A key educational objective for the twenty-first century is developing students' epistemic agency. Epistemic agency is the active process of choosing when, what, where one learns and how one knows, as well as the capacity to create knowledge in a community. The knowledge-building communities model developed by Scardamalia and Bereiter was used in…

This article reports a multiple-case study project into early childhood teachers' thinking and reflection on their teaching interactions with children in three New Zealand early childhood education centres. Using stimulated-recall interviews, teaching teams viewed video-recorded episodes of their teaching and discussed their thinking and…

The rapid increase in the diversity of school populations in some urban settings in New Zealand creates a challenge for school leaders in relation to fostering ethnic inclusion as an important aspect of leading a school with a diverse student population. The purpose of this small study was to investigate the nature and challenges of diversity in…

Learner agency is often seen unproblematically as an integral aspect of "twenty-first century lifelong learning". Agency and instrumentalist forms of teacher professional development are problematised through this qualitative case study that explores a teacher's inquiry into assessment for learning practices. This article illustrates how…

This article reports on an exploratory two-stage sequential mixed methods research study that investigated the views of university educators on the introduction of assessment methods other than essays, exams and dissertations within taught Masters programmes. In the first stage, interviews were conducted internationally with 45 participants and…

Research indicates that adult sensitivity to psychological states (both the adult's and the infant's) will affect the security of attachment yet the teacher's internal state has received little attention in infant care. "Perezhivanie" is a sociocultural concept that presents affect and intellect as a unit rather than separate elements.…

"Working theories" encompass children's theorising about the social and material worlds. This article looks explicitly at power relations involved in pedagogy around children's working theories by focusing on the teacher's control of what and whose working theories get unpacked and extended. From an analysis of four cases from early…

Risk is a complex component of outdoor adventure education (OAE) that can both enhance and diminish meaningful learning experiences. Outdoor professionals are searching for the balance between providing a high level of safety and challenging students through outdoor adventure activities. This case study of Outward Bound New Zealand (OBNZ) utilised…

Community development research suggests that positive partnerships and connections between groups can result in stronger, more resilient and productive communities. Despite community connections featuring increasingly at a curriculum level in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, research is only beginning to explore the nuanced processes…

This article reports on a case study that investigated changes in the motivation of Chinese ESL learners over a three month period of residence in an English-speaking environment. The participants consisted of 11 Chinese ESL learners, who were tertiary students and taking general or academic English courses in New Zealand. They took part in the…

In 2002 Parlo Singh outlined Bernstein's theory of the pedagogic device, elaborating the potential in Bernstein's complex theoretical framework for empirical research. In particular, Singh suggests that Bernstein's concepts provide the means of making explicit the macro and micro structuring of knowledge into pedagogic communication. More…

This paper presents a case study of a teacher's experience in implementing an inquiry approach to his teaching over a period of two years with two different classes. His focus was on using a range of information technologies to support student inquiry learning. Data was collected over the two year period by observation, interview and student work…

ABSTRACT In New Zealand schools, the focus continues to be on improving the reading achievement of all students situated across a range of socio-economic groups. This is particularly so for our young adolescent students, where research investigations have indicated some concerning trends which influence reading development for this age group. This…

This paper considers curriculum integration in the secondary school context and investigates the claims made that it can enhance learning outcomes for students. I argue that curriculum integration should be utilized not as a main means of curricular delivery but as a supplementary opportunity to put disciplinary knowledge to use in certain,…

This study demonstrates a game-based learning (GBL) approach to engage students in learning and enhance their programming skills. The paper gives a detailed narrative of how an educational game was mapped with the curriculum of a prescribed programming course in a computing diploma study programme. Two separate student cohorts were invited to…