title: Growing islands of interest: nurturing the development of young children’s working theories

authors: Davis, Keryn

subjects: working theories

abstract: This presentation draws on the work from a 2-year collaborative practitioner research project, Moments of wonder, every day events: how are young children theorising and making sense of their world. The project aimed to contribute perspectives to the discussion around the ways young children express and develop working theories, how practitioners understand these and how best to respond to this learning in five Playcentres (parent-led early childhood education settings) in Canterbury, New Zealand.
Children’s working theories, as described in Te Whāriki (the New Zealand early childhood education curriculum), are derived from Claxton’s view that knowledge consists of a large number of purpose-built situation specific packages called ‘mini theories’, and that ‘learning involved a gradual process of editing these mini theories so that they come to contain better knowledge and skill and be better located with respect to the area of experience for which they are suitable’. When children are engaged with others in complex thinking they are forming and strengthening their working theories.
In exploring working theories we recognise that children have many interests. Some of these are fleeting, while others are more connected or revisited more frequently by children. Over the course of our research, we have come to think of these interests as ‘islands’ and in doing so have adopted this as a metaphor for working theories. We were keen to see how we can grow some of these islands of interest: making them more complex, more connected, and more compelling to children. 
The research team explored the different ways opportunities can be created for children to express and develop working theories and the outcomes for children’s learning as a result. The presentation will focus on some of the strategies implemented and the ways these have contributed to children’s ‘working theories’ learning as the practitioner researchers attempted to build communities of thinkers and ‘wonderers’.

text: Growing islands of interest: nurturing the development of young children’s working theories This presentation draws on the work from a 2-year collaborative practitioner research project, Moments of wonder, every day events: how are young children theorising and making sense of their world. The project aimed to contribute perspectives to the discussion around the ways young children express and develop working theories, how practitioners understand these and how best to respond to this learning in five Playcentres (parent-led early childhood education settings) in Canterbury, New Zealand.
Children’s working theories, as described in Te Whāriki (the New Zealand early childhood education curriculum), are derived from Claxton’s view that knowledge consists of a large number of purpose-built situation specific packages called ‘mini theories’, and that ‘learning involved a gradual process of editing these mini theories so that they come to contain better knowledge and skill and be better located with respect to the area of experience for which they are suitable’. When children are engaged with others in complex thinking they are forming and strengthening their working theories.
In exploring working theories we recognise that children have many interests. Some of these are fleeting, while others are more connected or revisited more frequently by children. Over the course of our research, we have come to think of these interests as ‘islands’ and in doing so have adopted this as a metaphor for working theories. We were keen to see how we can grow some of these islands of interest: making them more complex, more connected, and more compelling to children. 
The research team explored the different ways opportunities can be created for children to express and develop working theories and the outcomes for children’s learning as a result. The presentation will focus on some of the strategies implemented and the ways these have contributed to children’s ‘working theories’ learning as the practitioner researchers attempted to build communities of thinkers and ‘wonderers’.

year: 2012

title: The Paperless Organization: Improved processes and reduction in paper usage through wider use of electronic documents and tablet computers

authors: AL-Qahtani, Saeed Hussein

abstract: This qualitative, descriptive research study aimed to investigate the way in which documents were handled in an organization in relation to how much paper was wasted, and opportunities presented to save paper via new technologies. For the purposes of this study, an example organization was chosen, being the University of Waikato in New Zealand. However, the findings of the investigations comprising this thesis can be considered generalizable across organization types.

The results of the investigations revealed that the university wasted a great deal of paper in the process of performing the three example activities: producing the university calendar, distributing meeting agendas and processing PhD student reports. These activities have been chosen, as an example of other practices, as they involve documents processing, several committees, and diverse types of tasks and includes staff and students working in different positions. This wastage was as a direct result of the inherent drawbacks of working with paper documents. These drawbacks were found to include: the high cost of producing, storing and maintaining paper documents, the risk of lost documents, the difficulties in sharing and tracking the documents, problems of security and delays caused by difficulty accessing the documents in a timely fashion. It was therefore suggested that working electronically would reduce paper wastage, and streamline the performance of the activities in the process.
Specifically, this thesis presents the tablet computer as the key to moving organizations towards their paperless futures. The research explores the potential of using tablet devices in general and the specialist facilities of the iPad in particular as an example of modern technology. Participants in the unstructured qualitative research interviews stressed the functionality provided by the iPad, which overcomes many of the drawbacks of using paper documents. They also highlighted the effectiveness and advantages of using an electronic system as comparing to the current paper-based system.
The final investigation presented in this thesis highlights the tools and applications of the iPad most promising for helping to reduce the use of paper documents in the workplace.

text: The Paperless Organization: Improved processes and reduction in paper usage through wider use of electronic documents and tablet computers This qualitative, descriptive research study aimed to investigate the way in which documents were handled in an organization in relation to how much paper was wasted, and opportunities presented to save paper via new technologies. For the purposes of this study, an example organization was chosen, being the University of Waikato in New Zealand. However, the findings of the investigations comprising this thesis can be considered generalizable across organization types.

The results of the investigations revealed that the university wasted a great deal of paper in the process of performing the three example activities: producing the university calendar, distributing meeting agendas and processing PhD student reports. These activities have been chosen, as an example of other practices, as they involve documents processing, several committees, and diverse types of tasks and includes staff and students working in different positions. This wastage was as a direct result of the inherent drawbacks of working with paper documents. These drawbacks were found to include: the high cost of producing, storing and maintaining paper documents, the risk of lost documents, the difficulties in sharing and tracking the documents, problems of security and delays caused by difficulty accessing the documents in a timely fashion. It was therefore suggested that working electronically would reduce paper wastage, and streamline the performance of the activities in the process.
Specifically, this thesis presents the tablet computer as the key to moving organizations towards their paperless futures. The research explores the potential of using tablet devices in general and the specialist facilities of the iPad in particular as an example of modern technology. Participants in the unstructured qualitative research interviews stressed the functionality provided by the iPad, which overcomes many of the drawbacks of using paper documents. They also highlighted the effectiveness and advantages of using an electronic system as comparing to the current paper-based system.
The final investigation presented in this thesis highlights the tools and applications of the iPad most promising for helping to reduce the use of paper documents in the workplace.

year: 2012

title: The Māori language revitalisation agenda and Te Whakapiki Reo and Te Whakapiki i te Reo: Meeting the needs of teachers

authors: Kahukura, Hine

subjects: Te reo Māori

abstract: Since 1994, and under contract to the New Zealand Ministry of Education, the University of Waikato has provided teacher professional development programmes in the context of kaupapa matauranga Māori. Because these programmes are designed to play a role in the Māori language revitalisation agenda as it relates to the teaching and learning of te reo Māori in school contexts, we believe that it is important to share our experiences with others. In this article, we discuss the context in which these programmes are delivered, some of the ways in which they have changed over time, and what we have learned from them.

text: The Māori language revitalisation agenda and Te Whakapiki Reo and Te Whakapiki i te Reo: Meeting the needs of teachers Since 1994, and under contract to the New Zealand Ministry of Education, the University of Waikato has provided teacher professional development programmes in the context of kaupapa matauranga Māori. Because these programmes are designed to play a role in the Māori language revitalisation agenda as it relates to the teaching and learning of te reo Māori in school contexts, we believe that it is important to share our experiences with others. In this article, we discuss the context in which these programmes are delivered, some of the ways in which they have changed over time, and what we have learned from them.

year: 2005