Zealand Secondary School Research Articles

Maybe what they say is what they experience: Taking students words seriously

Abstract Students are said to learn from experience in outdoor education, yet what they say they learn is not always taken seriously. Foucault's work is used in this article to examine two 'flippant' comments made by students. Starting with these comments leads to an analysis of how experiences, students and meaning making processes in outdoor education are constituted and normalised. This highlights how it is possible for these students to make these comments and how they can be judged as 'flippant.' Analysis of this type lays down a challenge to explore the practices of outdoor education to foreground the complexity and contradictions inherent in students', experience and learning. It challenges us to take students words seriously. Introduction As part of a research project looking at outdoor education practices I followed the outdoor education program of a New Zealand secondary school (1). I went on a number of camps with this school and spent a lot of time talking to students as we did the various activities and lived together for the periods of the camps. After each camp I attended I also had some more formal interviews with a number of the students about the camps. Students said many different things about the experiences they had on the outdoor education program of this school. Two comments made by different students remain with me. My attention was initially drawn to these comments because they seem, on one level, to epitomise much of the outdoor education rhetoric around what students can learn but on another level they bring some of this rhetoric into relief because of the paradoxical nature of these comments. The first comment was made when I was standing by a confidence course with a group of students on the Year 8 camp (2). We were waiting for the teacher to arrive so we could begin the activity. I had asked the students why they thought that the teacher was getting them to do the confidence course and one student said, in a very matter of fact manner, "You do the confidence course to get confidence." Her tone of voice implied that there could be no other reason to do a confidence course. The second comment came from one of the Year 12 students when I interviewed her about her camp experience (3). I asked Matilda (4) how she found the leadership component of the trip and the assessment process for the course. She said, You know how we are being assessed on leadership stuff at this camp, I reckon, like at Brownies that kind of was a beginning. An introduction to all those kind of little skills. Cause we learnt how to work as a team and how to be nice and smiley and all that kind of stuff. You know, which is not really us, but anyway. One reading of these two comments could be to confirm the power and efficacy of outdoor education. The first student clearly knew that doing challenging activities would involve feelings of success and increased confidence. Matilda appeared to have learnt very clearly what was involved in working in a team from her earlier experiences in Brownies. But this is not the immediate reading that a number of colleagues who I have shared these two comments with have made. One response I have had when I have recounted these two vignettes is surprise that I would even bother to consider these two comments seriously. After all, they were flippant, throw away lines. One question that I have been asked a number of times as I have tried to come to some understanding of these comments is if I thought that the students said these things because they thought it was what I would want to hear. Another response that I have had to Matilda's comment in particular, was that maybe she was just a lazy student and knew how to 'fake' it to keep the teacher happy. The general tenor of the responses when I related these two stories was that the comments represented some shortcomings in the students. A suggestion was also made at one point that my interest in these comments represented some shortcomings in my research abilities. …

Is there a relation between school smoking policies and youth cigarette smoking knowledge and behaviors?

To comply with workplace legislation, New Zealand schools are required to have policies regarding tobacco smoking. Many schools also have policies to prevent tobacco use by students, including education programmes, cessation support and punishment for students found smoking. This paper investigated the associations between school policies and the prevalence of students' cigarette smoking. Furthermore, we investigated the association between school policy and students' tobacco purchasing behavior, knowledge of health effects from tobacco use and likelihood of influencing others not to smoke. Data were obtained from a self-report survey administered to 2,658 New Zealand secondary school students and staff from 63 schools selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure. Components of school policy were not significantly associated with smoking outcomes, health knowledge or health behavior, and weakly related to a punishment emphasis and students advising others to not smoke. Similarly, weak associations were found between not advising others to not smoke and policies with a punishment emphasis as well as smoke-free environments. The results suggest that having a school tobacco policy was unrelated to the prevalence of tobacco use among students, tobacco purchasing behavior and knowledge of the negative health effects of tobacco.

Credible Subject Or Callow Intruder? Social Studies in the Secondary School

After a chequered history, social studies is now developing a higher profile and greater credibility in secondary schools, the defining factor being its inclusion for national qualifications since 2002. This article links the progress of social studies in New Zealand secondary schools to the three stage subject development model postulated by Layton in England. It is argued that Layton’s descriptors of a mature subject have mostly been achieved, despite predictions to the contrary by Openshaw and Archer (1992) and Barr (2000). However, there is still much work to be done to sustain and enhance the status and credibility of the subject.

Curriculum integration in the junior secondary school

Abstract The integration of curriculum has been of interest to educators since before the start of the 30th century. Today, an increasing number of New Zealand schools are embracing a variety of approaches to curriculum integration. At the same time, educational discourse continues concerning the constructivist approaches developed during the 1980s and early 1990s. This article (1) describes a Junior secondary curriculum integration programme, designed around constructivist principles, that has been running at Kuranui College in Greytown since 2000. Introduction There is a strong belief among those who support curriculum integration that schools must look at secondary education as a process for developing abilities required for life in the 31st century, rather than as discrete, departmentalised subject matter. In the debate about schooling in the 21st century, curriculum integration sits alongside a growing number of hot topics. When educators consider the full range of these approaches, the magnitude of the challenge becomes apparent. How does a traditional secondary school begin to restructure its Years 9 and 10 programme to accommodate all of these: authentic interdisciplinary contexts, extended periods of study, a range of learning styles, the development of information and digital literacies, the fostering of autonomous learners, attention to learning through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), and more? The Base 6 programme at Kuranui College in Greytown was designed to incorporate, to some extent, all of these pedagogical approaches and at the same time implement some organisational and structural changes to the junior college programme. At the time of writing, the Base 6 programme operates at the Years 9 and 10 levels, with two classes of students at each level. The programme combines the English, social studies, science, and health curricula in eight extended studies spread over the year. Students carry out these extended individual or collaborative inquiry-based projects driven largely by their own questions and interests. The student-directed learning is complemented by lessons based on relevant content from the associated curriculum areas. The programme takes place during daily block-timetabled periods of up to three hours' duration, with the remaining time used for the other junior college options and programmes. Base 6 is named after the six key features of the programme: active learning through inquiry, independent student-centred learning, authentic contexts, collaborative learning, ICT-enhanced learning, and the building of connections to family and community. There is a strong emphasis on students developing information literacy and the competencies required for independent inquiry. Students are able to use ICT in their classrooms throughout the programme. The teachers in Base 6 work as a team to provide a flexible and integrated approach to teaching and learning, using a systematic process of planning and review to improve student learning. Curriculum integration Discussions by the Kuranui Collcgc teachers with teachers in integrated studies programmes at other New Zealand secondary schools, and research into curriculum integration undertaken during the programme development, identified several key theorists and practitioners. James Beane of the National College of Education at National-Louis University is an important figure in the field of curriculum integration, and has written many articles and books on the subject. His book, Curriculum Integration: Designing the Core of Democratic Education (Beane, 1997), provides a history and complete theory of curriculum integration, and was used extensively during the programme planning period. In New Zealand, Pat Nolan and Mark Brown (from Massey University) have published material related to curriculum integration since the late 80s, and have had a long-standing research relationship with Freyberg High School (Nolan & Brown, 2001, 2002). …

Language aptitude and its relationship to instructional effectiveness in second language acquisition

Experimental second language acquisition research typically investigates the effectiveness of instruction in terms of overall group gains. A particular instructional method may not, however, benefit all learners uniformly. This study, conducted in a New Zealand secondary school, establishes whether there is any relationship between the effectiveness of three instructional methods, and learner aptitude. Students (n = 60) were assigned to one of three groups (deductive instruction group, inductive instruction group, structured input instruction group) and received instruction that targeted direct object pronouns in L2 French. All students were assessed on the following three measures of language aptitude: (a) language analytic ability, (b) phonemic coding ability and (c) working memory. Results indicate that deductive instruction that gives students opportunities to produce language output may neutralize individual differences in language aptitude.

The Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale in New Zealand adolescents

Objective: To examine aspects of the reliability and validity of the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) in measuring depression in New Zealand adolescents of all major ethnic groups.Method: A sample of 9699 randomly selected New Zealand secondary school students participated in the Youth2000 Health and Wellbeing Survey which included the RADS. Data from this survey have been used to assess some aspects of the reliability and validity of the RADS in the New Zealand context across different ethnic groups. Cronbach's alpha, itemtotal score correlations, correlation to other questions and a factor analysis were done in order to examine the internal reliability, content validity, convergent validity and construct validity of the data and compare to the original Reynolds validation study.Results: Tests of the scale resulted in scores over 0.90 on Cronbach's alpha and high itemtotal score correlations, with a median correlation of 0.62 and 25 of the 30 correlations measuring more than 0.5. The scores were found to have similar factor structure to the original scale and the correlations to other depression related questions indicate acceptable concurrent validity.Conclusions: On all of the tests conducted, the RADS was found to have acceptable reliability and validity for New Zealand adolescents across the major different ethnic groups, indicating that it is a valid and appropriate instrument to use with New Zealand adolescents.

The Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale in New Zealand Adolescents

To examine aspects of the reliability and validity of the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) in measuring depression in New Zealand adolescents of all major ethnic groups. A sample of 9699 randomly selected New Zealand secondary school students participated in the Youth2000 Health and Wellbeing Survey which included the RADS. Data from this survey have been used to assess some aspects of the reliability and validity of the RADS in the New Zealand context across different ethnic groups. Cronbach's alpha, item-total score correlations, correlation to other questions and a factor analysis were done in order to examine the internal reliability, content validity, convergent validity and construct validity of the data and compare to the original Reynolds validation study. Tests of the scale resulted in scores over 0.90 on Cronbach's alpha and high item-total score correlations, with a median correlation of 0.62 and 25 of the 30 correlations measuring more than 0.5. The scores were found to have similar factor structure to the original scale and the correlations to other depression related questions indicate acceptable concurrent validity. On all of the tests conducted, the RADS was found to have acceptable reliability and validity for New Zealand adolescents across the major different ethnic groups, indicating that it is a valid and appropriate instrument to use with New Zealand adolescents.

Schoolbag weight and musculoskeletal symptoms in New Zealand secondary schools

The weight of schoolbags and the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms amongst 140 students (70 third form students comprising 35 females and 35 males, and 70 sixth form students comprising 35 females and 35 males) from five New Zealand secondary schools was investigated. Schoolbag weight for third form students (mean age 13.6 years) was 13.2% of their body weight, while for sixth form students (mean age 17.1 years) it was 10.3% of their body weight. These weights may exceed the recommended guideline load limits for adult industrial workers. Musculoskeletal symptoms were reported by 77.1% of the students. Symptoms were most prevalent in the neck, shoulders, upper back and lower back. Although musculoskeletal symptoms are believed to be multifactorial in origin, the carriage of heavy schoolbags is a suspected contributory factor and may represent an overlooked daily physical stress for New Zealand secondary school students.

The Pastoral Needs of International Students in New Zealand Secondary Schools.

A study of some 400 international students reveals that they are, on average, modestly successful in coping with the challenges of settling into the local school and peer community. While they receive support from other overseas-born students, many teachers, and some local peers, their integration into the peer community remains thwarted by the perceived attitude of local peers. These findings form a background of current research evidence against which the potential of specific pastoral care provisions can be explored and developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Journal of Counselling is the property of New Zealand Association of Counsellors and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Quiet Crisis: International Students in New Zealand Secondary Schools

Foreign fee-paying (international) students have been present in New Zealand secondary schools for over a decade. In recent years the number of such students has increased dramatically, and their distribution is not evenly spread across schools. The increase has led to a situation in which schools are relying on international student funding to meet budget requirements. This article presents the results of a small, sharply focused case-study, following a review of the policy issues and literature surrounding the international student presence in New Zealand. It concludes that increased monitoring and research is necessary to ensure that all students experience the maximum chance for success within the New Zealand system.

Enhancing the Middle in a New Zealand Secondary School: Integration, Experiential Learning and Computer Use

Enhancing the Middle in a New Zealand Secondary School: Integration, Experiential Learning and Computer Use

Association between Bullying and Mental Health Status in New Zealand Adolescents

This study investigates the association between mental health status and chronic bullying. Findings are based on a cross-sectional survey of 3,265 randomly selected secondary school students. Students were classified as having experienced chronic bullying if they had experienced any of the following five or more times during the previous six months while at school: physical violence, verbal teasing, sexual harassment and racist comments. Analysis showed that bullied students had lower self-esteem, suffered more from depression, stress and hopelessness, and were more likely to think about and attempt self-harm and suicide than others. Our findings suggest that young people in New Zealand secondary schools are experiencing significant levels of mental distress. Addressing violence in the school setting is important, as positive mental health is a prerequisite for the social, academic and physical achievements of young people in a school environment.

Purchasing of cigarettes by New Zealand secondary students in 2000.

To examine the prevalence of under-age sales of cigarettes to New Zealand secondary school students in 2000 and to identify correlates of buying cigarettes. A randomly selected sample of 53 secondary schools from five geographic regions took part, and 2,896 Year 10 and Year 12 students completed a self-report questionnaire. Some 30.3% reported smoking during the past 30 days and 61.8% of these students usually obtained cigarettes by purchasing from shops, from other students or from someone else buying them on their behalf. Local corner stores and service stations were the most popular source. Buying cigarettes was associated with more frequent smoking, more money to spend, a higher school decile rating and higher proportion of schoolmates also purchasing. Prohibition of cigarette sales to minors needs much greater attention in NZ than it is receiving at present if smoking among young people is to be reduced.

Performing coolness: smoking refusal and adolescent identities.

The implications of smoking refusal for personal identity style were studied through conversations in six small focus groups or dyads of 13- and 14-year-old non-smokers from an urban New Zealand secondary school. The approach to analyzing their talk was informed by notions of 'performativity' and 'social space' to focus on the connections between identity and social relations. Smoking emerged as a key signifier of power and status. It was salient at both top and bottom ends of the social hierarchy depending upon the competence displayed in smoking as part of a larger ensemble of personal deportment and behavior. Being a non-smoker therefore inevitably carried connotations of being 'average' or 'in the middle', presenting non-smoking adolescents with the problem of accrediting themselves against superior 'smoker cool' groups. A discourse analytic approach was used to examine the resources and strategies participants brought to bear on this 'problem', which was then seen to be solved differently by boys and girls. Boys could establish alternatives to 'smoker cool' through physical activity, girls had little recourse but to accept their inferior status. The implications of this for health education and promotion are discussed.

Into the 21st Century: The Mccrone and McConnell Reports – Opening The Possibility for Introducing Full-Time School Counsellors into Scottish Schools

Unlike some other Western countries, most Scottish schools do not have full-time guidance teachers or school counsellors. In secondary schools, guidance teachers teach and provide educational, vocational and personal guidance, but are not trained as counsellors. Both the McCrone Report (Scottish Executive, 2001a) that focuses on teachers, workload and stress, and the McConnell Report (Scottish Executive, 2001b) that focuses on discipline and support for students, open up new possibilities for this wide-ranging role that has changed little since it was established in 1968. The article analyses these recent policies and some recent Scottish research to argue in favour of introducing full-time guidance teachers/school counsellors into Scottish schools to meet both student and teacher needs. A model of specialised and professionalised school counselling as exists in most New Zealand secondary schools is presented as a possible direction as Scotland reviews existing systems and addresses barriers to learning, social inclusion and student discipline.

The weight and use of schoolbags in New Zealand secondary schools

The weight and use of schoolbags amongst 140 students (70 third form students comprising 35 females and 35 males, and 70 sixth form students comprising 35 females and 35 males) from five New Zealand secondary schools was investigated. Third form students, who were smaller in stature and weight than sixth form students, were found to carry 13.2% of their body weight in schoolbags, while sixth form students carried 10.3% of their body weight. Third form students reported carrying their schoolbags for a longer period of time than sixth form students. Third form students also had less access to lockers to store their schoolbooks and supplies as only one of the five schools investigated provided lockers for third form students, whereas four of the five schools provided lockers for sixth form students. Most students used backpacks to transport their supplies, and these were predominantly carried on two shoulders. Heavy schoolbags, long carriage durations and lack of access to lockers amongst third formers, could contribute to the production or maintenance of musculoskeletal symptoms. This study suggests that third form students may be at a higher risk of developing musculoskeletal symptoms than sixth form students.

The weight and use of schoolbags in New Zealand secondary schools

The weight and use of schoolbags amongst 140 students (70 third form students comprising 35 females and 35 males, and 70 sixth form students comprising 35 females and 35 males) from five New Zealand secondary schools was investigated. Third form students, who were smaller in stature and weight than sixth form students, were found to carry 13.2% of their body weight in schoolbags, while sixth form students carried 10.3% of their body weight. Third form students reported carrying their schoolbags for a longer period of time than sixth form students. Third form students also had less access to lockers to store their schoolbooks and supplies as only one of the five schools investigated provided lockers for third form students, whereas four of the five schools provided lockers for sixth form students. Most students used backpacks to transport their supplies, and these were predominantly carried on two shoulders. Heavy schoolbags, long carriage durations and lack of access to lockers amongst third formers, could contribute to the production or maintenance of musculoskeletal symptoms. This study suggests that third form students may be at a higher risk of developing musculoskeletal symptoms than sixth form students.

Frontline Talk: Teachers’ Linguistic Resources when Talking about Mental Health and Illness

Talk about mental health and mental illness was examined using Potter and Wetherell's system of discourse analysis. Participants were 8 health coordinators (teachers) from a range of New Zealand secondary schools. They were interviewed on the topics of mental health and mental illness. Verbatim transcripts from the interviews were analyzed, and three mental health and illness linguistic resources were identified: a mental health as illness resource, a mental well-being resource, and a mental illness resource. Each resource was examined, and the practical consequences of this language use was discussed in relation to the role of teachers as frontline mental health professionals.

Over Forty Years of Guidance Counselling: Specialist Teachers in New Zealand Secondary Schools 1959-2001

This article provides a brief overview of forty years of guidance counselling in New Zealand secondary schools, at a time that has seen New Zealand move from a welfare state to a neoliberal one. By focussing primarily on official policy and its impact on the place of guidance counsellors, it identifies five phases in the development of this small, but important section of semi-visible “specialist teachers”. The article also provides a broad picture of the socio-political-historical contexts that supported the emergence of assisted pilot guidance counsellor schemes at the end of 1959, and their development so that there were permanent places in all secondary schools by 1988. It also indicates some of the threats in the neoliberal policy environment of the 1990s.

Qualitative research and making meaning from adventure: A case study of boys' experiences of outdoor education at school

This article details the process and analysis of a case study, conducted over a six week period, involving an outdoor education class in an all-boys Catholic, New Zealand secondary school. The questions explored by the case study were the subjective meanings of adventure experiences in outdoor education and the benefits of qualitative research for assessing the value of outdoor education. The methodological techniques used were observation, involving some researcher participation, and in-depth interviewing. Subsequent data analysis was based upon theories of experiential education and adventure education, and concepts of leisure and human agency. The results of the study suggest that the meanings participants make of their experiences, and the value they derive from them, exceed those that may conventionally be sought and measured as an improvement in self-concept. These findings suggest that learning through adventure is potentially valuable as a holistic and life-long form of activity that enhances the capacity to enjoy and engage in living. This is an important extension beyond its often limited and compartmentalised applications, which are rationalised by specific outcome based objectives. A qualitative methodology was indispensable to an inquiry of this kind and warrants further attention in the process of understanding the meanings of adventure and learning.