Student engagement

The impressive research base on co-operative learning shows that it helps teachers to raise the academic achievement of all students, as well as helping students with healthy social, psychological and cognitive development. However, many of the benefits of co-operative learning strategies are not realised because of poor or partial implementation, or infrequent use. This article outlines five basic characteristics of co-operative learning, its philosophical basis, links with the Curriuclum Framework, and how to get started.

The author looks at definitions of and research on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and outlines the main forms of intervention, both medical and educational. He describes how the principles of intervention can be applied, in the context of the school or the home.

A recent NZCER research project focused on computer use in the home and school or ECE centre by children with special needs. It provided information about how the use of computers can benefit children with special needs, the role of the family in the learning process, the importance of professional development, and the conditions which can assist these children to obtain maximum benefit from their use of computers.

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.

This article explores the impact of book bags containing non-fiction books, related artefacts and activity sheets on the reading behaviour and attitudes of reluctant and struggling boy readers. Reprinted from Topic, Issue 25, Spring 2001.

The authors look at the differences between the primary, intermediate/middle and secondary “islands” in the educational “sea”, the structural reasons for their separateness, the impact of this on students and their learning, and the bridge-building that needs to happen in order to rescue some students from drowning on their learning journey.

A study examined the attitudes of Indigenous students from the south-west of Western Australia towards their first and second dialects, Aboriginal English and Standard Australian English, and the attitudes they attributed to parents, teachers and peers. The findings indicate that context and location were influential factors. Age and gender differences were not apparent. The students also attributed negative attitudes to significant others with regard to their use of both dialects.

When young children move from one educational setting to another, it is important to understand the context of their prior experiences. Most children starting primary school have already experienced transition. Early childhood transitions include starting at an early childhood service or centre, and moving sequentially or concurrently from one early childhood service or centre to another.

In a study based on a survey of Year 11 students, boys reported a higher level of negative writing satisfaction and less writing enjoyment in the English classroom than girls did. Boys and girls preferred different writing genres. While students did not see writing as inherently gender-biased, they did seem aware of differential outcomes in how boys’ and girls’ writing was regarded and valued by others. There was also a clear indication that boys’ writing styles were not the ones preferred in curriculum discourses.

A substantial number of teachers working in Auckland’s poor urban primary schools are highly successful in their practice. They have an expertise that takes children to their academic and personal potential, and they achieve success in a way that does not alienate children from their diverse home contexts. Case study research focusing on nine such teachers has found that a combination of 11 attitudes and beliefs is integral to all their pedagogies.