set 2004: no. 3

This issue marks the end of our celebration of thirty years of set: Research Information for Teachers. We finish the year with a bumper issue: two bonus articles and a competition with NZCER published tests and books as prizes (see pps. 6 and 34).

There are two feature sections this time. We continue the theme of inclusive education from the last issue and there are also three articles on leadership.

This article explores social aspects of information and communications technology (ICT) in primary classrooms, focusing on pupils’ attitudes, academic progress, teachers’ and pupils’ roles, and relationships between pupils, teachers, and parents.

This article is not intended to be a series of handy hints on choosing between specific brands of microcomputers or different word processing programs. That sort of information is best obtained from teachers already using word processors, or from advisory staff in education departments. Instead, I hope to show just how useful word processors are for encouraging young authors, between the ages of 5 and 12 years, to write.

A research project looking at Māori student participation and achievement in science and mathematics education examined four junior secondary school programmes that targeted Māori in these subject areas. Students and parents were found to prefer activity-based programmes, provided they dealt with contemporary activities and topics of interest to the students.

Many students in an Auckland primary school were able to decode adequately, but still had difficulty in understanding what they read. A modified reciprocal reading programme was shown to improve students’ comprehension.

A critical stocktake of practice identifies key factors for environmental education programmes as being resource provision, professional development, time for planning and action, funding, overcrowded school curricula, and the non-mandatory status of environmental education.

What is alternative education today?  What is the nature of its relationship to mainstream schooling?  What is and is not possible within a framework that now encompasses alternative as well as mainstream education?

This New Zealand study proposes that the ethos and culture of schools can be a major protective factor in helping children to cope with violent and traumatic events. Implications for teachers are discussed.

This article gives findings from the Iceberg project—conducted with students who were bereaved when they were of school age—reviews the background to childhood bereavement, and examines how children can be supported after a death.

How are children’s languages, identity, and confidence supported during transitions? This article describes participant research on innovative practices in transition at a Samoan-immersion early childhood "Centre of Innovation". The research investigated the relationship between learning and language continuity as children and educators make transitions from the point of entry to the centre through to beginning school. This collaborative action-research project is generating new findings on… Read more