School trials new teaching approach

Increased wellbeing, participation and engagement leading to higher academic success is what teachers at Katikati Primary School are hoping a $47,850 investment in teacher practices will achieve for their pupils in the next 18 months.


Ji-A Kim, Lucian Tukaki-Johnson, Ashuir Maan, Pippa Firth, teacher Sarah Trethewey or Mrs T.

Katikati Primary School has been gifted the grant after being selected to be part of the Government's Teacher-led Innovation programme.

The Teacher-Led Innovation Fund goes towards raising academic achievement in particularly Maori, Pacifica and second-language learners through the development of what the school calls a growth mindset.

School principal Andrea Nicholson says 10 classroom teachers will look at increasing a growth mindset where children recognise they can be successful through dedication and hard work.

'Increasing children's self-confidence and perseverance creates a love of learning and the resilience needed to achieve their best. When looking to raise levels of achievement, schools have traditionally focused on the teacher and the quality of programmes offered.

'Research shows learning is an active process; and therefore we have to look at developing the child as a learner, not simply at curriculum delivery.

Andrea says a good literacy and numeracy programme is obviously essential, but children need to be active participants in their learning and to believe they can succeed in order to move forward with their learning.

'It's going to concentrate on building that self-esteem and the children seeing themselves as successful learners.”

Andrea says about 25 per cent of the school's 580 pupils are Maori, about 10 per cent are Pacifica and about 100 are second-language learners.

'We see children who come in with good self-esteem and self-confidence flourish in a school situation. Whereas children who come in who doubt themselves, or see themselves as failures, don't engage with learning.

'Poor self-esteem hinders that progress, especially for some of our English as second language learners. It takes them time to come up to the standards of their peers because they're learning a second language.

'It's showing them that being bilingual is actually an asset to them, it's not a hindrance; and it doesn't mean they're a poor learner.”

Andrea says teachers will be working with the pupils and their families so parents can be involved in supporting the school in raising their children's achievement standards.

The $47,850 Teacher-Led Innovation Fund will go towards engaging with an expert from The Mind Lab in Auckland – a collaboration between a public education provider and a specialist education lab dedicated to enhancing digital literacy capability and the implementation of contemporary practice in the teaching profession.

'We're also intending to send the 10 teachers who are involved with the project to a growth mindset professional development course later in the year,” says Andrea.

'It will also be working with the University of Waikato so we can make sure we set up a thorough investigation and make sure we can prove that what we're doing makes a difference.

'It will involve some release time for the teachers so they can work together to plan what they're going to do, as well as observe and support one another so they can learn from each other's good practice.”

Andrea says teachers want to give children confidence and encourage an active engagement in the learning process.

'We'll be analysing two things. We'll be looking at how the children feel about themselves as a learner; and ultimately we‘re expecting that that will then accelerate their progress academically.

'Eighteen months is a short period of time to accelerate progress, especially with English second language learners, but our end result is that the children will be more confident and therefore more capable learners.”

Coromandel MP Scott Simpson can't wait to see the results of the project during the next 18 months.

'I'm really pleased our local education providers are working together to raise achievement for children in Katikati and around the Coromandel electorate.”

The project is one of 46 selected in a second round of projects from the Teacher-led Innovation Fund, which supports teachers' bright ideas that evidence shows are working and can be shared across schools.

'This is part of National's $359 million Investing in Educational Success initiative, which aims to encourage collaboration between schools to lift teaching practices to help Kiwi students achieve,” says Scott.

This latest round of projects involves 114 schools and six early childhood education providers. It is committing about $3.6 million of the $18 million fund. The next funding round will open in November.

'These projects will trial new ways of doing things, all with the aim of increasing achievement for young New Zealanders,” says Scott.

'Where these projects are successful, other schools will be able to learn from the successes as well, so that excellent practice becomes common practice.”

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1 comment

Not really that new

Posted on 05-07-2016 09:17 | By penguin

I have to disagree with the notion that teaching has (Quote:..


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