scholarly journals “I Feel I’m Important”: Successful Collaborative Teaching and Learning in a New Zealand Intermediate School

RMLE Online ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Martin ◽  
Judy Williams
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 52-59
Author(s):  
Lucila Carvalho

Schools and universities in Aotearoa New Zealand have been transitioning into new spatial configurations. These spaces are being carefully (re)designed to accommodate technology-rich activity, and to enable collaborative teaching and learning in ways that actively engage students in scaffolded inquiry. As teachers and students shift from traditional classroom layouts into flexible learning arrangements, educators are having to deeply rethink their own practices. In addition, the recent Covid-19 outbreak raised new questions in education about the role of technology in learning. This article argues that it is critical that Aotearoa educators understand (i) how to (re)design and (re)configure learning spaces in ways that support what they value in learning; and (ii) how they can tap on the digital to extend students experiences, both across and beyond schools and universities’ physical settings. The article introduces a way of framing the design and analysis of complex learning situations and reports on qualitative findings from a recent survey, which explored educators’ experiences of learning environments across Aotearoa New Zealand.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 162-167
Author(s):  
Lisa Darragh

Internet access and the availability of digital devices in the classroom have grown exponentially. Correspondingly, we have online platforms for learning mathematics that are subscription-based and available for schools or individuals to purchase. Research in mathematics education tends to focus on the benefits to teaching and learning afforded by digital technology, while less attention is given to the implications of having commercial applications in our mathematics classrooms, and their considerable cost. This paper reports on a study of online mathematics instructional programmes in primary schools of New Zealand. Data sources include a survey sent to mathematics leaders of all primary schools, and a discursive analysis of the websites of the most commonly used instructional programmes. There was an obvious similarity found between the promises of the websites and the rationales expressed by school leaders for using the programmes, suggesting that schools are succumbing to the seductive promises of these commercial programmes. It is argued that we need to further examine the implications of using such programmes in our mathematics classrooms, especially in the context of profit-making inside public education.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1288-1294
Author(s):  
Badriah M. Alkhannani

This paper looks at the effectiveness of Collaborative Teaching and Learning (CTL) strategies in increasing students’ satisfaction in their learning outcomes, experiences, and achievements. The main strategy addressed in this paper is engaging Students as Partners in the CTL. Student engagement correlates with positive learning experiences and outcomes for students. ‘Students as Partners’ principles and approaches are relevant to many aspects of enhancement and innovation in curriculum and pedagogy, particularly in Higher Education. While this may not be a novel or new idea in the West, many countries in Asia and the Middle East have yet to incorporate collaborative approaches in the classrooms. As such, this review hopes to shed light on the possibilities and advantages of engaging learners in aspects that in a traditional classroom, the role that only educators and teachers take on. This paper also explores the potential issues, challenges, and further work required in the application of CTL in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in Saudi Arabia.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Karen Coulton

<p>International and New Zealand research continues to show that there is concern about boys being less successful than girls in writing at all levels of the school. This study examines to what extent year 7 and year 8 boys are motivated to advance their writing when they collaborate with a peer and choose to use a drama strategy. A qualitative approach was taken to explore the insiders‟ view of writing from eight year 7 and year 8 boys in an intermediate school in New Zealand. Data gathered were from semi-structured interviews, in class observations and samples of writing. Sociocultural theory was used to inform the investigation of the social and cultural influences on the boys‟ learning about writing. The findings illustrate that the drama intervention was successful as the boys were motivated to write through their social interaction of role- playing characters from a choice of topics represented in their everyday lives. The boys revealed their metacognitive knowledge by showing their awareness of their thought processes about writing and how to use this knowledge to develop their writing abilities. The study makes recommendations for teachers, including the need for teachers to recognise the boys‟ position of authority over their knowledge, which is essential for their motivation and learning to write successfully.</p>


2021 ◽  
pp. 195-209
Author(s):  
Jodie Hunter ◽  
Roberta Hunter ◽  
John Tupouniua ◽  
Generosa Leach

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused new ways of doing and being, both in education systems and beyond across the world. In the context of Aotearoa/New Zealand, the widely supported government approach focused on the well-being of the nation with a position that saving lives was more important than maintaining an open economy. As researchers and educators, we supported teachers as they worked with their students in their home settings. This provided us with an opportunity to explore a vision of a reinvented system of mathematics education beyond institutional and formal structures of schools. In this chapter, we present the analysis of the responses from 24 educators mainly from low socioeconomic urban settings as they reflected on how they enacted mathematics teaching and learning during the lockdown while connecting with students and their families as well as their subsequent learning from this experience. Results highlighted that the mathematical learning of students went beyond what was accessed by digital means and included parents drawing on rich everyday opportunities. A key finding was that by supporting and privileging the well-being of students and communities, the connections and relationships between educators and families were enhanced.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Craig Watterson

<p>The extensive literature relating to student barriers within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and, in particular, engineering education illustrates that STEM education has a widespread problem in retaining students. A plethora of studies have concentrated on placing the student at the centre of the problem – for example by focusing on student academic ability, work habits and social background. By analysing staff interviews, and investigating pertinent factors from the surrounding institutional, cultural and social environment, I shift the focus away from the phenomenological experience of individuals to examine the way power relations affect the teaching and learning environment. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) offers a theoretical and methodological basis for critically exploring networks of power, through the investigation of discourse and can provide insights into the complex situation in the School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS).  I use FDA to ask: how is power experienced and manifested by lecturers in the Bachelor of Engineering with Honours (BE) first-year teaching and learning environment at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand. I do this by analysing transcripts of interviews with teaching staff, as well as ECS, University, and Government documentation. By adopting an FDA approach to lecturers’ experiences of power, situated in the New Zealand neoliberal educational context, I aim to identify issues that impact the teaching and learning environment. These include academic practices relating to Government and University pressure to increase engineering student recruitment and retention numbers, an academically diverse incoming student cohort, course design, teaching and research. From a Foucauldian perspective, the New Zealand Government, the University, its lecturers, and students are all part of an educational setting comprising a complex network of power relationships active in the operation of the teaching and learning environment.  By placing lecturers at the epicentre of the situation and by understanding how lecturers both experience and exercise power in the teaching-learning environment, the issue of student retention may be re-framed. This study offers a unique perspective from which we can assess these problematic experiences at the source, whether that be at government, institution, department, teacher or learner level. As such, by exploring the operation of power, this thesis explores an important aspect of the retention problem which has never been fully investigated in NZ engineering education.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 476-489
Author(s):  
Cynthia White ◽  
Janet Holmes ◽  
Vijay Bhatia

In referencing the title of Chris Candlin's (2008) plenary, this paper focuses on the continuing concern to align research and practice in applied linguistics, and more particularly in language for specific purposes (LSP) and professional communication. We examine how Candlin identified practices for trading places between research and practice and for creating synergies between them – and in so doing opened up new spaces for enquiry and understanding in the field. We identify and critically examine four approaches that Candlin developed to promote the alignment of research and practice: through particular research tools and methodologies, through the investigation of professional settings and inter-domain constructs (such as quality, trust and risk), through a concern with both rigour and relevance in relation to research and training, and through a focus on ‘critical moments of interaction’ in ‘crucial sites of engagement’ (Candlin 2008). To this end, we draw on the diverse domains and trajectories of enquiry outlined in the opening plenary symposium at the 4th Asia-Pacific Language for Specific Purposes & Professional Communication Association Conference from five standpoints: in recent impact case studies of professional communication in the Hong Kong context (Cheng 2017), in a ‘multi-perspectival’ account of Candlin's enacted philosophy of teaching and learning (Moore 2017), in examining the communicative basis of expertise (Sarangi 2017) and the concept of interdiscursivity (Jones 2017), and in the extensive fieldwork and analysis of workplace talk underlying the development of resources for new migrants in New Zealand (Holmes & Riddiford 2017). In conclusion, we pay tribute to an inspirational researcher and teacher whose influence will continue to impact applied linguistics for decades to come.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 17-21
Author(s):  
Niroj Dahal ◽  
Bal Chandra Luitel ◽  
Binod Prasad Pant ◽  
Indra Mani Shrestha ◽  
Netra Kumar Manandhar

Emerging ICT tools, techniques and methodologies (TTM), which might be helpful for pedagogical practices, for a synchronous and asynchronous mode of teaching and learning mathematics in online and distance mode of education. This action research reported from the underpinning practices of the authors as trainers, course facilitators, educational researchers and innovative practitioner-the possible uses of emerging ICT tools, techniques and methodologies for teaching and learning mathematics. This article highlights some key strengths with possible integration of emerging ICT tools, techniques and methodologies to facilitate online and offline task(s) and assessment(s) of the learners, and trainees in a collaborative manner. Epistemologically, our experiences reflected that the learning experiences of the learners and trainees would be better by incorporating emerging ICT tools, techniques and methodologies in day to day practices in online classes specifically more in this present context. We have concluded the paper by highlighting the effectiveness of use of emerging ICT tools, techniques and methodologies as a new innovative virtual teaching and learning platform.


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