Teaching controversial issues is particularly challenging in today’s world of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news. This article explores how critical thinking can be embedded in such discussions using the street smarts critical thinking model. The study focuses on the contentious use of the poison 1080 as a case study, systematically ...

This mixed-methods small-scale study focused on the nature of the vocabulary in classroom talk in two Year 13 religious education (RE) classes at a New Zealand Catholic school. The main aim was to inform support for English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) students who struggle with the linguistic demands ...

The presence of dogs in schools is increasing, yet there is little Aotearoa New Zealand-based research about the wellbeing and learning benefits of dogs for students. The study aims to provide insight into educators’ perspectives about the purpose, implementation, and impact of dogs in New Zealand schools. Participants in an ...

Teachers have responsibility and can assume agency for enhancing the education of Pacific students in Aotearoa New Zealand. Pacific education is an area which needs improvement and, consequently, Pacific communities seek actions - deliberate strategies - to enhance educational provision. Among the strategies available is the engagement of role models ...

Building cultural inclusivity is one of the major challenges many schools and teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand face today. This case study examines how a student-led video campaign in a multicultural high school strove to cultivate a culturally inclusive community, encouraging dialogue and empowering participants while students faced challenges in ...

There is a significant lack of te reo Māori resources, especially digital materials, for learning pāngarau/mathematics. Few studies have investigated how well digital resources for pāngarau align with kaupapa Māori principles. In this article, we examine a digital resource, Matific, from a kaupapa Māori perspective. We find the te reo ...

Data literacy enables teachers to use information collected about students and their learning to take data-informed instructional action.  This article outlines two approaches developed by teachers to provide teaching targeted to the immediate needs of specific students that moved beyond “gap-filling”. The pre-teaching and “fresh choice” approaches led to increased ...

This qualitative study explored children’s opportunities to actively solve problems as they talked, wrote and read during their first few months at school. Participants were two teachers from two schools in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland and eight children, newcomers to their classes. The children’s writing records and actions during guided writing ...