Education Papers

This community houses research from the Te Kura Toi Tangata Division of Education at the University of Waikato.

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 1469
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    Relational and collective excellence: unfolding the potential of Pacific early career researchers
    (Journal Article, Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-08-04) Allen, Jean M. Uasika; Bennett, Jesi Lujan; Clark, Zaramasina L.; Escott, Kirita-Rose; Fa'avae, David Taufui Mkiato; Kaulamatoa, JL; Kaulamatoa, R; Lolohea, T; Porter, M; Pulu, V; Tapuke, S; Ualesi, Y; Withers, SE; Woolner, Victoria Helen
    As Pacific early career researchers (ECRs), relational interconnections and engagement are at the heart of our collective responsibilities to each other. Although we share a mutual responsibility to our research communities (in academia and industry), each Pacific ECR is unique in our field of research and genealogical connections to the Pacific. This paper engages the Indigenous storywork methodology to capture, negotiate, and make meaningful links between our research experiences and relational excellence. This methodological approach reveals thematic elements of respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy are woven throughout the paper to highlight our collective va-relationality and potential as ECRs. Our collaborative approach to defining and engaging with Pacific research creates new and innovative possibilities for Indigenous and Pacific research excellence.
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    Student expectations of peers in academic asynchronous online discussion
    (Journal Article, Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand, 2022) Forbes, Dianne Leslie
    In open, flexible, and distance learning, asynchronous online discussion persists as a popular means of interaction and collaboration. The research literature abounds with consideration of instructor roles and expectations of teachers and tools. Student-to-student interaction is widely acknowledged as a salient benefit of asynchronous online discussion, with implications for collaborative learning and problem-solving, as well as student satisfaction and course commitment. But what do students expect of their peers when communicating online for learning purposes? This question has seldom been considered, despite common reliance on peer-to-peer learning interactions. This small-scale case study incorporates an online focus group and semi-structured interviews with second-year undergraduate students studying primary teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand. The students in this study expect responsive, free-flowing contributions by peers, culminating in discussion that is active and interactive. Given the imperative to value student experience and to involve students in active learning, it is timely to share peer expectations so that students are accountable to their class community and are better prepared for collaborative learning through asynchronous online discussion.
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    Sentence initial lexical bundles in Chinese and New Zealand PhD theses in the discipline of General and Applied Linguistics
    (Journal Article, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2022-09-21) Li, Liang; Franken, Margaret; Wu, Shaoqun
    Lexical bundles are recurrent multiword combinations and often function as discourse building blocks. Lexical bundles have been analysed in university students’ writing to detect linguistic errors, measure writing competence, and investigate the divergence between L1 and L2 writing. Few studies, however, have focused on the high-stakes genre of PhD thesis and investigated the bundle productions of the same genre within the same level and discipline. This paper compares sentence initial lexical bundles in the corpora of English theses written by Chinese and New Zealand PhD students in the discipline of General and Applied Linguistics. Forty-six bundles from a Chinese corpus and forty-two bundles from a New Zealand corpus were generated. Among them, 94% of sentence initial bundles were identified as metadiscursive bundles. Chinese and New Zealand doctoral students showed considerably different preferences in their bundle selection. The paper examines the possible impact of these preferences and suggests there is a need to extend the metadiscourse knowledge of doctoral students in terms of lexical bundles.
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    Using colleague coaching to develop teacher data literacy
    (Journal Article, Routledge Journals, Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-05-29) Edwards, Frances; Cowie, Bronwen; Trask, Suzanne Adele
    This paper reports on teachers developing their own data literacy and then acting as data coaches for colleagues in their schools. The 13 teachers from 8 schools in the study analysed standardised data using a data conversation protocol, identified students with significant mathematical misconceptions and took data-informed action with these students. Through this inquiry process they developed confidence to act as data coaches with a small number of colleagues. By positioning themselves as co-learners with their coachees the teachercoaches circumvented school power dynamics. Instead they drew authority from their own inquiries using the data conversation protocol. Nonetheless, some faced challenges when coachees were assigned to the process and/or the formative intent of data use was not clear to coachees.
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    Diorama and young people’s exploration of sustainable communities
    (Conference Contribution, University of Waikato, 2023-11-21) Taylor, Simon
    This paper reports on a study using diorama constructions made by 13–14-year-olds who have been studying the topic of climate science. A diorama is a model representing a scene with three-dimensional structures, usually in miniature. The building and interaction of diorama is not the norm for students to represent their thinking of sustainable communities, however there is growing interest in representational work and multimodal reasoning which provide a springboard for scientific play, dialogue, and agency. Using a micro-ethnographic approach informed by socio-semiotic perspectives with the research of Lemke (2004), this study aimed to explore how diorama construction and the associated interaction can contribute to student reasoning and learning. Data were generated using audio recorders and multiple cameras, tracking groups of students negotiating their visual representations. The analysis proceeded through active and iterative viewing of audio and video recordings, followed by identification of themes to establish possible relationships between construction and reasoning. Through this process, the study (a) identifies multiple, necessary conditions and varied opportunities for students to enact and enable reasoning, and (b) extend current understanding of how the affordances of this visual mode interact with these conditions to contribute to student learning of climate science.
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