363 research outputs found
Sort by
The principles in the New Zealand curriculum: What sense do student teachers make of them?
No full textThe principles set out in the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) “embody beliefs about what is important and desirable in school curriculum—nationally and locally. They should underpin all school decisionmaking” (Ministry of Education, 2007). An understanding of these principles is essential for all teachers who are involved in education in the compulsory sector in New Zealand, including beginning teachers.This paper reports on a study which investigated the developing understandings of the place and use of the principles in the NZC by student teachers over a year long Graduate Diploma (Primary) programme and as they moved into their first teachingpositions. Student teachers were able to identify examples of their own practice that reflected specific principles. In particular the principles they highlighted were ones that aligned with their personal beliefs. Other principles that lay outside their personal beliefs proved more difficult for them, but their understanding of the principles as they related to curriculum decisionmaking developed over the duration of the programme
History in the New Zealand curriculum: Discourse shaping and Key Competencies possibilities
No full textThis paper focuses on history in the New Zealand curriculum in light of its seemingly confused curriculum identity despite revision processes of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC; New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007). Some thinking about curriculum as a socially constructed political process that teachers can actively engage with sets the scene for unpacking ways the NZC policy conceptualises history. The notion of discourse is introduced, and competing discourses in the national curriculum are identified in relation to ways they play out in history pedagogy. The NZC key competencies are reflected as a policy space for rethinking history’s curriculum purpose and pedagogy
Rethinking the role of counting in mathematics learning
No full textThis paper challenges the emphasis on counting in New Zealand’s Numeracy Development Project (NDP), arguing that subitizing provides an alternative pathway to quantification. Longitudinal data is presented showing that children’s subitizing skills at the age of five years were a strong predictor of their later success in mathematics at the age of nine years. Sophian’s work of comparison of continuous quantities is explored. Data from students whose teachers participated in NDP professional development programmes are compared with the expectations documented in the Mathematics Standards. The analysis shows that the percentages of students who reach the expected level for their year group is well short of the Standards. It is suggested that the large number of micro-stages at the lower end of the Number Framework together with the positioning of part-whole strategies as the fifth stage on the framework may give the impression that teachers should not focus on the relationship between a whole and its parts until students are able to count on (stage 4). The paper concludes by suggesting that a dual focus on subitizing and counting right from the beginning might help students to develop a deeper understandingof cardinality and of the relationship between a whole and its parts, resulting in them reaching expected levels earlier
Literacy and numeracy standards: Recent constructions within the political, business and media discourses in New Zealand
No full textConcerns about a decline in literacy and numeracy standards in New Zealand are longstanding. Such concerns have again come to the fore with the introduction of the Education (National Standards) Amendment Act 2008. In this paper we track the debates leading up to the new legislation, focusing on the political struggles and the way in which games of truth, power and knowledge are played out in a bid to reconstruct thinking and action about literacy and numeracy. Such truth games have resonances within all educational enterprises, influencing the way we think about the key skills deemed appropriate for dealing with everyday civic life
Teachers’ perspectives of professional development for effecting change in Māori medium classrooms: A mathematics experience
No full textIn 2010 twenty-three Māori medium schools were given the opportunity for professional development with the Draft Ngā Whanaketanga Rūmake Māori: Pāngarau (NWRM) (National Standards Māori Medium: Mathematics. The study provided a unique opportunity to listen to teachers’ views about their professional development as they sought to implement national standards for mathematics education. Data was obtained from teachers in three schools to help identify key factors that they considered influential for their professional growth and development. The findings show that effective leadership, the development of high quality professional relationships between participants, appropriate resourcing and the serendipitous nature of professional learning, all contributed to the implementation of this government mandate
A research note: A regional response to national concerns in teacher education
No full textHow can tertiary education in regions respond innovatively and collaboratively to issues regarding teacher supply and quality, especially in regions of teacher shortages? This research report focuses on one response. The Rotorua regional primary teaching flexible learning option was established by the Christchurch College of Education (CCE) in late 1996 and based at Waiarik Institute of Technology (Waiariki). It is an example of how one region in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) responded to two identified national concerns; first, a teacher shortage and second, the provision of a preservice teacher education programme that prepares teachers with particular skills to teach Māori children, who make up a substantial proportion of students in that region. This report is of a stocktake of the programme after 10 years of operation
From classroom teacher to teacher educator: Generating PCK through action research
No full textThis paper speculates how a model for the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development of novice science teacher educators in a science education doctoral programme could have wider application to future teacher educators in science (and other subject domains) who enter tertiary teaching via different pathways. When the model is aligned with other pathways, contextual differences make the need for adaptation and modification of the model inevitable and desirable. In light of her own teaching and research experiences, a science teacher educator offers suggestions for adapting and applying the model in nondoctoral programme learning pathways for early career teacher educators
Search, Secure, and Interview: Lessons from a Longitudinal Study
No full textThis paper describes the experience of locating eleven young people who had participated in a research project ten years before.The principal lessons of this experience are that it is important to keep records of addresses, that respondents are likely to be found through engagements with friends and other family members, and that relational skills and persistence are required attributes for a successful quest
Education for Sustainability (EFS): Citizenship Education for Radical Resistance or Cultural Conformity?
No full textThere is little doubt that the use of EFS curricula, resources, and programmes in publicly provided education has been controversial.This paper will examine the dilemmas, for educators involved in EFS, relating to the politics and conservative forces underpinning national curriculum development in a free market capitalisteconomy such as Aotearoa / New Zealand.Concerns have been expressed both within and beyond the developing field of EFS that it has the potential to be narrowly utilitarian and indoctrinatory. A useful response to this critique is to advocate for critical reflection around the ways in which language in the developing field of EFS is, and has been, constructed. It is argued that taking the meanings that are implicit in the terminology used in EFS to be self-evident will endanger its potential to be truly empowering. One consequence might be that the field becomes indoctrinatory and uncritically transmissive.The area of pre-service teacher education is explored as one that can model environmental education and EFS usefully as educative
A Personal Journey: Introducing Reflective Practice into Pre-service Teacher Education to Improve Outcomes for Students
No full textThis paper traces the development over several years of an initiative, involving student journals, that was introduced into a tertiary science education course for pre-service teachers in order toimprove communication between the lecturer and students.The narrative recounts how the nature and uses of the journals evolve subsequently as a result of reflective practice by the course lecturer and students.This introduction of intentional reflection by the course lecturer, informed by ongoing action research, is providing valuable insights into the nature and extent of student learning and the actions required to improve outcomes for students