In this article, the author comments on the articles in this special issue of "Innovations in Education and Teaching International (IETI)." The author recently saw a documentary called "Reel Injun: The Hollywood Indian" about the way American Indians are represented in Hollywood films. Watching this documentary amidst reading…

This article explores the influences on and nature of continuing professional development in the New Zealand early childhood education sector. In addition to discussing the nature of professional development and providing an explanation of the policy context that informs the delivery of professional development, the paper draws on evaluations of…

Many countries are at varying stages of implementing competency-based education into their schools to equip youth with skills necessary to adapt to a changing world. Very little is known regarding practical approaches to incorporate competencies into school curriculum. This study examines five schools in Auckland, New Zealand from a variety of…

In 2012-2013, sixteen senior secondary classes participated in this study, with eight of them being distance classes. Approximately 220 Year 11-13 students and 8 teachers took part in this study. This project aimed at designing and evaluating a computer-supported knowledge building community in senior secondary classes. Researchers sought to…

This paper questions notions of individualism underpinning technocratic approaches to education that marginalise indigenous and migrant peoples' knowledges in tertiary education. Focusing on New Zealand ("Aotearoa") with its colonial and immigrant history, its Maori and Pacific Islander citizens, the authors ask whether education, as its…

When the Maori goddess, "Hinetitama", asked the Maori god, "Tane", who her father was, he replied, "Uia ki nga pou o t whare ... Ask the posts of your house". This traditional Maori (indigenous people of New Zealand) story implies a cultural teaching pedagogy that utilises the "marae" (a Maori building…

Teachers constantly question their own practice. Often, their questions remain unexplored. Collegial observation provides one way to see teaching differently and understand the tensions involved in incorporating new theoretical understandings into practice. Gebhard (1999) argues that conversations preceding and following such observations are…

History courses at The University of Auckland are typically assessed at two or three moments during a semester. The methods used normally employ two essays and a written examination answering questions set by the lecturer. This study describes an assessment innovation in 2008 that expanded both the frequency and variety of activities completed by…

There is a shift occurring in education systems around the world, which could change the face of education as we have known it through blended and online learning. E-Learning offers opportunities and possibilities that were unknown to educators over a decade ago. Countries, states, and school districts are implementing online and blended learning…

Teachers' subject knowledge is recognized as an essential component of effective teaching. In the foreign language context, teachers' subject knowledge includes language proficiency. In New Zealand high schools, foreign languages (e.g. Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish) have recently been offered to learners earlier in their schooling,…

Technology and change are so closely related that the use of the word innovation seems synonymous with technology in many contexts, including that of higher education. This paper contends that university culture and existing capability constrain such innovation and to a large extent determine the nature and extent of organisational change. In the…

This article examines pedagogical shifts in art history teaching that have developed as a response to the implementation of a standards-based assessment regime. The specific characteristics of art history standards-based assessment in the context of New Zealand secondary schools are explained to demonstrate how an exacting form of assessment has…

In 2004 the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) published a set of "Guidelines on Pacific health research". The Guidelines were an attempt to articulate the features of ethical research relationships with Pacific peoples living in Aotearoa New Zealand. This article describes the process of developing these guidelines, using…

In this study, qualitative evidence is collected--through classroom observations and teacher and student interviews--to study the effect of metacognition and the interaction between students' observable cognitive behaviour and the instructional task. This qualitative data is analysed to identify what factors support and improve students'…

Educational disparities between indigenous Maori students and those of the majority continue to be a major issue in New Zealand. Te Kotahitanga, an iterative research and development programme, which commenced in 2001, supports teachers to implement a relationship-based pedagogy in their classrooms in order to improve Maori students' achievement…