What approaches are used in the multi-level language class and what influences a teacher's choice of approach? Multi-level language classes, the combining of two or more senior year levels into a single class, is a relatively recent phenomenon and one that is becoming increasingly common in New Zealand secondary schools as a consequence of a…

The paper presents a reconceptualisation of trades tutors drawn from tutors themselves. Trade educators here are seen as multidisciplinary, multi-dimensional practitioners with an occupational milieu that goes beyond the reductionist and instrumentalist views of teaching with which vocational education is often beset. Trade-tutor perspectives on…

This report comes from an exploratory project looking at professional learning and development for primary science teachers. In recent years there has been increased interest in science in New Zealand for social and economic reasons. However, there has been concern that the primary school system is not preparing students as well as it could in…

How do you support busy school leaders and teachers to take advantage of the strong body of evidence now available about effective teaching, school, and leadership practices? How do we grow our understanding of teaching, school, and principal leadership practices nationally, so that the system can learn and improve? What are the strengths and…

This is one teacher's story about teaching writing. It describes and explains how Mickey (the second author) encouraged her young writers (6-7-year-olds) to collaborate with their peers "to make their writing even better". The article describes how the teacher, Mickey, redesigned her writing lessons to further scaffold beginner writers.…

The stories shared by the immigrant teachers capture some of their personal and professional lived experiences in their new teaching environment. The hermeneutic narrative approach of the study of seven immigrant teachers' stories, as they compared their teaching experiences in their home country to their New Zealand teaching experience, offer…

Digital technologies offer immense potential for transforming teacher learning and the delivery of professional development activities throughout teachers' careers. As the COVID-19 pandemic has made face-to­-face professional learning challenging or impossible for teachers to attend in many contexts, online professional learning options for…

This study sought to identify preservice teachers' perceptions of their student teaching abroad experience and its effectiveness in preparing them to be globally competent educators upon completion of their student teaching as well as two years after. Findings indicate that they perceive their experience to have been both advantageous and…

This article shares a school based inquiry project undertaken by staff in a special day school in the North Island of New Zealand supported by an external teacher educator/researcher from the United States. The inquiry project followed the Accessible Research Cycle (Jones, Whitehurst, & Egerton, 2012), which is a phased progression of…

New Zealand now has its first national picture of teaching and school practices, and principal leadership in English-medium schools. The Teaching and School Practices Survey Tool (TSP) is an online survey tool designed for schools and Kahui Ako to inquire into their teaching, school, and principal leadership practices. The TSP tool was developed…

In this essay, we investigate the learning and teaching experiences in the international classroom from both the teachers and the students' perspectives. The findings of this study showed that language barriers are one of the difficulties, but academic cultural differences seem to play a more important role that can impact on the learning outcomes…

New Zealand primary school teachers have access to a comprehensive arts curriculum that includes dance, drama, music, and visual arts. This research focused on several teachers' reality of implementing the dance curriculum in New Zealand primary schools, drawing on Snook's (2012) study in this field. Our research valued the voices of teachers,…

The early childhood education (ECE) sector in New Zealand has long been recognised for the diversity of service types and range of organisations involved in delivering ECE. However, less attention has been paid to diversity within individual ECE services. This article draws on a national survey carried out as part of a larger project, "The…

The purposes of professional experience within initial teacher education programs are varied (Russell, 2005). However, there is limited literature explaining (a) university-based teacher educators' beliefs about its purposes and (b) how these purposes are reflected in practice. This study investigated these themes. A pragmatic mixed-method…

As tertiary music educators across the Tasman we argue that music, particularly song, is an effective medium for teaching and learning about non-western music when preparing generalist primary Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs). Using "voice" as a portable and accessible vehicle to transmit cultural understandings, we draw on the Zimbabwean…