLRI reading comprehension interventions? Sustainability

Teaching literature in the multicultural classroom

1. Introduction This Teaching and Learning Initiative (TLRI) research project explored ways of teaching literature effectively in multicultural and multilingual classrooms. It involved primary and secondary school teacher-researchers working in partnership with university-based researchers over two years on a series of case studies, within an action research framework. The case studies involved classroom-based interventions carried out by individual teachers and developed collaboratively with the larger project group. 1.1 The project context The project took as its starting point two contextual factors: The New Zealand classroom, at primary and secondary levels, is becoming more multicultural and multilingual. In a number of ways schools and teachers are under increased pressure to find constructive

Zeroing in on quality teaching: Reducing disparities by building teachers’ capacities and capabilities with respect to integrative approaches to curriculum delivery, using appropriate pedagogies

He aha te mea nui? He tangata, he tangata What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people Introduction This research project—a collaborative venture between two primary schools and Massey University—had its origins in the experience of the principal of one school She had developed and used integrated forms of curriculum delivery and associated pedagogies in other schools she had led. She believed that integrative curriculum designs positively influenced a number of key learning and teaching conditions, especially those connected with student engagement and community involvement, and that the use of integrative designs impacted positively on the achievement of students. James Beane (1997) describes the theory and practice

Enhanced teaching and learning of comprehension in Years 4-9 in Seven Mangere Schools

Executive Summary The schools of South Auckland which have high proportions of Māori and Pasifika students have long been described by researchers as sites for low achievement, particularly in literacy (e.g., Ramsay, Sneddon, Grenfell & Ford, 1981). However, recent evidence suggests that the disparities between Māori and Pasifika students and other students in reading accuracy have been reduced, and that there has been a substantial reduction in the proportions of students in the lowest bands of achievement. Despite this, the evidence also suggests that at Year 4 and Year 9, the disparities in reading comprehension have continued, if not increased (Crooks & Flockton, 2005). A research and development programme, conducted as