title: Browsing a digital library: A new approach for the New Zealand digital library

authors: McKay, Dana

subjects: computer science

abstract: Browsing is part of the information seeking process, used when information needs are ill-defined or unspecific. Browsing and searching are often interleaved during information seeking to accommodate changing awareness of information needs. Digital Libraries often support full-text search, but are not so helpful in supporting browsing. Described here is a novel browsing system created for the Greenstone software used by the New Zealand Digital Library that supports users in a more natural approach to the information seeking process. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.

text: Browsing a digital library: A new approach for the New Zealand digital library Browsing is part of the information seeking process, used when information needs are ill-defined or unspecific. Browsing and searching are often interleaved during information seeking to accommodate changing awareness of information needs. Digital Libraries often support full-text search, but are not so helpful in supporting browsing. Described here is a novel browsing system created for the Greenstone software used by the New Zealand Digital Library that supports users in a more natural approach to the information seeking process. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.

year: 2003

title: The impact of the NCEA on teacher collegiality

authors: Barrett, Jenny

subjects: The NCEA

abstract: This study looks at the impact that the National Certification of Educational
Achievement (NCEA) has had on teacher collegiality in New Zealand. It is an
exploratory study using an in case and cross case method, located in four
secondary schools with a range of demographics. I was interested in gathering
the information from teachers in three key roles: Assistant teacher, Head of
Department and Principal's Nominee, finding out what their views were on the
change that the NCEA has bought to their professional lives and the impact made
on their collegiality. The literature reviewed shows there is an international
appreciation of the value of collegiality in schools but there is a fragile nature of
collegiality that challenges its strength. The complexity of school culture and the
symbiotic relationship between it and collegiality contributes to challenge of the
management and development in secondary schools. The findings showed the
teachers in this study considered there to have been a deepening in collegiality as
a result of increased sharing of material, professional communication through
moderation and professional development, and a heightened respect for
professional practice and understanding of personalities. There are threats from
reduced socialisation, workload, loss of autonomy and the fragility of collegiality.
These elements have created a shift in school culture. How teacher collegiality
can best be supported using this assessment policy has been explored with
features involving school organisation and increasing deep collegial activities
such as collegial observation, marking, moderating and review being identified as
beneficial.

text: The impact of the NCEA on teacher collegiality This study looks at the impact that the National Certification of Educational
Achievement (NCEA) has had on teacher collegiality in New Zealand. It is an
exploratory study using an in case and cross case method, located in four
secondary schools with a range of demographics. I was interested in gathering
the information from teachers in three key roles: Assistant teacher, Head of
Department and Principal's Nominee, finding out what their views were on the
change that the NCEA has bought to their professional lives and the impact made
on their collegiality. The literature reviewed shows there is an international
appreciation of the value of collegiality in schools but there is a fragile nature of
collegiality that challenges its strength. The complexity of school culture and the
symbiotic relationship between it and collegiality contributes to challenge of the
management and development in secondary schools. The findings showed the
teachers in this study considered there to have been a deepening in collegiality as
a result of increased sharing of material, professional communication through
moderation and professional development, and a heightened respect for
professional practice and understanding of personalities. There are threats from
reduced socialisation, workload, loss of autonomy and the fragility of collegiality.
These elements have created a shift in school culture. How teacher collegiality
can best be supported using this assessment policy has been explored with
features involving school organisation and increasing deep collegial activities
such as collegial observation, marking, moderating and review being identified as
beneficial.

year: 2008

title: The Māori language curriculum for New Zealand schools: Spiral lesson/ lesson sequence design

authors: Johnson, Diane

subjects: Māori language teaching

abstract: A draft curriculum document for the teaching and learning of te reo Māori as a subject in mainstream schools in New Zealand (that is, in schools other than Kura Kaupapa Māori schools) was designed and trialled in 2004 and 2005. That draft is currently being reworked in line with the advice of those who trialled the document as well as that of a team of advisers set up by the Ministry of Education. The revised curriculum document will be submitted to the Ministry of Education in May 2006. As is the case with all new curriculum documents, the implementation phase will be critical. The extent to which this flexible, outcomes-focused curriculum document will genuinely inform new approaches to teaching and learning will depend not only upon the good will of teachers and communities, but also upon their ability to interpret the curriculum and to use it in a way that informs the design of language programmes, including the planning of units of work and of lessons and lesson sequences. In balancing language development and language practice, a communicative core and spiral approach is recommended, an approach in which there are core lessons (where the focus is language development) and spiral lessons (where the focus is language practice). In an earlier issue of this Journal (Johnson, 2003), one of us discussed core lesson design. Here, the design of spiral lessons is discussed and exemplified in the context of an outcomes-based curriculum.

text: The Māori language curriculum for New Zealand schools: Spiral lesson/ lesson sequence design A draft curriculum document for the teaching and learning of te reo Māori as a subject in mainstream schools in New Zealand (that is, in schools other than Kura Kaupapa Māori schools) was designed and trialled in 2004 and 2005. That draft is currently being reworked in line with the advice of those who trialled the document as well as that of a team of advisers set up by the Ministry of Education. The revised curriculum document will be submitted to the Ministry of Education in May 2006. As is the case with all new curriculum documents, the implementation phase will be critical. The extent to which this flexible, outcomes-focused curriculum document will genuinely inform new approaches to teaching and learning will depend not only upon the good will of teachers and communities, but also upon their ability to interpret the curriculum and to use it in a way that informs the design of language programmes, including the planning of units of work and of lessons and lesson sequences. In balancing language development and language practice, a communicative core and spiral approach is recommended, an approach in which there are core lessons (where the focus is language development) and spiral lessons (where the focus is language practice). In an earlier issue of this Journal (Johnson, 2003), one of us discussed core lesson design. Here, the design of spiral lessons is discussed and exemplified in the context of an outcomes-based curriculum.

year: 2005