Student engagement

NZCER’s Families and Communities Engagement (FACE) project is investigating ideas and practices involved in bringing together teachers, families, local communities and students to contribute to collective conversations and decisions about education.

Assessment in schools is often concerned with generating student-achievement information in specific learning areas. However, we can use assessment techniques to collect a wider range of information that might reveal important prerequisites for learning or educational outcomes that are important in their own right.

This report documents the stories of a group of “at risk” young people who have been expelled from mainstream schools and who attend alternative education facilities. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the research carried out in mid-2008.

The report is based on one-to-one interviews with 41 young people in five alternative education centres. Another 9 students were consulted on the research design, questions and analysis.

The students’ stories capture four main aspects of their lives and educational experiences:

The New Zealand Curriculum highlights the importance of learning to learn. This presents practical challenges to schools, in relation to shifts in teaching and learning practices. This article summarises a research synthesis on longer learning periods and considers whether they lead to improved student learning.