Set 2021: no. 1

The contributions partial-immersion Māori programmes offer to the wider educational landscape of Aotearoa is essential to Māori achieving as Māori. In this article, partial-immersion settings are defined as Level 2 immersion (51%–80% te reo Māori instruction) and Level 3 immersion (31%–50% te reo Māori instruction). While lower levels of immersion can be less effective for language acquisition than full-immersion Māori environments (May et al., 2004), this study finds that partial-immersion… Read more

Service is a fundamental value for the teaching of Pacific-heritage learners. This article describes educators’ perspectives of the value of service, one of the values foundational to Tapasā. Findings from interviews, talanoa, and teaching observations show that service is demonstrated and nurtured differently by Pacific and non-Pacific educators, and therefore is experienced differently by Pacific-heritage learners, depending on who is teaching them. Ensuring service is strongly embedded in… Read more

In this article I explore a challenge identified by teachers involved in a recent research project on curriculum integration. Teachers described this challenge as how to balance the need to “cover” The New Zealand Curriculum with the need to support student agency. I describe how teachers saw this challenge, and the different ways they responded to it. I end by considering how our conceptions of knowledge might contribute to the ways in which we might think about and address this challenge… Read more

Learning in maths is complex because it is a process that involves cognition and the affective domain. Indeed, learners experience many emotions during maths, both positive and negative, which influences their learning. In addition, the learner can believe that one’s capacity to do maths is static and cannot be changed. All these aspects are linked to mathematical learning outcomes. This small-scale inquiry investigated 11 Year 3 and Year 4 girls’ beliefs and attitudes towards maths and… Read more

Maths games are fun and engaging, but what messages do these games send to the students in our classrooms? During mathematics lessons children learn more than just mathematics content; they also come to understand what it means to be a learner of mathematics. In this article I discuss the concept of “mathematics learner identity” and use it as a lens to consider two popular maths games played in primary classrooms in Aotearoa New Zealand. I suggest that some games may be detrimental to the… Read more

Problem solving is at the heart of mathematics, and is known to support learning for a diverse range of children. However, challenges can be encountered when teaching mathematics through problem solving. This article provides insights from research literature into (a) the nature of the challenges, and (b) some ways that problem solving can be implemented in the primary classroom. We draw upon some of our own action-research experiences, and those of colleagues, engaged in exploring and… Read more

School principals were required to engage in crisis leadership throughout New Zealand’s first COVID-19 Alert Level Four lockdown that began in March 2020. Eighteen school principals from a range of secondary schools were interviewed about their experiences and the findings of this study are discussed in relation to the leadership capability framework. This research reveals that principals acted with empathy in prioritising wellbeing over learning, demonstrated community responsiveness by… Read more

This article presents the thoughts of six teachers asked to reflect on their experiences planning for and delivering school-led learning from home opportunities during Aotearoa New Zealand’s COVID-19 Alert Levels 3 and 4 lockdown at the end of the first term and beginning of the second term 2020. What comes through is the efforts that these teachers made to keep connected with their students, the ways in which they prioritised student wellbeing ahead of formal learning, and the support that… Read more