title: A critical thinking thematic framework and observation tool for improved theory and developing secondary teachers’ instructional practice: Proof of concept

authors: Shafer, Derek

abstract: Theoretical understandings of critical thinking, including how it is positioned and developed across educational contexts, remains contentious. While critical thinking features across school curricula internationally with increasing prominence as an educational priority for young people, efforts to explore and develop secondary teachers’ practices of critical thinking reveal diverse theoretical influences and instructional approaches, without reaching a consensus model of best practice. To address this, a new critical thinking thematic framework was developed towards reconciling theoretical tensions within the question of: what is critical thinking?, so that understandings of what it might look like as part of teacher instructional practice can be developed. Together with this thematic framework, a critical thinking observation tool and thematic coding guide were constructed to code and analyse teacher interview and classroom observations in order to guide a year-long investigation of secondary teachers’ beliefs and practices of critical thinking.
Applied across multiple studies within a design-based research project, this critical thinking thematic framework enabled the effective exploration and dissemination of secondary teachers’ perceptions and instructional practices of critical thinking across English, Social Science and Science subject contexts. Engaged as a community of practice, and supported with contextualised evidence, 28 participant teachers across five New Zealand secondary schools were able to reflect their beliefs and practices for future planning. Significant shifts in the frequency and conceptual nature of teachers’ beliefs and practices of critical thinking in response to professional development across repeated measures suggest that the Critical Thinking Thematic Framework and Observation Tool can be employed to produce consistent and reliable coding of beliefs and practices with effective researcher training.

text: A critical thinking thematic framework and observation tool for improved theory and developing secondary teachers’ instructional practice: Proof of concept Theoretical understandings of critical thinking, including how it is positioned and developed across educational contexts, remains contentious. While critical thinking features across school curricula internationally with increasing prominence as an educational priority for young people, efforts to explore and develop secondary teachers’ practices of critical thinking reveal diverse theoretical influences and instructional approaches, without reaching a consensus model of best practice. To address this, a new critical thinking thematic framework was developed towards reconciling theoretical tensions within the question of: what is critical thinking?, so that understandings of what it might look like as part of teacher instructional practice can be developed. Together with this thematic framework, a critical thinking observation tool and thematic coding guide were constructed to code and analyse teacher interview and classroom observations in order to guide a year-long investigation of secondary teachers’ beliefs and practices of critical thinking.
Applied across multiple studies within a design-based research project, this critical thinking thematic framework enabled the effective exploration and dissemination of secondary teachers’ perceptions and instructional practices of critical thinking across English, Social Science and Science subject contexts. Engaged as a community of practice, and supported with contextualised evidence, 28 participant teachers across five New Zealand secondary schools were able to reflect their beliefs and practices for future planning. Significant shifts in the frequency and conceptual nature of teachers’ beliefs and practices of critical thinking in response to professional development across repeated measures suggest that the Critical Thinking Thematic Framework and Observation Tool can be employed to produce consistent and reliable coding of beliefs and practices with effective researcher training.

year: 2025

title: Quiet Activists - Environmental Values and Value Adjustment in Environmental Policy Advisors

authors: Grübmeyer, Sonja Felicitas

subjects: Environment

abstract: In this thesis, I investigate the influence of environmental values on the work of environmental policy advisors in a regional council in New Zealand and the influence on the institutional values of their work environment on their personal environmental values.

Values are relatively stable concepts of socially acquired beliefs and norms that influence the perception and behaviour of humans and are organised in interdependent and dynamic structures that can be changed through social experiences. Environmental values are partly responsible for environmentally friendly behaviour, which encompasses a variety of activities and even lifestyle choices. 

People, who have chosen to work in the environmental sector are exposed to environmental values through working for institutions that represent environmentally friendly principles. By working in an environmental context, environmental values can get changed by social interaction, which can lead to an adjustment or approximation to the dominant notion of environmental values within the workplace (Finegan, 2000) 

Although policy advice is expected to be a neutral and objective task, statements are still written by persons with an individual opinion that, although suppressed, represents the values of the writer (Heineman, Bluhm, Peterson,  Keary, 2002). It is therefore likely that the whole process of evaluating information and preparing a policy recommendation is influenced by the values of the policy advisor.

My findings indicate that environmental values of employees get adjusted to the institution's environmental values through their work. This happens through a merging of their private environmental values into their professional values, through  processes of adjustment. This change not only results in identification with the job but also presents a way to circumvent possible value conflicts in the work environment. 

The policy process involves a number of stages where information is re-evaluated and discussed to fit the formal and structural requirements of policy making under the  Resource Management Act, which is done in collaboration with others. This leads to a social construction of values that are represented in collaboratively developed policy recommendation. 

In my conclusion, I show that policy advisors at regional government level use. in New Zealand have environmental values, use them for environmental protection, and adjust them to work more efficiently for the environment within a public service organisation. The use of their environmental values by the participants show that they are environmentalists and do what environmentalists do, but in a quiet, unobtrusive way.

text: Quiet Activists - Environmental Values and Value Adjustment in Environmental Policy Advisors In this thesis, I investigate the influence of environmental values on the work of environmental policy advisors in a regional council in New Zealand and the influence on the institutional values of their work environment on their personal environmental values.

Values are relatively stable concepts of socially acquired beliefs and norms that influence the perception and behaviour of humans and are organised in interdependent and dynamic structures that can be changed through social experiences. Environmental values are partly responsible for environmentally friendly behaviour, which encompasses a variety of activities and even lifestyle choices. 

People, who have chosen to work in the environmental sector are exposed to environmental values through working for institutions that represent environmentally friendly principles. By working in an environmental context, environmental values can get changed by social interaction, which can lead to an adjustment or approximation to the dominant notion of environmental values within the workplace (Finegan, 2000) 

Although policy advice is expected to be a neutral and objective task, statements are still written by persons with an individual opinion that, although suppressed, represents the values of the writer (Heineman, Bluhm, Peterson,  Keary, 2002). It is therefore likely that the whole process of evaluating information and preparing a policy recommendation is influenced by the values of the policy advisor.

My findings indicate that environmental values of employees get adjusted to the institution's environmental values through their work. This happens through a merging of their private environmental values into their professional values, through  processes of adjustment. This change not only results in identification with the job but also presents a way to circumvent possible value conflicts in the work environment. 

The policy process involves a number of stages where information is re-evaluated and discussed to fit the formal and structural requirements of policy making under the  Resource Management Act, which is done in collaboration with others. This leads to a social construction of values that are represented in collaboratively developed policy recommendation. 

In my conclusion, I show that policy advisors at regional government level use. in New Zealand have environmental values, use them for environmental protection, and adjust them to work more efficiently for the environment within a public service organisation. The use of their environmental values by the participants show that they are environmentalists and do what environmentalists do, but in a quiet, unobtrusive way.

year: 2007

title: Creating whanaungatanga: Kaupapa Maori support in the Psychology Department at the University of Waikato

authors: Masters-Awatere, Bridgette

subjects: Maori students

abstract: Attendance at university has been recognized by some as a competitive environment that does not cater for the co-operative philosophy followed by many Maori.  Within the Psychology Department at the University of Waikato there have been efforts since the Departments early days to place emphasis on the Maori cultural experience, but there were few Maori students and no Maori staff back then.  Now, in 2004, the Department has a team of Maori staff and courses with Maori content at both undergraduate and graduate levels.  Yet the environment that the students move in is still competitive. Grades are based on individual assessment through undergraduate level. At graduate level the emphasis on group dynamics comes to the fore.  The availability and accessibility of Maori staff at different levels in a Kaupapa Maori programme provides one of the strategies of support for maori students at Waikato.  This paper discusses the issues around managing, delivering and providing opportunities so that Maori students studying psychology feel supported for the duration of their time at Waikato University.

text: Creating whanaungatanga: Kaupapa Maori support in the Psychology Department at the University of Waikato Attendance at university has been recognized by some as a competitive environment that does not cater for the co-operative philosophy followed by many Maori.  Within the Psychology Department at the University of Waikato there have been efforts since the Departments early days to place emphasis on the Maori cultural experience, but there were few Maori students and no Maori staff back then.  Now, in 2004, the Department has a team of Maori staff and courses with Maori content at both undergraduate and graduate levels.  Yet the environment that the students move in is still competitive. Grades are based on individual assessment through undergraduate level. At graduate level the emphasis on group dynamics comes to the fore.  The availability and accessibility of Maori staff at different levels in a Kaupapa Maori programme provides one of the strategies of support for maori students at Waikato.  This paper discusses the issues around managing, delivering and providing opportunities so that Maori students studying psychology feel supported for the duration of their time at Waikato University.

year: 2004-12