title: Making the Shift:  Perceptions and Challenges of Modern Learning Practice

authors: Murphy, Christine

subjects: innovative learning environments

abstract: As we move into the third millennium, Modern Learning Environments (MLE) - also referred to as Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) – have been strongly backed by educators, both internationally and within New Zealand.  These open and flexible spaces are claimed to effectively support a range of student-centred, strengths-based pedagogies - dubbed Modern Learning Practice (MLP)  - where teachers and students can engage in more personalised, ubiquitous and collaborative teaching and learning.  Set within an educational context of a holistic national curriculum, a new way of thinking about schooling in New Zealand is emerging, with a strong focus on life-long learning skills and competencies.  Endorsed financially by policy-makers and philosophically by educational thought leaders, the physical landscape of education in New Zealand is rapidly shifting.  However, for a change of such magnitude to take place in public education, there must be clarity of message when establishing links between the physical environment, corresponding practice and their collective impact on student learning. It is a potential disparity in definition and purpose around what, exactly, constitutes MLE and MLP that this study explores.  Specifically, in a school making the shift, what are the stakeholders’ perceptions of MLE and MLP?  And what - if any - challenges are faced by a school’s learning community in implementing MLE and MLP?

This mixed-method case study has created a snapshot of community perceptions at a recently renovated intermediate school undergoing a shift to MLP at a specific space and time.  Through the use of surveys, interviews and focus groups, the perspectives of both the school and wider community have been gathered and thematically analysed.  The findings suggest that, although perceptions of the purpose of MLE and MLP were largely synergistic across all participants, challenges in implementation were highlighted, which create on-going questions that could affect the success of the shift at this school and others.  Implications for further research into the impact of MLE and MLP on student learning outcomes are identified and recommendations are made at the practitioner, school and policy level – from the imperative for a vision that better aligns with student-centred pedagogies, to the need for more robust conversation about the competencies that are promoted in these contexts, and how to address the subsequent dichotomy with regards to current assessment standards.

This study will be of use to any school that is planning to utilise MLE and their associated practices in the future, as it discusses potential challenges as well as possible solutions surrounding implementation.

text: Making the Shift:  Perceptions and Challenges of Modern Learning Practice As we move into the third millennium, Modern Learning Environments (MLE) - also referred to as Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) – have been strongly backed by educators, both internationally and within New Zealand.  These open and flexible spaces are claimed to effectively support a range of student-centred, strengths-based pedagogies - dubbed Modern Learning Practice (MLP)  - where teachers and students can engage in more personalised, ubiquitous and collaborative teaching and learning.  Set within an educational context of a holistic national curriculum, a new way of thinking about schooling in New Zealand is emerging, with a strong focus on life-long learning skills and competencies.  Endorsed financially by policy-makers and philosophically by educational thought leaders, the physical landscape of education in New Zealand is rapidly shifting.  However, for a change of such magnitude to take place in public education, there must be clarity of message when establishing links between the physical environment, corresponding practice and their collective impact on student learning. It is a potential disparity in definition and purpose around what, exactly, constitutes MLE and MLP that this study explores.  Specifically, in a school making the shift, what are the stakeholders’ perceptions of MLE and MLP?  And what - if any - challenges are faced by a school’s learning community in implementing MLE and MLP?

This mixed-method case study has created a snapshot of community perceptions at a recently renovated intermediate school undergoing a shift to MLP at a specific space and time.  Through the use of surveys, interviews and focus groups, the perspectives of both the school and wider community have been gathered and thematically analysed.  The findings suggest that, although perceptions of the purpose of MLE and MLP were largely synergistic across all participants, challenges in implementation were highlighted, which create on-going questions that could affect the success of the shift at this school and others.  Implications for further research into the impact of MLE and MLP on student learning outcomes are identified and recommendations are made at the practitioner, school and policy level – from the imperative for a vision that better aligns with student-centred pedagogies, to the need for more robust conversation about the competencies that are promoted in these contexts, and how to address the subsequent dichotomy with regards to current assessment standards.

This study will be of use to any school that is planning to utilise MLE and their associated practices in the future, as it discusses potential challenges as well as possible solutions surrounding implementation.

year: 2016

title: New Zealand teachers' experiences in implementing the technology curriculum

authors: Jones, Alister

abstract: This paper describes the results of a national study to investigate teachers' experiences in the implementation of the technology curriculum in New Zealand schools from years 1–13. This investigation of the implementation of the technology curriculum is part of a larger study being undertaken nationally in all curriculum areas (National Schools Sampling Study) to explore how effective the curriculum is in practice and how the results can inform future developments. National focus groups, questionnaires and case studies are used to explore how the curriculum is being implemented. The questionnaires were distributed to over 10% of New Zealand schools. The key findings indicate that most primary school teachers are aiming for curriculum coverage, have moderate levels of confidence but are concerned about curriculum overcrowding. Years 7 and 8 teachers are mainly concerned about assessment, whereas secondary school teachers are constrained by existing structures in schools.

text: New Zealand teachers' experiences in implementing the technology curriculum This paper describes the results of a national study to investigate teachers' experiences in the implementation of the technology curriculum in New Zealand schools from years 1–13. This investigation of the implementation of the technology curriculum is part of a larger study being undertaken nationally in all curriculum areas (National Schools Sampling Study) to explore how effective the curriculum is in practice and how the results can inform future developments. National focus groups, questionnaires and case studies are used to explore how the curriculum is being implemented. The questionnaires were distributed to over 10% of New Zealand schools. The key findings indicate that most primary school teachers are aiming for curriculum coverage, have moderate levels of confidence but are concerned about curriculum overcrowding. Years 7 and 8 teachers are mainly concerned about assessment, whereas secondary school teachers are constrained by existing structures in schools.

year: 2004

title: Te Puea Herangi: an ethno-biographical study

authors: King, Michael

abstract: Early explanations of Maori leadership (for example Buck 1950) tended to emphasize the principle of male primogeniture - the expectation that community leadership would in the normal course of affairs pass to the eldest sons of lines of first-born males. Later studies of Western-educated leaders and those with a non-traditional power base (see Butterworth 1969, Cody 1953, Condliffe 1971, and Henderson 1972) continued to emphasize male primacy. Against the tenor of these studies, however, is the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century the Maori King Movement was dominated and welded together by a woman who preached male primogeniture though her life seemed to contradict the principle; Te Puea Herangi was not of a senior descent line and neither compensated for its absence by a substantial degree of European education nor consolidated her position by marriage. Nor was she simply a forceful leader in Maori terms only: Professor J.G.A. Pocock (in The Maori and New Zealand Politics) called her “possibly the most influential woman in our political history”.

This study examines Te Puea's leadership role: how she came to assume it, how she exercised it, and its consequences. Analytical concepts like Max Weber's distinctions between charismatic, traditional and rational-legal authority, have been avoided. The danger of adopting them is that the themes and emphases of research material can be easily and unintentionally warped to fit the model, in the interests of tidiness and intelligibility. Instead, this study proceeds by way of a detailed and chronological examination of the major events of Te Puea's life, and an evaluation of actions and statements as they occur and in the context in which they occur. It is, in other words, a consideration of Te Puea's life in terms of her own concepts, and in relation to the Maori and wider public affairs of her day. Explanations for her behaviour are sought within the boundaries of her own life and culture rather than from the imposition of alien models.

text: Te Puea Herangi: an ethno-biographical study Early explanations of Maori leadership (for example Buck 1950) tended to emphasize the principle of male primogeniture - the expectation that community leadership would in the normal course of affairs pass to the eldest sons of lines of first-born males. Later studies of Western-educated leaders and those with a non-traditional power base (see Butterworth 1969, Cody 1953, Condliffe 1971, and Henderson 1972) continued to emphasize male primacy. Against the tenor of these studies, however, is the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century the Maori King Movement was dominated and welded together by a woman who preached male primogeniture though her life seemed to contradict the principle; Te Puea Herangi was not of a senior descent line and neither compensated for its absence by a substantial degree of European education nor consolidated her position by marriage. Nor was she simply a forceful leader in Maori terms only: Professor J.G.A. Pocock (in The Maori and New Zealand Politics) called her “possibly the most influential woman in our political history”.

This study examines Te Puea's leadership role: how she came to assume it, how she exercised it, and its consequences. Analytical concepts like Max Weber's distinctions between charismatic, traditional and rational-legal authority, have been avoided. The danger of adopting them is that the themes and emphases of research material can be easily and unintentionally warped to fit the model, in the interests of tidiness and intelligibility. Instead, this study proceeds by way of a detailed and chronological examination of the major events of Te Puea's life, and an evaluation of actions and statements as they occur and in the context in which they occur. It is, in other words, a consideration of Te Puea's life in terms of her own concepts, and in relation to the Maori and wider public affairs of her day. Explanations for her behaviour are sought within the boundaries of her own life and culture rather than from the imposition of alien models.

year: 1977