Journal article

What excites primary pupils about writing in school and what switches them off? This was the question explored by one Cambridgeshire primary school in a classroom-based investigation focusing on pupils’ perspectives on effective learning. The investigation gave teachers valuable insights into children’s understanding and responses to writing activities, and helped to establish an ongoing dialogue with pupils about the learning process. Reprinted from Topic, 23, Spring 2000.

The significance of formative assessment strategies for student learning has been summed up by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam in their review of all research data from 1988 to 1998. Twenty English teachers from a range of New Zealand secondary schools were asked how they understood the relationship between formative and summative teaching strategies, the distortion of assessment feedback by “necessary” classroom management functions, and the clash between “competitive” and “personal improvement” assessment purposes in the classroom.

Real improvement cannot come from anywhere other than within schools themselves. “Within” is a complex web of values and beliefs, norms, social and power relationships and emotions. Changing schools is not just about changing curricula, teaching and learning strategies, assessment, structures, roles and responsibilities. It requires an understanding of and respect for the different meanings and interpretations people bring to educational initiatives, and work to develop shared meanings underpinned by norms that will promote sustainable school improvement.

Two ERUDITE (Educational Research Underpinning Development in Teacher Education) case studies of teacher-child interactions during a social studies curriculum unit focus on a Samoan boy who is a beginner at learning English, and his class teacher. The case studies explore how the teacher supports his curriculum learning and his English language learning. The analysis shows teachers can engage ESOL learners with curriculum content from the outset, and identifies effective teacher strategies.

Guided reading is a key component of classroom literacy programmes in New Zealand. The Ministry of Education guidelines on how teachers should take guided reading sessions for emergent and early readers strongly emphasise the development of children’s understanding of the text. Ken Blaiklock questions the effectiveness of the guidelines, in relation to current research on the factors that most contribute to children’s rapid progress in the beginning stages of learning to read.

This article reviews some aspects of the concept of ‘learning style’, and appraises some evidence concerning its measurement. Bruce McMillan argues that while there is a common-sense basis for teachers’ use of the concept, there is no justification for the implication that the term represents a fixed and readily measurable characteristic of students. There are a number of serious risks in the assumption that an ‘objective’ measure of learning style can, or should, determine a teaching strategy.

The integrated learning system SuccessMaker is in many New Zealand schools. However, the author’s review of these systems concludes that few have proven effective in producing substantial gains in reading and language; gains in certain areas of maths do not appear to be transferred to other tasks; and system-generated progress data requires validation. Autonomous learning is not viable for many students, and curriculum integration is also an issue.

This article sets out to ask questions about the desire for dialogue across cultural groups – a desire which is strongly held by many Pakeha in education. Pakeha educationist Alison Jones, drawing on her experience of teaching Maori, Pacific and Pakeha students at university level, argues that behind the benevolent demand for learning about others’ culture and experiences may be a desire by Pakeha for redemption and ongoing dominance.

One of the most obvious changes brought about by the curriculum reforms of the 1990s was the inclusion of technology as one of the seven areas of learning. The perceived impact of this ‘new’ area is explored, drawing on the curriculum-related findings of a study of the impact of education reform in seven diverse primary and secondary schools in the greater Waikato region.