set 2010: no. 3

The theme for this final issue of set for 2010 is “Teachers as learners”. Rhys Hill and Alison Sewell addresses the question: How can teachers change their engagement from traditional one-sided pedagogies to include a sociocultural approach? Their article describes one teacher’s journey as he engaged in collaborative action research.

Hornby High School invited a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative project to participate in their programme to establish… Read more

The of use mobile technologies such as cellphones offers unique capabilities to help facilitate social interaction between students and support collaboration between home and school. This article reports on research into the use of cellphones to support student learning in a low-decile urban primary school. The school used the phones as an innovative way to provide formative feedback to parents. The initiative is having significant benefits for students and is enhancing the relationship… Read more

When one student was personally touched by the 2009 Samoan tsunami, Omanu School in the Bay of Plenty launched an aid project that galvanised students into learning that was integrated across many curriculum areas. The students researched, negotiated and problem solved as they sought to make a difference to an event that mattered to them.

Two Years 7/8 teachers planned, implemented and reflected on teaching a unit about erosion and landforms with the support of ICT tools. They used videos, photos, animations and digital microscopes—as well as Internet resources, such as Google Earth and other maps—to help the students work and think like an earth scientist.

Despite New Zealand being a water-loving nation, we do not have a good track record when it comes to water safety. Last year the New Zealand Council for Educational Research surveyed schools to gather information about their pools and aquatic education programmes for Water Safety New Zealand. This article looks at some of the findings from this survey. In particular it focuses on the ways in which communities were working to help ensure that young people were learning to swim, and discusses… Read more

"What are the conditions required for standards to not only be used to measure improvement but also to inform student learning and teaching for improvement purposes in the context of national curriculum and assessment reform?" (Klenowski & Wyatt Smith, 2010, p. 108)

Isn't this what you might call a "million dollar" question? Many New Zealand schools are currently facing this challenge and asking questions such as this with good reason.

Letting go of traditional “one-sided” teaching practices and moving towards power sharing and  learning with students can be a daunting and challenging process. This article describes one teacher’s journey towards a sociocultural approach and what supported him.

Professional development of teachers as autonomous learners is crucial to the transformation to 21st century teaching and learning. Hornby High School invited a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative project to participate in their programme to establish “teachers as learners”, including holding a professional learning day that challenged teachers to reflect on their underlying assumptions about knowledge and learning. This article describes the activities from the day and some of the… Read more

Student teachers face a set of complex challenges, particularly in their work in schools, where they have to work closely with associate teachers and the students they teach. The study described in this article sought to examine the teaching experiences of a group of student teachers through their eyes, with a focus on what they thought they had learnt from the students they taught.

Over the last two years researchers at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) have been involved in a complete revision of the Progressive Achievement Test of Listening Comprehension (PAT:Listening Comprehension). Last reviewed in 1992, the tests have been a trusted part of the New Zealand assessment tool kit for 40 years, providing valuable insights into students’ language development. The new edition continues this tradition, with new material carefully chosen and… Read more