Teaching And Learning Research Initiative Research Articles

Teachers Responding to Pacific Community Voice: Supporting Relationships Through an Ecological Research Initiative

Pacific education is an area of priority in Aotearoa New Zealand. It involves the teaching of Pacific students by a workforce that is largely of European origin. Pacific communities value education and have the capability to contribute to the understandings of teachers as they seek to provide the kinds of service that communities want to see. This article reports on a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI), Learning From Each Other. Leveraging talanoa as a dialogic research approach, the initiative examines the change value of Pacific voice in enhancing teacher understanding and promoting deliberate action to improve Pacific education. We present findings organised by spaces in which educators enact change using a contextualised revision of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model as a mapping tool. What emerges is a sense of how non-Pacific educators’ growing Pacific-informed understandings support Pacific learners in personal, classroom and institutional spaces.

Pepe Meamea as a Framework for Samoan Infants and Toddlers in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article conceptualises Pepe Meamea (Samoan concept of infant/toddler) to ground Samoan cultural understandings, values and beliefs of the Samoan child as a collective, holistic and relational being. The Samoan worldview of children and childhood prioritises the whole child, and this has implications when positioned within a dominant Eurocentric early childhood curriculum (ECE) curriculum and pedagogy framework. The semiotics of the Samoan language references a collective position for personhood rather than an individual one which warrants further examination into Samoan conceptualisations of Pepe Meamea pushing back at normative assumptions. As an innovative practice and philosophy for teaching, Pepe Meamea already has deep Samoan cultural knowledges associated with its term. Pepe Meamea is understood and commonly referred to as infants or newborns. This presents initial talanoa (dialogue) with teachers from six Aoga Amata (Samoan early childhood centres) in a two-year research Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project (2021‐2022). Using Samoan language as the conduit for creation and cultural reference ensures Samoan children’s cultural rights are adhered to through an Indigenous Samoan paradigm. As an innovative practice and concept, Pepe Meamea already has deep cultural Indigenous knowledge associated with its term; however, this article presents the possibilities of Pepe Meamea through the development of a pedagogical and relational framework that promotes its implementation in the Aotearoa New Zealand ECE environment. How the New Zealand Te Whāriki early childhood education (ECE) curriculum is responsive to Pepe Meamea is another dimension this paper will consider as the majority of the New Zealand Samoan population are born and raised in a New Zealand context. This research paper reports on the first phase of the project, the process of co-designing a Pepe Meamea pedagogical framework with Samoan teachers.

Place-based learning: Reflections on the value of repeated field trips

This Q&A is based on a conversation with primary school teacher Dianne Christenson about her use of place-based learning in science. The idea for the column took shape as Rose Hipkins listened to Di report back to her co-researchers in a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project team meeting. Di was talking about her experiences of taking her class to a neighbouring beach, not once, but multiple times. This pricked up the ears of Rose, who was writing a book about complexity theory in education (Hipkins, 2021). Rose wondered if revisiting the same place over time might give students a fuller sense of its ecosystem and a deeper connection to it. Set editor, Josie Roberts, followed up by asking Di some of the questions Rose was keen to know more about.

Weaving a web of connections through online citizen science

This article explores how the funding process of New Zealand’s Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) has catalysed the coming together of an interdisciplinary research team of education researchers, information systems researchers, and teacher practitioners. Through two funded research projects, a large and growing web of connections is being woven, benefiting the research partnership and outcomes. Our collective aim is to investigate the affordances of online citizen science projects to enhance science teaching and learning. Using examples, we trace the development of some key lines of inquiry that have been made possible because of the interdisciplinary foundation of the projects.

Supporting STEAM learning through student-developed Mixed Reality (MR) experiences

Mixed reality (MR) provides new opportunities for creative and innovative learning. MR supports the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualisations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real-time (MacCallum & Jamieson, 2017). The MR continuum links both virtual and augmented reality, whereby virtual reality (VR) enables learners to be immersed within a completely virtual world, while augmented reality (AR) blend the real and the virtual world. MR embraces the spectrum between the real and the virtual; the mix of the virtual and real worlds may vary depending on the application. The integration of MR into education provides specific affordances which make it specifically unique in supporting learning (Parson & MacCallum, 2020; Bacca, Baldiris, Fabregat, Graf & Kinshuk, 2014). These affordance enable students to support unique opportunities to support learning and develop 21st-century learning capabilities (Schrier, 2006; Bower, Howe, McCredie, Robinson, & Grover, 2014).
 
 In general, most integration of MR in the classroom tend to be focused on students being the consumers of these experiences. However by enabling student to create their own experiences enables a wider range of learning outcomes to be incorporated into the learning experience. By enabling student to be creators and designers of their own MR experiences provides a unique opportunity to integrate learning across the curriculum and supports the develop of computational thinking and stronger digital skills. The integration of student-created artefacts has particularly been shown to provide greater engagement and outcomes for all students (Ananiadou & Claro, 2009).
 
 In the past, the development of student-created MR experiences has been difficult, especially due to the steep learning curve of technology adoption and the overall expense of acquiring the necessary tools to develop these experiences. The recent development of low-cost mobile and online MR tools and technologies have, however, provided new opportunities to provide a scaffolded approach to the development of student-driven artefacts that do not require significant technical ability (MacCallum & Jamieson, 2017). Due to these advances, students can now create their own MR digital experiences which can drive learning across the curriculum.
 
 This presentation explores how teachers at two high schools in NZ have started to explore and integrate MR into their STEAM classes. This presentation draws on the results of a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project, investigating the experiences and reflections of a group of secondary teachers exploring the use and adoption of mixed reality (augmented and virtual reality) for cross-curricular teaching. The presentation will explore how these teachers have started to engage with MR to support the principles of student-created digital experiences integrated into STEAM domains.

Exploring whakapapa (genealogy) as a cultural concept to mapping transition journeys, understanding what is happening and discovering new insights

This paper reports on a three-year (2010–2013) Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project in Aotearoa New Zealand, titled Learning Journeys from Early Childhood to School (www.tlri.org.nz). The aim of the project was to investigate children’s learning journeys from early childhood to school and involved three early childhood settings and two schools with at least 12 teacher researchers. In this paper we discuss the methodology from the project by conceptualising whakapapa (genealogy) as a cultural tool to mapping the research. We establish that whakapapa serves as a research discourse that is underpinned by the five research sites, particularly their context, knowledge and ways of being for the meaning-making, cultural and symbolic relationship to methodology, philosophy and people. Whilst we draw on whakapapa as a research methodology, we also emphasise that the utilisation of this as a conceptual framework plays a critical role to understanding and responding to children’s learning journeys from early childhood to school. The inclusion of whakapapa charts (see appendix) shows the journey of what took place within and between each setting. The layering of the project details specific points of entry and continuation with and between the sites, theorising the conceptualisations explored.

The benefits of collaborative Content Representation (CoRe) design with experts for early career secondary teachers in science and technology

This article reports on a study, funded by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI), which addressed the key area of early career teacher education. The study researched the construction and use of a CoRe (Content Representation) as a planning tool to develop the professional knowledge bases of early career secondary teachers in science and technology. The study was designed to examine whether a CoRe, co-designed by a team of early career teachers and content and teaching specialists, can support and accelerate the professional learning of early career science and technology secondary teachers, and enhance student learning outcomes in schools.

Tertiary teachers' perspectives on their role in student engagement: a snapshot from Aotearoa New Zealand

This article is based on data from a large mixed method research project funded by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) in Aotearoa New Zealand. The article addresses the question: how do tertiary teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand perceive their role in student engagement? Quantitative data revealed both similarities and differences in how teachers perceived their role. These data also disclosed some surprising differences in their espoused and in-use priorities for engaging students. Qualitative data disclosed that most respondents in the sample were learner centred and thought that responsibility for student engagement was a shared responsibility, a partnership between teachers, students, institutions and outside influences such as family and friends.

Assessment of key competencies, literacy and numeracy: Can these be combined?

This article begins with a question about the assessment of key competencies in a primary school classroom. It was one of the questions that was interesting to us as we participated in a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project entitled Key Learning Competencies across Place and Time: Kimihia te ara totika, hei oranga mo to ao. This TLRI project was designed to explore research questions to do with an alignment between the curriculum strands of Te Whariki (the national early childhood curriculum: Ministry of Education, 1996) and the five key competencies in a new school curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 42), with a focus on the early years. The discussion here is based on a working paper for the TLRI project, written before National Standards for literacy and numeracy were introduced from Year 1 in primary schools (Ministry of Education, 2009a, 2009b). The question has become especially relevant now. This was an action research project in which teachers at five sites chose their own research questions and were supported by local research associates. In this site, Yvonne's classrooms at Parkview Primary School, the research co-ordinators were Keryn Davis and Sue Molloy. The directors of the TLRI project, Margaret Carr and Sally Peters, also met regularly with the researchers to discuss the data and its analysis. These discussions and group meetings (with researchers and teachers from the other sites three times a year) were a central aspect of the action research. It was at these meetings that we theorised, collaboratively developed the units of analysis and suggested ways forward. At the time that the TLRI research began, Yvonne was the new entrant teacher at Parkview Primary School, a Years 0-8, decile 4 school in Parklands, Christchurch. She had been teaching for over 25 years and was also the leader of the junior (Years 0-2) syndicate at the school. In the first year of the project she was mostly teaching new entrants; during the second year of the project she taught a Year 1 class. This article begins with Yvonne's commentary on her research journey and the research question that she developed for her school classroom. A research question and a research journey: A commentary from Yvonne Before the final curriculum document (The New Zealand Curriculum: Ministry of Education, 2007) was published, I had already been interested and involved (in a small way) in the development of the Ministry of Education's draft key competencies. I had been experimenting with them to see how they would look in my classroom, and how they could be successfully assessed. During the year before the TLRI project began, I had also been experimenting with Learning Stories as a form of assessment that captures the learning that I feel passionate about for young children, with support from Sue Molloy (at the time an Assess to Learn (A to L) adviser) and Keryn Davis (at the time an early childhood education adviser). I had found that Margaret Carr's form of narrative assessment, Learning Stories (Carr, 2001), was a simple and effective tool to use. A feature of Learning Stories, which originate from the early childhood education sector, is a dispositional framework based on Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1996). I had developed a format for the writing of these Learning Stories and had explored a set of indicators for each competency. When I shared the news of the curriculum review and my understandings of the draft key competencies with my colleagues, their reaction was not positive. Their comments included: What next! and How are we going to fit that [key competencies] in? Their reaction was hardly surprising when you remember that the pre-2007 curriculum documents came thick and fast and teachers had struggled to come to terms with them. At Parkview School we had also just completed an A to L professional development programme and were still in the process of bedding in our assessment programme. …

Assessment of key competencies literacy and numeracy: Can these be combined?

This article begins with a question about the assessment of key competencies in a primary school classroom. It was one of the questions that was interesting to us as we participated in a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project entitled Key Learning Competencies across Place and Time: Kimihia te ara totika, hei oranga mo to ao. This TLRI project was designed to explore research questions to do with an alignment between the curriculum strands of Te Whariki (the national early childhood curriculum: Ministry of Education, 1996) and the five key competencies in a new school curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 42), with a focus on the early years. The discussion here is based on a working paper for the TLRI project, written before National Standards for literacy and numeracy were introduced from Year 1 in primary schools (Ministry of Education, 2009a, 2009b). The question has become especially relevant now. This was an action research project in which teachers at five sites chose their own research questions and were supported by local research associates. In this site, Yvonne's classrooms at Parkview Primary School, the research co-ordinators were Keryn Davis and Sue Molloy. The directors of the TLRI project, Margaret Carr and Sally Peters, also met regularly with the researchers to discuss the data and its analysis. These discussions and group meetings (with researchers and teachers from the other sites three times a year) were a central aspect of the action research. It was at these meetings that we theorised, collaboratively developed the units of analysis and suggested ways forward. At the time that the TLRI research began, Yvonne was the new entrant teacher at Parkview Primary School, a Years 0-8, decile 4 school in Parklands, Christchurch. She had been teaching for over 25 years and was also the leader of the junior (Years 0-2) syndicate at the school. In the first year of the project she was mostly teaching new entrants; during the second year of the project she taught a Year 1 class. This article begins with Yvonne's commentary on her research journey and the research question that she developed for her school classroom. A research question and a research journey: A commentary from Yvonne Before the final curriculum document (The New Zealand Curriculum: Ministry of Education, 2007) was published, I had already been interested and involved (in a small way) in the development of the Ministry of Education's draft key competencies. I had been experimenting with them to see how they would look in my classroom, and how they could be successfully assessed. During the year before the TLRI project began, I had also been experimenting with Learning Stories as a form of assessment that captures the learning that I feel passionate about for young children, with support from Sue Molloy (at the time an Assess to Learn (A to L) adviser) and Keryn Davis (at the time an early childhood education adviser). I had found that Margaret Carr's form of narrative assessment, Learning Stories (Carr, 2001), was a simple and effective tool to use. A feature of Learning Stories, which originate from the early childhood education sector, is a dispositional framework based on Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1996). I had developed a format for the writing of these Learning Stories and had explored a set of indicators for each competency. When I shared the news of the curriculum review and my understandings of the draft key competencies with my colleagues, their reaction was not positive. Their comments included: What next! and How are we going to fit that [key competencies] in? Their reaction was hardly surprising when you remember that the pre-2007 curriculum documents came thick and fast and teachers had struggled to come to terms with them. At Parkview School we had also just completed an A to L professional development programme and were still in the process of bedding in our assessment programme. …

Reshaping the learning disposition domains: Rethinking the language for infants and toddlers

During our participation in a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project entitled Key Learning Competencies across Place and Time: Kimihia te ara totika, hei oranga mo to ao, we were invited, as part of the action research design, to develop our own research project about learning outcomes referred to as key learning competencies. This is a composite term for learning dispositions in the early childhood national curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 44) and key competencies in the school curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007, pp. 12-13). We work with infants and toddlers and had become interested in a research project that would enable us to rethink the language for learning dispositions. We were using Learning Stories (Carr, 2001; Cowie & Carr, 2004; Hatherly, 2006) to document and analyse learning, and we wondered if rethinking the language would reshape the way that we document the learning of our youngest children. We talked together about how certain Learning Stories we were writing for our infants and toddlers did not seem to particularly well with the existing domains of learning disposition in Carr (2001, pp. 23-25): taking an interest, being involved; persisting with difficulty or uncertainty; communicating with others; and taking responsibility. These parallel the Te Whariki strands of belonging, well-being, exploration, communication and contribution. During the research project, all teachers at our early childhood centre (New Brighton Community Preschool and Nursery) were analysing Learning Stories using this framework. We were highlighting the key outcomes for each story, and then exploring gaps and continuities. However, we teach infants and toddlers under 2 years old, and we have often found ourselves stuck when trying to describe a significant event or experience for a child and their family because the language of the framework didn't stand strong enough for the story. The dilemma for us here was that on one hand we wanted to honour the framework, but, on the other, we felt the framework did not allow us to capture the real story. It wasn't the notion of dispositions we had a problem with, rather it was the language of the framework that didn't seem to correspond to the learning we wanted to describe. This article discusses how we came to rework some of the dispositional language to better our view of infants and toddlers learning in action at our centre. Listen to the Sound: Where does it fit? The dilemma described above was never more apparent than with Ruby's story, Listen to the Sound. Nadine wrote a story about Ruby's movements in combination with experimenting with her body and how she used her body to play and create sound. Nadine felt none of the existing dispositions expressed the real significance of this story, and she was left wondering if the story was really relevant in the context of the dispositional framework. She asked many colleagues to read it and give their opinion--everyone agreed that it summed up exactly what Ruby was about but that it didn't seem to fit anywhere within the existing frame. Around this time, Keryn Davis, our research co-ordinator for the project, was visiting the preschool for a research meeting. Nadine shared this story with her, hoping that Keryn could shed some light on this growing dilemma. Keryn suggested that Ruby seemed very playful throughout this story, so why not think about it in terms of the dispositions of trust and playfulness, associated with being involved. While Nadine agreed Ruby was being playful, she felt it was much more about Ruby exploring or exploration. However, the actions and behaviours that correspond to the domain of learning disposition associated with exploration (persisting with difficulty or uncertainty) weren't appropriate for Ruby in this story. This was not a challenge for Ruby--it did not seem difficult, nor did she seem uncertain in this situation--but she was exploring. …

Relating to others: Three layers of knowing

During research on a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project entitled Key Learning Competencies across Place and Time: Kimihia te ara totika, hei oranga mo to ao, directed by Margaret Carr and Sally Peters at the University of Waikato, we researched evidence for, and developed theories about, relating to others. Relationships had always been a key concept for the teachers at our early childhood centre, and the TLRI project gave us an opportunity to contribute to discussions about the key competency relating to others (in the new school curriculum: Ministry of Education, 2007) in our place. Aratupu Preschool and Nursery is a community-based early childhood centre situated in Papanui, Christchurch. The centre is one of several services offered by the city's Methodist Mission alongside social work services, budgeting and food bank services, advocacy and aged care. Aratupu provides education and care for children aged 0-6 years and aims to meet the needs of our local community. Our centre is open from 8.30 am to 2.30 pm Monday to Friday, which reflects our commitment to our community, who are predominantly young, single-women-led whanau, with a government benefit as their main, or only, source of income. It is our aim to provide an environment where whanau feel valued and welcomed and where they can be supported in all aspects of their life. We want it to be a fun, safe and stimulating place where children can strengthen and acquire new dispositions that will support them in everything they do. The roll at Aratupu comprises approximately 50-60 percent Maori children, with the remainder consisting of Asian, Samoan, Cook Island and Pakeha children. The centre employs qualified early childhood teachers who focus on providing high-quality care and education for the children. Employing an out-of-ratio supervisor and a family support worker (social worker) allows teaching staff to focus on the children, while the supervisor and family support worker can support whanau. Our view of the child A particular commitment of Aratupu is for each child to be recognised for who they are, where they have come from and what they bring with them. We want our children to be empowered, so we take a strengths-based approach that focuses on children's abilities and how they relate to one another and support each other in their early childhood journey. A favourite saying for us at the centre is: We want children to be able to leave this centre, knowing who they are and being confident in standing up for themselves in future education systems and letting others know when their needs are not being met. We feel that this is an important goal for our children, as many have parents who have had not-so-great experiences within the education system. Our centre aims to be a positive educational place for the whole whanau. Our philosophy is strongly based on having the child at the centre of everything we do and think about. Every decision we make is based first on the child, then on the impact for those around them--meaning the whanau, other adults, environment, extended community etc. Enhancing a sense of belonging is the wallpaper of everything we do. We passionately believe that without a strong sense of belonging, children will not achieve their full potential--nothing else can happen without belonging. Relationships is also a key concept in everything we do in the centre, and how we do it. It is through relationships that we believe the child's identity is confirmed. Our aspiration is that the children develop identities as empowered children. Looking more closely at relating It was because of our existing emphasis on relationships and relating at the centre that we decided to explore these aspects--and the teaching and learning associated with these--more deeply through our involvement in this project. Although originally we used the term relationships, we soon moved to using the term relating to capture the concept we were exploring. …

Factors that Encourage Student Engagement: Insights from a Case Study of ‘First Time’ Students in a New Zealand University.

This case study reports on the findings from one of nine tertiary institutions that took part in a project funded by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) in New Zealand. The research question explored how institutional and non institutional learning environments influence student engagement with learning in a higher education, university setting. Data was collected initially by means of a questionnaire; subsequently more in-depth data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with students randomly selected from those who indicated, on the questionnaire, that they were willing to be interviewed. Respondents were enrolled for the first time in this institution, but not necessarily for the first time in a tertiary education programme. A conceptual model with four strands: motivation and agency; transactional engagement; institutional support and active citizenship was used to organise the data. Findings were analysed against a synthesis of current literature and suggest that factors identified in the first three strands of the conceptual model played a significant role in student engagement with learning; active citizenship, however, did not feature highly in student responses and is an aspect of engagement that could benefit from further research.

Teachers as action researchers: Towards a model of induction

Towards the end of 2006, a group of secondary and primary teachers, in collaboration with university researchers based at the University of Waikato, began a two-year journey where they researched their own practice as teachers of literature in multicultural classrooms in Auckland, New Zea-land. This presentation briefly outlines the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI), which initially provided a vision of teachers, working in partnership with university researchers, researching their own practice with the aim of enhancing the practice of the teaching profession as a whole. Through the eyes of one of the university-based researchers, but drawing on the experiences of four of the teacher participants, this presentation reflects on factors that had a bearing on the successful (or otherwise) induction of these teachers as teacher-researchers in their own right.

Strengthening responsive and reciprocal relationships in a whānau tangata centre

In March 2005 the general manager of the Wellington Region Free Kindergarten Association and Jeanette Clarkin-Phillips (University of Waikato) began discussions about setting up a research partnership to support the teachers at Taitoko Kindergarten in Levin. The teachers were establishing an integrated community centre (the whanau tangata centre) as part of a Parent Support and Development (PS&D) initiative funded by the Ministry of Education in conjunction with the Ministry of Social Development. The evolving PS&D initiative in Levin has included a drop-in centre for parents, parent workshops on topics of their choice, a well-resourced whanau room, facilities for infants and toddlers, school liaison visits and liaison with local health centres. The initiative at Taitoko was one of six pilot PS&D projects. These pilot projects did not themselves include any research components to evaluate the processes and outcomes for teaching and learning. Subsequently, through the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI), Jeanette Clarkin-Phillips and Margaret Carr (University of Waikato) set up an ongoing action research project at Taitoko Kindergarten to investigate these aspects of the initiative. The PS&D contracts were a relatively new initiative for New Zealand, and this research project was designed to provide information to guide this teaching and learning policy for future similar initiatives. The aim of the TLRI research project was to investigate the development of the whanau tangata centre at Taitoko Kindergarten with teaching and learning in mind. Aims and objectives Although the kindergarten teaching team members were excited at being a part of the PS&D initiative, they were also aware that they would face challenges that would affect their practice. They were committed to ensuring that the consequences of the PS&D initiative would be effective teaching and learning at Taitoko Kindergarten, and their involvement with the TLRI research project has helped to provide this. Through action research, the research team has addressed the teachers' questions in four areas. Strengthening relationships The teachers' first question was around the strengthening of relationships (how this has been done so far, and how it might be furthered). One aim of the research project was to ascertain whether the establishment of the whanau tangata centre was strengthening the relationship with the community and providing new learning opportunities for the children, parents and whanau. Changes in practice The second question was about changes in practice (what is possible, what appears to be effective). The teaching team and Wellington Region Free Kindergarten Association were committed to ensuring that the whanau tangata initiative had positive outcomes for children's learning, and that the teachers were able to reflect on their practice and make changes to accommodate the strengths and interests of children and their parents and whanau throughout the establishment of the integrated centre. The research project aimed to help establish if this was happening. Diversity The third question was about diversity (how a range of funds of knowledge [Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005] can be shared and included in curriculum). The teachers were particularly interested in responding to the diversity of community at the kindergarten. They wanted to know, through the TLRI research project, what further strategies they might use as teachers to strengthen their relationships with a community that includes 59 percent Maori and 19 percent Pasifika parents and whanau. Documentation The fourth question was associated with documentation (and how this can engage families and learners). The teaching team was keen to have avenues available to them to look at their teaching, planning and documentation in an informed manner and to respond accordingly. …

Changing mathematics teachers’ conceptions of assessment and feedback

Informed by an amalgam of notions drawn from constructivist, socio‐cultural, metacognitive and self‐regulation theory, the discourse created to describe assessment to enhance learning has gone through a number of iterations or discursive shifts. As a result, the current discourse is both ambitious and complex with the roles and responsibilities assigned to teachers and learners in learning and assessment radically transformed. Sponsored by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) seeks to develop teachers’ research capability and to build knowledge about teaching and learning with the intention of improving outcomes for learners. Using a range of qualitative data generation strategies this TLRI research project investigated secondary school teachers’ and students’ conceptions of assessment and feedback. This paper reports on the professional learning that accrued for these teachers using the data gained from the four mathematics teachers in the project. It also details changes in these teachers’ thinking about the roles and responsibilities of teachers and learners in the assessment process and documents reported changes to their professional practice resulting from these changed views. Whilst it is argued that involvement in the project became a valuable form of professional learning whereby these teachers, to varying degrees, achieved accessibility to, and greater understanding of, the current discourse of formative assessment, the mediating influence of teachers’ efficacy beliefs is also acknowledged.

Improving Tertiary Student Outcomes in the First Year of Study: What Your Students May Not Tell You

There has been increased interest in retention and completion with regard to tertiary student outcomes in relation to students' successful completion of their study and what influences this. In New Zealand, the government through the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) has made it clear that it expects institutions to meet retention and completion benchmarks or face reductions in funding. An added challenge in this climate is that mass education and open entry, with the focus on participation, have brought an increasingly diverse student population into tertiary education (Prebble, Hargraves, Leach, Naidoo, Suddaby, & Zepke, 2005). The Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) two year project, that UCOL has been involved in, set out to identify ways institutions and their staffs can improve retention rates. It addressed the question: “What can New Zealand Tertiary Education Institutions and their teachers do to adapt their current processes and practices to improve retention, persistence and completion of diverse students in their first year?” (Zepke, Leach, & Prebble, 2004). This article will first explain the origins for the research based on the best evidence synthesis and the importance of the term adaptation. It will then summarize the results for UCOL from the data gathering instruments: a questionnaire for students and another for teachers; interviews with both students and administrators; and focus groups for both students and teachers. UCOL was one of seven participating Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs). While we are only able to talk about what we learned for UCOL, the results will have application beyond one institution. What students tell us, and what we do with that information, will help us to ensure that student success is supported at all levels of the institution.

Enacting a whakawhanaungatanga approach in early childhood education

The decline in Maori in children's enrolment in kohanga reo and the corresponding increase in the proportion of Maori children attending education and care centres (Ministry of Education, 2004) has major implications for both the majority of Maori children who are participating in early childhood education (ECE) and care settings other than kohanga reo, and the providers of these services. Surveys of Maori families have indicated that even those parents who send their children to conventional early childhood centres and schools, rather than to kohanga reo and kura kaupapa, still want their children to learn their language and expect that this aspiration will be supported within regular educational provision (AGB/McNair, 1992; Durie, 2003; Else, 1997; Te Puni Kokiri/Ministry of Maori Development, 1998a,b). However, previous research (Ritchie, 2002) has identified that mainstream educators and teacher educators lack confidence and competence in delivering education programmes that are bicultural in content and process in line with the expectations of Te Whariki and its commitments derived from Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ensuing outcomes for Maori are highlighted in Rau (2002), which shows that impacting tensions for tamariki and whanau are evident when culture is not being validated. This article reports findings from a recent Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project, which explored strategies for encouraging the participation of whanau Maori within ECE settings and implementing commitments derived from Te Tiriti o Waitangi as expressed in the bicultural early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1996b), through the delivery of Tiriti-based programmes in early childhood settings other than kohanga reo in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our TLRI project aimed to: * articulate how early childhood educators in settings other than kohanga reo encourage whanau Maori to participate in ECE; and * identify strategies by which early childhood educators are implementing their understandings of the Tiriti-based commitments in Te Whariki by delivering Tiriti-based programmes. Our project supported an approach termed whakawhanaungatanga (Ritchie, 2001, 2002, 2003), which focused on educators putting into practice their professional responsibility to build relationships with Maori families within early childhood centres and communities. Central to this relationship building is re-centring the position of Maori ways of knowing, being, and doing (Rau, 2002; Rau & Ritchie, 2005). Whakawhanaungatanga approaches are in harmony with Te Whariki's principle of Whanau Tangata-Family and Community that [t]he wider world of the family and community is part of the early childhood curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996b, p. 14), and with the of Mana Whenua--Belonging (pp. 14-15). In the section Nga Taumata Whakahirahira, Te Whariki states that one of the key values within Te Ao Maori is that children are supported in knowing whanaungatanga: Kotetahi o ngq tino uara o to ao Maori kia mohio ngq mokopuna ki to whanaungatanga (p. 33). Furthermore, [t]he strand of Belonging builds opportunities for social interaction with adults and other children and respects the achievements and aspirations of the child's family and community. Through these links, families and the community are empowered (p. 54), [a]ppropriate connections with iwi and hapu [are] established (p. 55), and educators demonstrate support for tikanga Maori and to reo Maori. Research design and methodology Collaboration was central to our project's conception and implementation. The research design drew upon both kaupapa Maori methodologies (Bishop, 1996; Bishop & Glynn, 1999; G. H. Smith, 1997; L. T. Smith, 1999) and a collaborative, narrative Western paradigm (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Clandinin & Huber, 2002; Hauser, 1995; Richardson, 1997; Schulz, Schroeder, & Brody, 1997; Swadener & Marsh, 1995). …