How to ... be a reflective practitioner.

Speech Genres And Other Late Essays

Science as Social Knowledge. Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry

The Art of Teaching Writing

This study draws upon survey and administrative data on over 9,000 teachers in 336 Miami-Dade County public schools over 2 years to investigate the kinds of collaborations that exist in instructional teams across the district and whether these collaborations predict student achievement. While different kinds of teachers and schools report different collaboration quality, we find average collaboration quality is related to student achievement. Teachers and schools that engage in better quality collaboration have better achievement gains in math and reading. Moreover, teachers improve at greater rates when they work in schools with better collaboration quality. These results support policy efforts to improve student achievement by promoting teacher collaboration about instruction in teams.

Teacher Collaboration in Instructional Teams and Student Achievement

Writing instruction in New Zealand occurs in a context with potential for variability in curriculum and delivery. The national curriculum is broad; self governing schools are to interpret and apply as appropriate to their local context. There are no mandated tests, nor external examinations until the last three years of school. Schools report to the Ministry about achievement in Years 1–8 against national standards in writing, based on overall teacher judgements. The nature of this context supports the notion of drawing on several sources to describe the current landscape of writing instruction: policy documents, specifically the curriculum and standards; national tools and resources for professional learning; the limited existing research base relating to writing in New Zealand, and a study designed to extend this latter body of work by surveying teachers about their practices. The existing research largely concerns the practices of exemplary teachers or relates to investigating the effects of professional development interventions. The survey reported provides the most direct evidence of actual practice. Survey responses (N = 118) came from, on average, moderately experienced teachers who reported a relatively high level of confidence regarding aspects of teaching writing. Results suggest that surveyed teachers reflected the themes identified in the New Zealand teacher based and intervention research, which in turn reflected policy initiatives. The combined evidence indicates the influence of the ‘teaching as inquiry’ approach on writing pedagogy.

Mapping the landscape of writing instruction in New Zealand primary school classrooms

This paper reports on the teaching practices identified as effective for students' writing progress in a digital learning environment. The study is situated within a design-based research partnership between researchers and a group of urban schools serving culturally diverse students from low income communities who have implemented a digital pedagogy innovation which includes student device ownership, wireless access and a shared pedagogical approach. The research design logic was to select demonstrably effective teachers as ‘case studies’ in order to understand what effective teachers in the innovation did that promoted greater progress in writing. Qualitative analyses of selected teachers' class sites and students' individual blogs identified features of teaching practice hypothesised to promote student development in writing. To strengthen our understandings, teachers were interviewed to check the comprehensiveness and validity of our interpretation. Classroom observations from these case study teachers were compared with observations from a larger group of teachers to investigate whether identified practices were differentially employed by these effective teachers. Finally, the effects on student writing achievement of the relative presence of these practices in all observed classes were predicted using a hierarchical linear model. Our findings indicate effects of using digital tools in ways that promote complex compositional tasks, discussion and critical thinking. The study adds to a growing number of studies that investigate the nature of effective pedagogy within a digital environment. It contributes to the identification of promising practices for the design of more effective instruction in writing within classes that have ubiquitous digital access.

A mixed-methods study to identify effective practices in the teaching of writing in a digital learning environment in low income schools

Early literacy interventions have demonstrated that pedagogically sound programmes canboostreadingachievementforstudentswhodonotsucceedinearlyliteracylearning. However, there is less evidence as to what extent gains are maintained in subsequent years or the factors which may contribute to sustained progress. The research reported in this article employed a cross-sectional design to investigate the achievement of students who had previously participated in Reading Recovery. Two to four years after successfully completing the intervention, students were assessed in reading and writing by using standardised assessment tools. Although 60% of students had retained parity in reading in comparison with their age cohort, 40% were markedly below the mean of the cohort and the national norm. Data from case study schools provide some initial suggestions for school implementation factors which affect continued success. Conclusions regarding the need to plan for sustainability of gains following early intervention are made.

Can gains from early literacy interventions be sustained? The case of Reading Recovery

This paper reports on a design-based intervention in urban primary and secondary schools serving culturally diverse students from low socio-economic status (SES) communities. The intervention capitalises on a partially implemented programme in seven schools which use digital devices (netbooks) and applications to raise literacy levels. Learning and teaching measures have been used to identify effective components which can be more systematically implemented. Classroom observations were employed to provide a profile of the use and quality of the literacy instruction and to identify effective instructional practices, thereby contributing to the redesign of instruction for cluster wide implementation. The study adds to a growing number of interventions which use a design-based approach to tackle problems associated with school effectiveness. It contributes to the identification of promising new practices and to the design of more effective instruction in the context of a national system (New Zealand) that is...

Raising literacy levels using digital learning: a design-based approach in New Zealand

The term 'summer learning effect' (SLE) is used to describe the situation that often occurs in schools serving low socio-economic status (SES) communities, where achievement plateaus or declines over summer. The effect limits cumulative gains over time and creates a barrier to schools' effectiveness. Although the phenomenon itself is well documented there is little research evidence for how to overcome the effect in local communities. We examined the profile of students' reading losses over summer in low SES schools in New Zealand and found that summer loss is variable across students and classes. We describe the nature of that variability, seeking to identify factors that may make a contribution to overcoming the summer learning effect in reading in low SES schools. Once identified, these factors can form the basis of a locally relevant summer reading programme.

Rebecca Jesson

Papers

Mapping the landscape of writing instruction in New Zealand primary school classrooms

A mixed-methods study to identify effective practices in the teaching of writing in a digital learning environment in low income schools

Can gains from early literacy interventions be sustained? The case of Reading Recovery

Raising literacy levels using digital learning: a design-based approach in New Zealand

Investigating the Summer Learning Effect in Low SES Schools