Student engagement
We describe new PAT: Mathematics assessment items that focus on students’ maths self-efficacy (students’ belief in their ability to correctly solve particular maths problems). In 2017, schools using PAT: Mathematics online will be able to give their students an opportunity to respond to these items to help build a picture of New Zealand students’ maths self-efficacy and achievement.
This article supports teachers to think about their students’ acts of learning, as well as their own as teachers. It draws on research about young adults’ most profound learning during their apprenticeships, cadetships, and vocational immersion programmes. The experiences of GP registrars, carpentry apprentices, and engineering technician cadets, and the perspectives of their workplace teachers and mentors, provide insights about how people can move through a kind of portal to a new level of understanding and capability.
Does National Standards written reporting fully inform parents of their child’s achievements and thus better place them to support their child’s learning? Using the reporting of progress and achievement in writing, and the perceptions of eight parents, the current study pays particular attention to the nature, scope, and complexity of the information communicated to parents in written reports, and their understandings of this information. Questions are raised regarding whether and how National Standards reporting is meeting the remit of establishing a learning-focused relationship between home and school. Suggestions are made about how schools can evoke parental support of school learning by using a broader range of information, communicated in language that is accessible to parents.
Does National Standards written reporting fully inform parents of their child’s achievements and thus better place them to support their child’s learning?
It is not unusual to enter a school in New Zealand or internationally and discover that student portfolios are part of the work programme. Research indicates that the value of student portfolios varies considerably. Too often the purpose of a portfolio programme and the roles expected of different school community members, such as school leaders, teachers, support staff, students, and family members, are neither clearly established nor shared. This article provides examples from practice to advance understanding about the issues involved. It concludes with recommendations to help schools ensure that, if portfolios are to be part of their work programme, they are developed collaboratively and with a clear purpose in mind.
It is not unusual to enter a school in New Zealand or internationally and discover that student portfolios are part of the work programme. Research indicates that the value of student portfolios varies considerably. Too often the purpose of a portfolio programme and the roles expected of different school community members, such as school leaders, teachers, support staff, students, and family members, are neither clearly established nor shared. This article provides examples from practice to advance understanding about the issues involved.
In this edition of Assessment News education advisor Cathie Johnson encourages schools to consider how they can reflect and report on dimensions of engagement and learning that cannot be captured by academic achievement data. She poses a number of questions for readers to ponder and outlines some of the research findings that underpin the New Zealand Council for Educational Research’s student engagement survey, Me and My School. Cathie has supported a wide range of schools to utilise the tool and now shares some of the teaching and learning journeys that have unfolded across New Zealand as a result.
In this edition of Assessment News education advisor Cathie Johnson encourages schools to consider how they can reflect and report on dimensions of engagement and learning that cannot be captured by academic achievement data. She poses a number of questions for readers to ponder and outlines some of the research findings that underpin the New Zealand Council for Educational Research’s student engagement survey, Me and My School.
This article considers home learning for students whose schools have moved to digital learning environments. In this study we sought to gather perspectives about what sorts of home-learning activities might support school learning given that students have individual digital devices and access to the internet and class websites. Interviews with parents, students, and teachers at decile 1 schools focused on the learning activities that students might engage in at home as well as the role of parents to support their children’s learning. Findings indicated differing perspectives on the relative merit of formal and informal learning activities and whether these should be set by the teacher or taken up by students independently. The role of parents to support learning was agreed on by all participants, however, less clear was what form that support should take. The potential for unintended constraints to learning through mismatches in understandings is discussed.
This article considers home learning for students whose schools have moved to digital learning environments. In this study we sought to gather perspectives about what sorts of home-learning activities might support school learning given that students have individual digital devices and access to the internet and class websites. Interviews with parents, students, and teachers at decile 1 schools focused on the learning activities that students might engage in at home as well as the role of parents to support their children’s learning.
