scholarly journals A Case Study of the Manageability and Utility of Assessment in Three New Zealand Primary Schools 1993-2006

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
John Richard Young
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Assessment Practice ◽  
Curriculum Assessment ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Current Assessment

<p>This study is concerned with the manageability of assessment in New Zealand schools. In order for assessment to be effective in schools, it needs to be manageable. This is especially important for New Zealand schools in the light of the changes in administration and curriculum introduced in the early 1990s. These reforms which were termed Tomorrow's Schools introduced radical changes to New Zealand schools in the areas of governance, management, the curriculum, assessment, and quality assurance. In the area of assessment, primary schools were presented with a number of challenges which included a requirement to assess a highly structured curriculum with close to 1000 achievement objectives, many of which were open to different interpretation. There was also an expectation to assess against the structure of this new rapidly introduced curriculum, without any tools provided for such assessment. The New Zealand system also departed from other countries in that it made no distinction in terms of importance in teaching and assessment between what are usually considered the core activities of primary school education, literacy and numeracy, and other learning areas. In light of these challenges it is not surprising that a number of the assessment processes that schools developed and used were questionable in terms of manageability and utility. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of government policy and international movements in assessment on the manageability of assessment practice in New Zealand primary schools during the period 1990-2006. The research also examines what is meant by the terms manageability and utility when applied to the context of primary school assessment. By means of case study research, the investigation explores assessment practice in three Wellington primary schools during 2006-2007. The case studies sought to understand current assessment practices in terms of the reforms of the early nineties, as well as more recent developments in assessment in New Zealand. The research illustrated that while these three New Zealand schools still faced some major issues in terms of the manageability and utility of assessment, their views were more optimistic and positive than earlier research studies had reported.</p>

scholarly journals A Case Study of the Manageability and Utility of Assessment in Three New Zealand Primary Schools 1993-2006

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
John Richard Young
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Assessment Practice ◽  
Curriculum Assessment ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Current Assessment

<p>This study is concerned with the manageability of assessment in New Zealand schools. In order for assessment to be effective in schools, it needs to be manageable. This is especially important for New Zealand schools in the light of the changes in administration and curriculum introduced in the early 1990s. These reforms which were termed Tomorrow's Schools introduced radical changes to New Zealand schools in the areas of governance, management, the curriculum, assessment, and quality assurance. In the area of assessment, primary schools were presented with a number of challenges which included a requirement to assess a highly structured curriculum with close to 1000 achievement objectives, many of which were open to different interpretation. There was also an expectation to assess against the structure of this new rapidly introduced curriculum, without any tools provided for such assessment. The New Zealand system also departed from other countries in that it made no distinction in terms of importance in teaching and assessment between what are usually considered the core activities of primary school education, literacy and numeracy, and other learning areas. In light of these challenges it is not surprising that a number of the assessment processes that schools developed and used were questionable in terms of manageability and utility. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of government policy and international movements in assessment on the manageability of assessment practice in New Zealand primary schools during the period 1990-2006. The research also examines what is meant by the terms manageability and utility when applied to the context of primary school assessment. By means of case study research, the investigation explores assessment practice in three Wellington primary schools during 2006-2007. The case studies sought to understand current assessment practices in terms of the reforms of the early nineties, as well as more recent developments in assessment in New Zealand. The research illustrated that while these three New Zealand schools still faced some major issues in terms of the manageability and utility of assessment, their views were more optimistic and positive than earlier research studies had reported.</p>

scholarly journals New Zealand learning environments: The role of design and the design process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Fatimah Mohammed Alsaif
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Teachers And Students

<p>Learning environments are important spaces because these are where primary school children spend many hours. These environments can vary from single cell classrooms to modern open plan learning studios. As the design of these learning environments can affect the learning outcomes of students, their design and the design process behind them are important fields of investigation. Involving the users of learning environments in the design process is an important factor to be considered. Studies overseas stress the importance of involving teachers and students in the design process of learning environments. However, studies about learning environments in New Zealand show less consideration for the internal layout of classrooms and the involvement of users in their design process. Thus, this thesis studies and compares the design process behind learning environments in New Zealand with those overseas and the effect of this involvement on the design of primary school internal learning spaces, specifically classrooms. The aim of this thesis is create an understanding of the design process behind primary school classroom learning environments in New Zealand.  To achieve the aim, this thesis undertakes five phases of study. The first phase is surveying primary school teachers and architects who design educational spaces, about the design and design process of learning environments in New Zealand. The survey results show that both teachers and architects support participatory design in schools and wish for more student user involvement. The second phase is a trial using social media to encourage more teacher and student participation in designing learning environments. Wordpress and Facebook groups were used for this experiment and teachers and students of primary schools in New Zealand were invited to participate. The trial result appears to indicate that social media does not work in encouraging students and teachers in thinking about the design of learning environments in general without having a specific project as a focus. The third phase is a workshop gathering five teachers and one architect to discuss the detail of the design process behind learning environments in New Zealand. The workshop result suggests that again participants support participatory design but suggest the need for guidance on how to do this, possibly from the Ministry of Education. The fourth phase is a case study of the early stages of a re‐build project for Thorndon Primary School in Wellington city. The case study included interviews, focus groups, observations, and collecting documentation. The main conclusion from the case study is that all parties to the project were in support of participatory design but would have benefitted from guidance as the whole design process and user involvement in it is unclear. The last phase is also case studies but here the focus is on the design process for rearranging the internal layout of two classrooms in two primary schools in Wellington city. The case studies covered observing the involvement of students in the design process, some classroom and brainstorming sessions, and interviews with teachers. The main result of this phase is the observation that students enjoy working on the design of their own environments and that they are able and ready to work as part of such a design process.  The key conclusions of this thesis are that all parties involved in this research supported user participation in the design process, but in all the cases investigated there is almost no proper participatory design; students enjoy designing their learning environments and that enjoyment makes them belong and connect to these more; and proper preliminary guidelines for participatory design in learning environments could improve and encourage user involvement in designing learning environments in New Zealand.</p>

scholarly journals IS ESP STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENT FEASIBLE?

2019 ◽  
pp. 525
Author(s):  
Jolita Sliogeriene
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Standardized Assessment ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Assessment Practice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Current Assessment

This paper provides an overview of assessment practice as it relates to English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and which is used in a variety of higher education settings. The notion of benchmarking in ESP standardized assessment is discussed, and assessment standards leading to quality assurance are described. The challenge for educators is to agree on a common assessment framework in view of the ongoing debate on ESP benchmarking and unified assessment criteria (nationally or internationally), which is also compared to CEFR. The author uses case study analysis to focus on student assessment policy and practice in Alberta, Canada, as well as other selected countries. It is significant that, today, a number of ESP assessment models are based only partially on the main foreign language assessment principles. Accordingly, this paper provides an overview of such principles, their descriptors and best practice in ESP assessment. The main aim of the research is therefore to understand current assessment practices as well as to develop a standardized benchmarking for ESP teachers. The paper proposes a model of ESP standardized assessment based on the studied reference, ESP practices used in different countries, as well as standards of assessment in general.

scholarly journals New Zealand learning environments: The role of design and the design process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Fatimah Mohammed Alsaif
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Teachers And Students

<p>Learning environments are important spaces because these are where primary school children spend many hours. These environments can vary from single cell classrooms to modern open plan learning studios. As the design of these learning environments can affect the learning outcomes of students, their design and the design process behind them are important fields of investigation. Involving the users of learning environments in the design process is an important factor to be considered. Studies overseas stress the importance of involving teachers and students in the design process of learning environments. However, studies about learning environments in New Zealand show less consideration for the internal layout of classrooms and the involvement of users in their design process. Thus, this thesis studies and compares the design process behind learning environments in New Zealand with those overseas and the effect of this involvement on the design of primary school internal learning spaces, specifically classrooms. The aim of this thesis is create an understanding of the design process behind primary school classroom learning environments in New Zealand.  To achieve the aim, this thesis undertakes five phases of study. The first phase is surveying primary school teachers and architects who design educational spaces, about the design and design process of learning environments in New Zealand. The survey results show that both teachers and architects support participatory design in schools and wish for more student user involvement. The second phase is a trial using social media to encourage more teacher and student participation in designing learning environments. Wordpress and Facebook groups were used for this experiment and teachers and students of primary schools in New Zealand were invited to participate. The trial result appears to indicate that social media does not work in encouraging students and teachers in thinking about the design of learning environments in general without having a specific project as a focus. The third phase is a workshop gathering five teachers and one architect to discuss the detail of the design process behind learning environments in New Zealand. The workshop result suggests that again participants support participatory design but suggest the need for guidance on how to do this, possibly from the Ministry of Education. The fourth phase is a case study of the early stages of a re‐build project for Thorndon Primary School in Wellington city. The case study included interviews, focus groups, observations, and collecting documentation. The main conclusion from the case study is that all parties to the project were in support of participatory design but would have benefitted from guidance as the whole design process and user involvement in it is unclear. The last phase is also case studies but here the focus is on the design process for rearranging the internal layout of two classrooms in two primary schools in Wellington city. The case studies covered observing the involvement of students in the design process, some classroom and brainstorming sessions, and interviews with teachers. The main result of this phase is the observation that students enjoy working on the design of their own environments and that they are able and ready to work as part of such a design process.  The key conclusions of this thesis are that all parties involved in this research supported user participation in the design process, but in all the cases investigated there is almost no proper participatory design; students enjoy designing their learning environments and that enjoyment makes them belong and connect to these more; and proper preliminary guidelines for participatory design in learning environments could improve and encourage user involvement in designing learning environments in New Zealand.</p>

scholarly journals Reclaiming the ontological over the epistemological: A case study into a New Zealand Primary School disclosing an embodied culture of teacher inquiry

Teachers Work ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-78
Author(s):  
Andrew Bills ◽  
Bev Rogers ◽  
David Giles
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
School Community ◽  
Teacher Inquiry ◽  
Whole School ◽  
Culture Of Inquiry

This article presents case study research into a New Zealand Primary School enacting a very sophisticated whole school inquiry approach to grow teacher classroom professionalism and practice. In this school community, a culture of inquiry manifests as an ontological ‘way of being’, presenting in the daily professional interactions between the teachers and leaders. This ‘way of being’ is evident in the way teachers and leaders work together in espousing professional expertise, trust, care and support to enable teacher inquiry for improved classroom practice to flourish. In this article we present evidence in relation to three questions: (1) What does inquiry look like within this school community? (2) How was collaboration and support implicated in teacher inquiry?  (3) How was teacher and leader engagement in inquiry related to meaningful shifts in teachers’ practice and learning? The research contributes to new understandings about the ontological nature of teacher inquiry by uncovering important links between school culture, teacher and leader inquiry, and embodied professional learning and practice.

scholarly journals Unlocking the Potential of School Libraries: What Actions are New Zealand Primary School Principals Taking to Integrate the School Library in Information Literacy Initiatives? Final Report

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Elisabeth Mei-Xing Ngan
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
School Principals ◽  
School Library ◽  
External Support ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Primary School Principals ◽  
Literacy Initiatives

<p>Information literacy is implicit in the national education curriculum’s key competencies for students, yet primary schools lack an explicit path to develop students’ information skills. The literature shows that school library programs can foster information literacy and improve student achievement, with the principal’s support identified as a significant factor. This study investigates the actions of New Zealand primary school principals to integrate the school library in information literacy initiatives. An online survey collected quantitative and qualitative data from a random sample of primary school principals, stratified by decile rating to reflect the school population in microcosm. Sixty-nine responses were collected and the low response rate meant it was not possible to generalise the results of the survey. Key findings of the research were that a majority of principals supported information literacy initiatives through advocacy; professional development; use of external support; student assessment; separate library budgets; and reasonable library opening hours. A minority maintained a separate information literacy policy; adequately resourced the library with trained staff; or promoted collaborative planning between teaching and library staff through flexible scheduling of class library time. Actions were not affected by decile rating but differences by school size and locale were identified, particularly for small and rural schools. Principals’ perceptions of information literacy did not appear to affect their actions. Suggestions for further research are made to expand upon the findings.</p>

The post-primary education of non-academic boys

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
H. L. Wallace
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Education For All ◽  
Large Section ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Fresh Impetus ◽  
Physically Handicapped

This thesis is an attempt to examine what is probably the greatest single problem in New Zealand education; the problem of the non-academic child in the New Zealand post-primary school. It is an urgent problem, on the solution of which depends the welfare of a large section of our post-primary population. Our post-primary schools have gradually ceased to be selective and must now cater for an adolescent age group which omits only the most mentally defective and the most physically handicapped. This movement towards "secondary education for all" received fresh impetus in 1944 when the minimum school leaving age was raised to fifteen years. During the last eight years, post-primary schools have been faced with an increasing number of new entrants of a wide range of intelligence and .ability. Among these are found pupils who, under an earlier education system, would never have entered the door of a secondary school. The requirements of the Proficiency examination would have eliminated some, economic factors would have debarred others. Many would have found in a job the success and satisfaction which they had never achieved in a school. Now, as a result of educational and economic changes, these pupils are legally compelled to remain at school until they reach the age of fifteen years. The practice of social promotion in the primary school has resulted in most of these adolescents entering a post-primary school at thirteen, fourteen or fifteen years of age. These are the pupils wbo have been commonly labelled "non-academic".

Social Cohesion and Free Home Internet in New Zealand

2013 ◽  
pp. 135-159
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Williams
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Study Research ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
The Government ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Outcomes For Children ◽  
It Training

This chapter discusses community outcomes of free home Internet access. It draws on case study research on Computers in Homes (CIH), a scheme established in New Zealand in 2000 for the purpose of bridging the digital divide, particularly for low-income families who have school-aged children. The government-funded CIH scheme aims to strengthen relationships between families and schools, improve educational outcomes for children, and provide greater opportunities for their parents. CIH achieves this by working with many primary (elementary) schools, each of which selects 25 families who will benefit from the program. Each family receives a refurbished computer, software, and six months free Internet, as well as twenty hours of free IT training and technical support so that all adults are equipped to make effective use of the Internet. The scheme has evolved to deliver much more than technology. It has become a contributor to social capital in the communities where it has been established. This chapter uses a case study research approach to demonstrate and theorize this process of community building using a construct of social cohesion, which appears to be strengthened by the CIH intervention. Where stronger social networks, volunteerism, and civic engagement were documented in the research, leader figures also mobilized to act on shared goals. These findings highlight the value of existing social resources within communities for achieving community goals while also maximizing community Internet longevity.

Alternation of Curriculum Delivery Mode in Primary Schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-111
Author(s):  
Matlala Violet Makokotlela ◽  
Nomvula Monica Nxumalo
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Depth Information ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Interpretive Paradigm ◽  
Curriculum Delivery ◽  
Content Coverage

This investigation aimed to explore the mode of curriculum delivery in Primary School in Tshwane South District during the Covid-19 pandemic because there is insufficient research on this subject. A case study of a Primary School was used to obtain in-depth information about the mode of curriculum delivery during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using a case study was also practical because the pandemic's restrictions posed a challenge to research many schools. Data was gathered through document analysis. A qualitative approach was employed to analyze and identify categories and emerging themes from the data. An interpretive paradigm was used while connectivism theory was employed as a lens. The findings revealed that schools used face-to-face mode of curriculum delivery during the lockdown and after schools re-opened during Covid-19, resulting in a challenge with content coverage that led to revising the annual teaching plans and trimming the curriculum.

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