title: The Effects of a Shared Reading Intervention on the English Reading Skills of Year One Students in a Level Two Māori-medium Educational Context

authors: Te Arihi, Kylie

subjects: English Reading Skills

abstract: One of the biggest challenges confronting literacy education in Aotearoa  New Zealand is accommodating the differences in English reading-related variables at school entry to produce equitable outcomes in later reading achievement (Wilkinson, Freebody, & Elkins, 2000).  English-medium schools in Aotearoa struggle to negotiate effective literacy practices that validate and cater for the cognitive, cultural, and linguistic differences children bring to the process of learning to read in English.  Whereas, the role of English reading instruction in Māori-medium schools has been an under-researched and controversial issue.  How to accommodate for these differences to achieve equitable English reading outcomes in a year 1 level 2 Māori-medium context is the theme that this research seeks to explore.
	This Masters thesis reports on a shared reading intervention that explicitly teaches phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge to examine its effects on the English reading skills of year 1 students in a level 2 Māori-medium setting.  The research implemented a Kaupapa Māori framework and used interviews, surveys, reliable literacy measures, and research-based literacy instruction to explore reading acquisition for this particular cohort.  Thus, the purposes of the study were (a) to glean an in-depth understanding of the literacy and language practices that potentially shaped the participants English reading–related variables, (b) to examine the range of English reading-related skills for this cohort, and (c) to determine the effects of the intervention on their English reading skills.
	Eight students were divided and matched with a pair according to their reported pre-test phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge scores, and then randomly assigned to either an intervention (n = 4) or treatment control (n = 4) group.  The intervention programme was carried out over a six week period and comprised 12, 30 minute lessons that integrated phonological and alphabetic based decoding skills within the shared reading approach.  The duration of the treatment control programme was also carried out over a six week period and comprised 12, 30 minutes lessons that integrated semantic, syntactic, and visual graphophonic sources of information to recognise words.  The results indicated the breadth and depth of English reading skills in year 1 level 2 Māori-medium contexts are diverse and the children had a positive attitude and sense of efficacy towards reading.  A comparison of the test results between the intervention and treatment control group demonstrated that a shared reading intervention that focused explicitly on phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge is effective in raising letter-naming knowledge, pseudoword decoding, phonemic awareness, and invented spelling.  The results are discussed in light of theoretical assumptions about reading acquisition that underlie word-base and text-base approaches to word recognition.
	Overall, this study supports the development and reform of training and professional development opportunities in phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge to better support, inform, and educate Aotearoa reading teachers.  This study contributes to the knowledge of English reading acquisition that validate the depth and breadth of early cognitive and linguistic differences to increase equitable English reading outcomes in level 2 Māori-medium contexts.

text: The Effects of a Shared Reading Intervention on the English Reading Skills of Year One Students in a Level Two Māori-medium Educational Context One of the biggest challenges confronting literacy education in Aotearoa  New Zealand is accommodating the differences in English reading-related variables at school entry to produce equitable outcomes in later reading achievement (Wilkinson, Freebody, & Elkins, 2000).  English-medium schools in Aotearoa struggle to negotiate effective literacy practices that validate and cater for the cognitive, cultural, and linguistic differences children bring to the process of learning to read in English.  Whereas, the role of English reading instruction in Māori-medium schools has been an under-researched and controversial issue.  How to accommodate for these differences to achieve equitable English reading outcomes in a year 1 level 2 Māori-medium context is the theme that this research seeks to explore.
	This Masters thesis reports on a shared reading intervention that explicitly teaches phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge to examine its effects on the English reading skills of year 1 students in a level 2 Māori-medium setting.  The research implemented a Kaupapa Māori framework and used interviews, surveys, reliable literacy measures, and research-based literacy instruction to explore reading acquisition for this particular cohort.  Thus, the purposes of the study were (a) to glean an in-depth understanding of the literacy and language practices that potentially shaped the participants English reading–related variables, (b) to examine the range of English reading-related skills for this cohort, and (c) to determine the effects of the intervention on their English reading skills.
	Eight students were divided and matched with a pair according to their reported pre-test phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge scores, and then randomly assigned to either an intervention (n = 4) or treatment control (n = 4) group.  The intervention programme was carried out over a six week period and comprised 12, 30 minute lessons that integrated phonological and alphabetic based decoding skills within the shared reading approach.  The duration of the treatment control programme was also carried out over a six week period and comprised 12, 30 minutes lessons that integrated semantic, syntactic, and visual graphophonic sources of information to recognise words.  The results indicated the breadth and depth of English reading skills in year 1 level 2 Māori-medium contexts are diverse and the children had a positive attitude and sense of efficacy towards reading.  A comparison of the test results between the intervention and treatment control group demonstrated that a shared reading intervention that focused explicitly on phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge is effective in raising letter-naming knowledge, pseudoword decoding, phonemic awareness, and invented spelling.  The results are discussed in light of theoretical assumptions about reading acquisition that underlie word-base and text-base approaches to word recognition.
	Overall, this study supports the development and reform of training and professional development opportunities in phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge to better support, inform, and educate Aotearoa reading teachers.  This study contributes to the knowledge of English reading acquisition that validate the depth and breadth of early cognitive and linguistic differences to increase equitable English reading outcomes in level 2 Māori-medium contexts.

year: 2014

title: The Aroha block from 1880 onwards

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: With the discovery of gold in 1880 and the pressure to open the land for mining, there was a need to determine the boundaries of the Ngati Rahiri reserves and to subdivide these amongst the owners. As well, terms for paying goldfields revenue had to be negotiated before the goldfield could be opened, and after its opening the claims of Maori with little or no basis for their claims of ownership had to be investigated. Wairakau reserve, outside the goldfield, was not subdivided until mid-1882, and arguments over the ownership of Tui Pa continued well into the twentieth century. 
At first, sales of Crown land found few takers, especially because the farm sections required draining before they could be developed. Ngati Rahiri reserves were designated as being inalienable, but they could be leased for 21 years, as some portions were, at low rates. Very quickly, officials, who feared Maori would become landless, had to fend off requests to remove restrictions on sale made by owners who in some instances lived far from Te Aroha and who all wanted to obtain money from selling land of little use to them. The indebtedness of some owners led to continued pressure to sell, though often the money they received was wasted. With the fading of the goldfield, miners sought land for farms, and were frustrated at the Crown not purchasing the Ngati Rahiri reserves. 
Land was acquired by the Crown to extend the hot springs domain, and after negotiating improved leases in the Te Aroha township the freehold of this settlement was acquired. Some Maori retained their land, which Pakeha accused them of not improving; Maori requests that the government provide training in farming methods were ignored. By the twentieth century most Ngati Rahiri had become landless, but as many examples illustrate, this was commonly because cash-strapped owners insisted on selling their interests for an immediate financial return.

text: The Aroha block from 1880 onwards With the discovery of gold in 1880 and the pressure to open the land for mining, there was a need to determine the boundaries of the Ngati Rahiri reserves and to subdivide these amongst the owners. As well, terms for paying goldfields revenue had to be negotiated before the goldfield could be opened, and after its opening the claims of Maori with little or no basis for their claims of ownership had to be investigated. Wairakau reserve, outside the goldfield, was not subdivided until mid-1882, and arguments over the ownership of Tui Pa continued well into the twentieth century. 
At first, sales of Crown land found few takers, especially because the farm sections required draining before they could be developed. Ngati Rahiri reserves were designated as being inalienable, but they could be leased for 21 years, as some portions were, at low rates. Very quickly, officials, who feared Maori would become landless, had to fend off requests to remove restrictions on sale made by owners who in some instances lived far from Te Aroha and who all wanted to obtain money from selling land of little use to them. The indebtedness of some owners led to continued pressure to sell, though often the money they received was wasted. With the fading of the goldfield, miners sought land for farms, and were frustrated at the Crown not purchasing the Ngati Rahiri reserves. 
Land was acquired by the Crown to extend the hot springs domain, and after negotiating improved leases in the Te Aroha township the freehold of this settlement was acquired. Some Maori retained their land, which Pakeha accused them of not improving; Maori requests that the government provide training in farming methods were ignored. By the twentieth century most Ngati Rahiri had become landless, but as many examples illustrate, this was commonly because cash-strapped owners insisted on selling their interests for an immediate financial return.

year: 2016

title: Biophysical, environmental, and economic implications of removing imported supplementary feed from a pasture-based dairy farm system -An upper North Island case study

authors: McCahon, Kieran Shaun

subjects: milk production

abstract: The biological efficiency and profitability of pasture-based systems is optimised by matching pasture supply with the nutritional demands of the herd across the year. Despite the importance of grazed pasture to the profitability of pasture-based systems, the use of purchased (i.e., non-pasture) feeds (supplementary feeds) has increased considerably over the last two decades within the New Zealand (NZ) dairy industry. 
Supplementary feeds may be offered to maintain or increase dry matter intake (DMI) and milk production during periods when pasture supply is insufficient to meet herd demands (i.e., a pasture deficit). However, published results indicate that, despite greater milk production and gross farm revenue (GFR), imported supplementary feed is not associated with an increase in profitability. In addition, the intensification of grazing systems through concurrent increases in stocking rate (SR) have been associated with poorer environmental outcomes, such as reduced water quality and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 
The primary objective of my Masters project was to investigate the biophysical, economic, and environmental effects of removing imported supplementary feed from a typical pasture-based system in the upper North Island of New Zealand. This was conducted over three years in Northland, New Zealand (35⁰56’39”S 173⁰50’34”E), using a quantitative case-study approach that compared three pasture-based dairy farming treatments differing in SR and the nature of feed supply. As a Control treatment, imported supplementary feed was offered as palm kernel expeller (PKE) during periods of pasture deficit (~ 550kg DM/cow/yr; ~ 10% of the cows’ diet; PKE treatment). This was compared with two alternative systems to remove the need for PKE: 1) reduced SR (Pasture treatment); or, 2) growing potentially high yielding forage crops on the dairy platform and maintaining SR (Cropping treatment). I used the nutrient budgeting software OVERSEER to model treatment effects on nitrogen (N) leaching, phosphorous (P) loss, and GHG emissions. In addition, I conducted a Monte Carlo analysis to investigate economic performance of all three treatments and how it varied over a range of key input prices.
On average, despite no significant difference in milk production, operating profit tended to be lower in the Cropping treatment relative to the PKE treatment. In addition, after accounting for variability in market prices, the Cropping treatment returned a lower operating profit at every probability level relative to the PKE treatment and was, therefore, an inferior system for a profit-focused decision maker.
Milk production and associated GFR were lower in the Pasture treatment compared with the PKE treatment; however, there was no effect of treatment on operating profit at average market prices. When accounting for potential market price variability, the PKE treatment returned a greater operating profit in 70% of scenarios. As a result, the PKE treatment would likely provide a preferable system for a profit-focused decision maker, with low to moderate risk aversion. However, the relative profitability of treatments was highly dependent on the marginal milk production response (MMPR) to supplementary feed. Consistently large MMPRs to supplementary feed were achieved in the current study: 30 to 50% greater than published farm systems experiments. A reduction in the MMPR to supplementary feed by 10% eroded the profit advantage of the PKE treatment. In addition, despite no treatment effect on N leaching, GHG emissions tended to be lower in the Pasture treatment relative to the PKE treatment. As a result, a decision maker, paying or receiving incentives to reduce environmental externalities would likely be indifferent between the PKE and Pasture treatments, even with the large MMPR to supplementary feed achieved in the current study. Depending on the potential response to supplementary feed, profitability may be maintained with the removal of imported supplementary feeds from a pasture-based system by decreasing SR.

text: Biophysical, environmental, and economic implications of removing imported supplementary feed from a pasture-based dairy farm system -An upper North Island case study The biological efficiency and profitability of pasture-based systems is optimised by matching pasture supply with the nutritional demands of the herd across the year. Despite the importance of grazed pasture to the profitability of pasture-based systems, the use of purchased (i.e., non-pasture) feeds (supplementary feeds) has increased considerably over the last two decades within the New Zealand (NZ) dairy industry. 
Supplementary feeds may be offered to maintain or increase dry matter intake (DMI) and milk production during periods when pasture supply is insufficient to meet herd demands (i.e., a pasture deficit). However, published results indicate that, despite greater milk production and gross farm revenue (GFR), imported supplementary feed is not associated with an increase in profitability. In addition, the intensification of grazing systems through concurrent increases in stocking rate (SR) have been associated with poorer environmental outcomes, such as reduced water quality and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 
The primary objective of my Masters project was to investigate the biophysical, economic, and environmental effects of removing imported supplementary feed from a typical pasture-based system in the upper North Island of New Zealand. This was conducted over three years in Northland, New Zealand (35⁰56’39”S 173⁰50’34”E), using a quantitative case-study approach that compared three pasture-based dairy farming treatments differing in SR and the nature of feed supply. As a Control treatment, imported supplementary feed was offered as palm kernel expeller (PKE) during periods of pasture deficit (~ 550kg DM/cow/yr; ~ 10% of the cows’ diet; PKE treatment). This was compared with two alternative systems to remove the need for PKE: 1) reduced SR (Pasture treatment); or, 2) growing potentially high yielding forage crops on the dairy platform and maintaining SR (Cropping treatment). I used the nutrient budgeting software OVERSEER to model treatment effects on nitrogen (N) leaching, phosphorous (P) loss, and GHG emissions. In addition, I conducted a Monte Carlo analysis to investigate economic performance of all three treatments and how it varied over a range of key input prices.
On average, despite no significant difference in milk production, operating profit tended to be lower in the Cropping treatment relative to the PKE treatment. In addition, after accounting for variability in market prices, the Cropping treatment returned a lower operating profit at every probability level relative to the PKE treatment and was, therefore, an inferior system for a profit-focused decision maker.
Milk production and associated GFR were lower in the Pasture treatment compared with the PKE treatment; however, there was no effect of treatment on operating profit at average market prices. When accounting for potential market price variability, the PKE treatment returned a greater operating profit in 70% of scenarios. As a result, the PKE treatment would likely provide a preferable system for a profit-focused decision maker, with low to moderate risk aversion. However, the relative profitability of treatments was highly dependent on the marginal milk production response (MMPR) to supplementary feed. Consistently large MMPRs to supplementary feed were achieved in the current study: 30 to 50% greater than published farm systems experiments. A reduction in the MMPR to supplementary feed by 10% eroded the profit advantage of the PKE treatment. In addition, despite no treatment effect on N leaching, GHG emissions tended to be lower in the Pasture treatment relative to the PKE treatment. As a result, a decision maker, paying or receiving incentives to reduce environmental externalities would likely be indifferent between the PKE and Pasture treatments, even with the large MMPR to supplementary feed achieved in the current study. Depending on the potential response to supplementary feed, profitability may be maintained with the removal of imported supplementary feeds from a pasture-based system by decreasing SR.

year: 2019