Editorial
E ngā kaipānui o Set: Research Information for Teachers, kia ora, kia kaha, kia māia. Ko tēnei te wā o Whiringa-ā-Nuku. The sun is trying its best to warm the ground, still with a chill in the air. This issue aims to provide some warm support to teachers who have received crisp directions over the winter months on how to structure teaching and learning.
Two commissioned supporting articles provide the bookends. For Q&A I asked the lead developer of social and emotional learning resources for teachers, Ata and Oho, to share her wisdom. Cat Lunjevich explains how collaborating with researchers, schools, and their communities influenced the design of the cards and the support they provide for teachers to foster social and emotional learning.
For Assessment News I asked the Progressive Achievement Tests’ (PAT) Assessment Services and Education Advisory team to explain how they will support schools to manage the Ministry of Education’s new assessment requirements. Ben Gardiner and advisers draw on the concept of wayfinding to understand each school’s starting point and guide them toward their preferred destination. The article follows up the previous edition of Assessment News, which outlined the position of the New Zealand Council of Educational Research (Darr and Cosslett, 2024) on potential policy directions prior to the Ministry’s July announcement.
Between the two bookends readers will find articles across Practitioner Inquiry, He Rangahau Whakarāpopoto, and He Whakaaro Anō.
Jacinta Po Ching, Michael Harcourt, and Haimana Hirini share insight from an inquiry into teaching and learning at the critical intersection between Aotearoa New Zealand histories and climate-change education. Their students came to understand, through place, the impact of colonisation and rangatiratanga on local ecologies and restoration practices.
Melanie Turner and Flaviu Hodis offer teachers a summary of techniques to address student procrastination. Building from a review of international literature, their article presents four actionable strategies to ensure that progress trumps paralysis.
Tracey Hopkins also synthesises research to produce pointers for practice. Her topic is the teaching of division within mathematics. She argues that the partitive (or equal sharing) strategy should not trump the quotitive (or grouping) strategy in primary schools. Readers are provided with conceptual explanations and supported with concrete examples.
Yolanda Julies pulls from her PhD on trauma-informed approaches to social and emotional learning. The article challenges behaviorist approaches to classroom management and encourages teachers to strive for connection before correction. Her school, Te Kura Reo Rua o Waikirikiri, recently featured in Te Ao Māori News (Tyson, 2024). It’s worth a read for practical tips in addition to Set—notwithstanding my bias given that I attended the school as a young child, and credit those years of living in Kaiti, Gisborne to shaping my commitment to biculturalism, equity, and the responsibilities of being Pākehā.
Looking back reminds me that, while education policy can wax and wane like the changing seasons, what shines through is teachers’ passion, knowledge, and commitment to their students—as well as to their own professional learning. Much appreciation to the authors who support the latter, and the readers whose students hopefully get to shine all the brighter for it.
Ngā mihi mahana, nā Josie Roberts
Set Editor
References
Darr, C., & Cosslett, G. (2024). Considering the assessment landscape in 2024. Set: Research Information for Teachers, (1), 47–50. https://doi.org/10.18296/set.1551
Tyson, J. (15 July 2024) Gisborne kura’s trauma-informed teaching sets blueprint for other schools. Te Ao Māori News. https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2024/07/15/gisborne-kuras-trauma-informed-teaching-sets-blueprint-for-other-schools/