title: Investigative practical work in year 12 biology programmes

authors: Haigh, Mavis

abstract: The most recent New Zealand national curriculum development in Science occurred between 1991 and 1993. This Science curriculum placed value on students developing scientific investigative skills. The senior Biology curriculum for students in Years 11 - 13, developed to link with the Science curriculum, restated the Science curriculum’s investigative emphasis. 

With this new emphasis on the investigative approaches to learning school Science by national curriculum policy, it became important to identify how teachers may help their students to achieve the investigative objectives; to determine ways to support Biology teachers when they are introducing openness into their programmes; and to identify perceived benefits and constraints related to the introduction of investigative activities.

This study explores the nature and role of practical work, including investigative approaches, in school science. It reviews the purported functions of, and degree of intersection between, problem solving and investigative approaches to learning in science. After an exploration of competing views of learning, scientific investigative problem solving practical work is placed within a framework of a co-constructivist pedagogy.

There were three main phases in the data gathering for this study. The first two phases of this research project were conducted within a large, urban, co-educational, state secondary school. All of the school’s Biology teachers participated in the initial introduction of investigative practical work and one of these teachers worked with additionally developed material for a second year. A teaching package relating to the introduction of partially open investigative practical work was developed during 1994. Teachers from other secondary schools from around New Zealand participated in the third phase trial of this material.

The research findings present challenges to a growing rhetoric regarding the value of open investigative practical work in school science. The introduction of partially open investigative practical work into a Year 12 Biology programme was found to be exacting of the teachers and students. The students required deliberate and focussed teaching if they were to progress their scientific inquiry skills. The students valued the opportunity to have more control over the direction of their practical work. They found investigative work motivating and claimed that it increased their learning. Some students accepted the opportunity for personal involvement, self-direction and responsibility very quickly, whilst others needed ongoing support and encouragement. The teachers acknowledged a cognitive and affective value for investigative practical work in a Biology programme but reported considerable difficulties with the introduction and assessment of such a programme. 

Implications for both classroom practice and teacher development emerge from this study. Suggestions of ways to help students to carry out investigations, to better hypothesise, and to plan and gather data are given, as are strategies to help students critique their work. It is suggested that teacher development programmes include opportunities for teachers to develop their own understandings and skills in relation to investigative science. There could also be an emphasis on pedagogical practices which may enhance students’ learning in this regard. Time, personnel, equipment and materials resource implications may need to be addressed.

text: Investigative practical work in year 12 biology programmes The most recent New Zealand national curriculum development in Science occurred between 1991 and 1993. This Science curriculum placed value on students developing scientific investigative skills. The senior Biology curriculum for students in Years 11 - 13, developed to link with the Science curriculum, restated the Science curriculum’s investigative emphasis. 

With this new emphasis on the investigative approaches to learning school Science by national curriculum policy, it became important to identify how teachers may help their students to achieve the investigative objectives; to determine ways to support Biology teachers when they are introducing openness into their programmes; and to identify perceived benefits and constraints related to the introduction of investigative activities.

This study explores the nature and role of practical work, including investigative approaches, in school science. It reviews the purported functions of, and degree of intersection between, problem solving and investigative approaches to learning in science. After an exploration of competing views of learning, scientific investigative problem solving practical work is placed within a framework of a co-constructivist pedagogy.

There were three main phases in the data gathering for this study. The first two phases of this research project were conducted within a large, urban, co-educational, state secondary school. All of the school’s Biology teachers participated in the initial introduction of investigative practical work and one of these teachers worked with additionally developed material for a second year. A teaching package relating to the introduction of partially open investigative practical work was developed during 1994. Teachers from other secondary schools from around New Zealand participated in the third phase trial of this material.

The research findings present challenges to a growing rhetoric regarding the value of open investigative practical work in school science. The introduction of partially open investigative practical work into a Year 12 Biology programme was found to be exacting of the teachers and students. The students required deliberate and focussed teaching if they were to progress their scientific inquiry skills. The students valued the opportunity to have more control over the direction of their practical work. They found investigative work motivating and claimed that it increased their learning. Some students accepted the opportunity for personal involvement, self-direction and responsibility very quickly, whilst others needed ongoing support and encouragement. The teachers acknowledged a cognitive and affective value for investigative practical work in a Biology programme but reported considerable difficulties with the introduction and assessment of such a programme. 

Implications for both classroom practice and teacher development emerge from this study. Suggestions of ways to help students to carry out investigations, to better hypothesise, and to plan and gather data are given, as are strategies to help students critique their work. It is suggested that teacher development programmes include opportunities for teachers to develop their own understandings and skills in relation to investigative science. There could also be an emphasis on pedagogical practices which may enhance students’ learning in this regard. Time, personnel, equipment and materials resource implications may need to be addressed.

year: 1998

title: Art that moves and re imagines place: a case-study on Tron Rocks

authors: Adams-Hutcheson, Gail

subjects: Mobilities

abstract: This workshop and presentation pushes into public art spaces and mobilities by drawing attention to place, environmental exploration, movement and the politics of care and kindness. Ideas loop back to, and are inspired by Peter Young’s 2015 documentary The Art of Recovery and the Lost and Found Project’s (2012) crafts of kindness in Christchurch post-disaster cityscapes. Here I present an autobiographical account of engaging with Waikato spaces and art through Hamilton’s Tron Rock group. The Tron, the colloquial name for Hamilton, is one of the country’s major nexus for painting and hiding rocks in and around urban spaces, public gardens, parks, lakes and the university campus. By painting rocks and ‘releasing them into the wild,’ participants use the online platform Facebook to facilitate a game of treasure hunting. The core politics that facilitate the ‘game’ is environmental respect, gifting and sharing art. Art is mobilised, it literally and emotionally moves, with shared journeys documented on Tron Rock sites. The thrill of discovery and sharing has mobilised groups of children and adults, as artists who reconfigure places by hiding rocks. I argue that geography and mobilites are crucial to think about how Tron Rocks has dynamically changed people-place engagements, as well as the breakdown of the categorisation of art as site-specific. Art literally travels. Rocks continue, may return or may never be seen again, it is all part of the game. I invite participants to this workshop to create their own rock and either keep it, set it free during the Symposium or hide elsewhere.

text: Art that moves and re imagines place: a case-study on Tron Rocks This workshop and presentation pushes into public art spaces and mobilities by drawing attention to place, environmental exploration, movement and the politics of care and kindness. Ideas loop back to, and are inspired by Peter Young’s 2015 documentary The Art of Recovery and the Lost and Found Project’s (2012) crafts of kindness in Christchurch post-disaster cityscapes. Here I present an autobiographical account of engaging with Waikato spaces and art through Hamilton’s Tron Rock group. The Tron, the colloquial name for Hamilton, is one of the country’s major nexus for painting and hiding rocks in and around urban spaces, public gardens, parks, lakes and the university campus. By painting rocks and ‘releasing them into the wild,’ participants use the online platform Facebook to facilitate a game of treasure hunting. The core politics that facilitate the ‘game’ is environmental respect, gifting and sharing art. Art is mobilised, it literally and emotionally moves, with shared journeys documented on Tron Rock sites. The thrill of discovery and sharing has mobilised groups of children and adults, as artists who reconfigure places by hiding rocks. I argue that geography and mobilites are crucial to think about how Tron Rocks has dynamically changed people-place engagements, as well as the breakdown of the categorisation of art as site-specific. Art literally travels. Rocks continue, may return or may never be seen again, it is all part of the game. I invite participants to this workshop to create their own rock and either keep it, set it free during the Symposium or hide elsewhere.

year: 2018

title: Māori leaders wellbeing: A self-determination perspective

authors: Roche, Maree A.

subjects: Positive psychology

abstract: This research draws on interviews with 18 Māori leaders from various leadership positions within business, community, political and marae organisations, to garner an understanding of how their leadership roles interact with their own well-being. Analysis of interviews revealed that crosscultural developments in self-determination theory could be gained by incorporating Māori tikanga and values into a model of well-being for Māori leaders. Largely, the principles of tino rangatiratanga (autonomy and self-determination), mana (respect and influence), whānau (extended family), whakapapa (shared history) and whanaungatanga (kin relations, consultation and engagement), were united into a model of leader well-being. This ensured that mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) informed our model of Māori leader well-being, while also drawing on the burgeoning Western research in the area of well-being, specifically self-determination theory. Overall, we find that similarities exist with self-determination theory and Māori tikanga and values. However, in contrast to self-determination theory, autonomy and competence are developed within relationships, which means that ‘others’ underpin Māori leaders’ well-being. From this perspective, we present a view of the psychological and well-being resources that Māori leaders draw on to guide them through complex times.

text: Māori leaders wellbeing: A self-determination perspective This research draws on interviews with 18 Māori leaders from various leadership positions within business, community, political and marae organisations, to garner an understanding of how their leadership roles interact with their own well-being. Analysis of interviews revealed that crosscultural developments in self-determination theory could be gained by incorporating Māori tikanga and values into a model of well-being for Māori leaders. Largely, the principles of tino rangatiratanga (autonomy and self-determination), mana (respect and influence), whānau (extended family), whakapapa (shared history) and whanaungatanga (kin relations, consultation and engagement), were united into a model of leader well-being. This ensured that mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) informed our model of Māori leader well-being, while also drawing on the burgeoning Western research in the area of well-being, specifically self-determination theory. Overall, we find that similarities exist with self-determination theory and Māori tikanga and values. However, in contrast to self-determination theory, autonomy and competence are developed within relationships, which means that ‘others’ underpin Māori leaders’ well-being. From this perspective, we present a view of the psychological and well-being resources that Māori leaders draw on to guide them through complex times.

year: 2015