title: Digitally-supported collaboration: An exploration of teachers' and students' understandings and practice.

authors: Mangino, Leesa

abstract: Education is evolving over time. The use of digital technology in our schools continues to grow and develop at a rapid pace, supported by the introduction of ultra-fast broadband and the availability of mobile technology.  There is change occurring in the teaching and learning environments in our schools, walls are coming down between classrooms and teachers are increasingly being expected to work in co-teaching situations.  An expectation is being set that educators need to equip students with the 21st century skills necessary to be successful in today’s world, one of the key skills being the ability to collaborate with others.

This study draws together the key ideas introduced above - that is, developing knowledge of collaborative, digitally-supported innovative learning environments (ILEs).  A collective case study approach was used to investigate the understandings teachers and students in three primary schools have about collaboration, and how this was reflected in practice.  This interpretive study also explored the nature of digitally mediated interactions occurring in these learning environments including teacher-to-teacher, teacher-to-student, and student-to-student, to gain a better understanding of any role digital technology might play in collaborative teaching and learning within these spaces.

Data was collected through observations, interviews, and the collecting of artifacts.  These data were then analysed thematically.  The findings suggest that building trusting relationships is essential to collaboration but can take time to establish.  Teachers and students need to have a shared understanding of what collaboration is and their role within this. Clarity of purpose is fundamental to effective digitally-supported collaboration, teachers and students need to know why they are collaborating, how digital technology could support their collaborative needs, and how they can best make use of their physical environment.

text: Digitally-supported collaboration: An exploration of teachers' and students' understandings and practice. Education is evolving over time. The use of digital technology in our schools continues to grow and develop at a rapid pace, supported by the introduction of ultra-fast broadband and the availability of mobile technology.  There is change occurring in the teaching and learning environments in our schools, walls are coming down between classrooms and teachers are increasingly being expected to work in co-teaching situations.  An expectation is being set that educators need to equip students with the 21st century skills necessary to be successful in today’s world, one of the key skills being the ability to collaborate with others.

This study draws together the key ideas introduced above - that is, developing knowledge of collaborative, digitally-supported innovative learning environments (ILEs).  A collective case study approach was used to investigate the understandings teachers and students in three primary schools have about collaboration, and how this was reflected in practice.  This interpretive study also explored the nature of digitally mediated interactions occurring in these learning environments including teacher-to-teacher, teacher-to-student, and student-to-student, to gain a better understanding of any role digital technology might play in collaborative teaching and learning within these spaces.

Data was collected through observations, interviews, and the collecting of artifacts.  These data were then analysed thematically.  The findings suggest that building trusting relationships is essential to collaboration but can take time to establish.  Teachers and students need to have a shared understanding of what collaboration is and their role within this. Clarity of purpose is fundamental to effective digitally-supported collaboration, teachers and students need to know why they are collaborating, how digital technology could support their collaborative needs, and how they can best make use of their physical environment.

year: 2018

title: On the threshold: Affordances of online tutorials in the learning of threshold concepts

authors: Peter, Mira

abstract: According to threshold concept theory, in each academic discipline there exist concepts that once grasped allow new and previously inaccessible ways of perceiving and thinking about the subject to emerge [1]. Acquiring a threshold concept (TC) often resembles a phase transition as observed in other psychological perception-action dynamical systems [2]. Previous studies of student learning in introductory electronics have revealed areas where students get stuck [3]. In the present study we investigated the impact of multimodal, online tutorials on learning TCs.

text: On the threshold: Affordances of online tutorials in the learning of threshold concepts According to threshold concept theory, in each academic discipline there exist concepts that once grasped allow new and previously inaccessible ways of perceiving and thinking about the subject to emerge [1]. Acquiring a threshold concept (TC) often resembles a phase transition as observed in other psychological perception-action dynamical systems [2]. Previous studies of student learning in introductory electronics have revealed areas where students get stuck [3]. In the present study we investigated the impact of multimodal, online tutorials on learning TCs.

year: 2013

title: Exploring the potential of Te Whāriki in supporting a decolonising educational reform in classroom

authors: Corlett, Melissa Jane

abstract: This thesis begins with a deep belief in the potential of Te Whāriki, a bicultural curriculum document born of the dual heritages of Aotearoa/New Zealand, to support the educational reform needed. There is a need to decolonise our classrooms and create contexts for learning where Māori students feel they can belong and also thrive. The pathway to achieving this reality is complex. It requires a deep foundational understanding of our shared histories in order to move from deficit positions about Māori learners to ones of agency and hope. While strong relationships are important it was by connecting with Māori metaphors that we were able to move beyond the rhetoric and begin to build shared understandings and greater respect for knowledge from te ao Māori. The process of whakawhiti kōrero or dialogic and iterative sense making furthered our combined theorising. The whakataukī and metaphors embedded in Te Whāriki were foundational to these contexts as they strengthened our collective abilities as teachers to make the learning more meaningful and fun.
This research process provided me with valuable insights into the way my own power and beliefs can inhibit potential collective learning. Despite this it was the content of Te Whāriki that helped to enable the learning of myself and my participants, creating safe and supportive contexts for our collective learning to begin to grow. 
While this research strengthened my own beliefs in the potential of Te Whāriki it also assisted my participants to become more open to this potential as well. In this endeavour, time was required to engage with the more expert other, whether this was from other people or through the use of artefacts. The relational and culturally responsive pedagogy that we had learned to implement in our classrooms was also able to be connected with, as our shared unlearning and learning flowed.

text: Exploring the potential of Te Whāriki in supporting a decolonising educational reform in classroom This thesis begins with a deep belief in the potential of Te Whāriki, a bicultural curriculum document born of the dual heritages of Aotearoa/New Zealand, to support the educational reform needed. There is a need to decolonise our classrooms and create contexts for learning where Māori students feel they can belong and also thrive. The pathway to achieving this reality is complex. It requires a deep foundational understanding of our shared histories in order to move from deficit positions about Māori learners to ones of agency and hope. While strong relationships are important it was by connecting with Māori metaphors that we were able to move beyond the rhetoric and begin to build shared understandings and greater respect for knowledge from te ao Māori. The process of whakawhiti kōrero or dialogic and iterative sense making furthered our combined theorising. The whakataukī and metaphors embedded in Te Whāriki were foundational to these contexts as they strengthened our collective abilities as teachers to make the learning more meaningful and fun.
This research process provided me with valuable insights into the way my own power and beliefs can inhibit potential collective learning. Despite this it was the content of Te Whāriki that helped to enable the learning of myself and my participants, creating safe and supportive contexts for our collective learning to begin to grow. 
While this research strengthened my own beliefs in the potential of Te Whāriki it also assisted my participants to become more open to this potential as well. In this endeavour, time was required to engage with the more expert other, whether this was from other people or through the use of artefacts. The relational and culturally responsive pedagogy that we had learned to implement in our classrooms was also able to be connected with, as our shared unlearning and learning flowed.

year: 2022