This study investigates the challenges of teaching history to primary school students and the endeavour to develop a board game, supported by educational apps and augmented reality, to enhance the learning experience. The initiative is in response to the New Zealand Ministry of Education's mandate that New Zealand's history must be taught in all…

This paper uses the commognitive framework to analyse how a group of four primary school students classify odd and even numbers. The findings show how students' reasoning is grounded in their personal uses of "odd" and "even". The students attend to different features of "oddness" and "evenness" and agree on…

This article describes how a collaborative class strategy and an introductory activity were used to develop students' thinking about business and management communication. The article focuses on teachers who want to integrate critical perspectives about business communication into their classes. A course ethos, learning groups, and an introductory…

This paper reviews literature on constructivist learning theories relevant to and evident in teacher education in a New Zealand university. These theories are illustrated within an authentic technology education context which involves students from a primary teacher-education degree programme. It investigates how a practical activity, based on…

Many novice language teachers have difficulty putting into practice their developing knowledge of language teaching. This article focuses on one of seven case study teachers as an exemplar of those involved in a New Zealand in-service professional development program for teachers of languages (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish) in…

This paper describes teacher responses to a framework designed to support teacher planning for technology. It includes a learning experience outside the classroom [LEOTC] and is designed specifically for five-year-old students. The planning framework draws together characteristics of technology education, junior primary classrooms and LEOTC to…

This paper examines how mathematical understandings might emerge through student-centred inquiry. Data is drawn from a research project on student-centred curriculum integration that situated mathematics within authentic problem-solving contexts and involved students in collaboratively constructed curriculum. The project involved case studies in…

Constructivist learning theories promote students' engagement as one of the key factors in successful learning and knowledge building. Research indicates that the short attention span of adult learners, their need to "learn-by-doing," interact and multitask in the learning process can be accommodated with a positive outcome by…

This paper examines how mathematical understandings might emerge through student-centred inquiry. Data is drawn from a research project on student-centred curriculum integration (CI) that situated mathematics within authentic problem-solving contexts and involved students in collaboratively constructed curriculum. Participatory action research…

Corpus consultation is gaining in prominence as a language learning tool. This approach to language analysis has made its way into the language classroom where its presence ranges from the presentation of printed concordance data with accompanying tasks to the direct use of concordancing software by learners themselves to carry out analyses of…

Reports on interventions in New Zealand elementary and secondary schools to enhance the teaching and learning of technology as a new learning area. Discusses ways in which researchers worked with teachers to introduce technological activities into the classroom, and teachers' reflections on this process. (Author/LRW)

Efforts combining online learning with classroom-based learning in secondary schools are not often reported. It is even more unusual to read reports detailing ways in which external experts can help both students and teachers learn "on-the-job" using both classroom and online facilities. This is particularly true in New Zealand, where…

New Zealand school education through the middle years appears to be in crisis. Sutton (2000) reports that students in the age range from 13-15 years (Years 9 and 10 of schooling) experience the crisis most poignantly. Their teachers increasingly say children in this age range are difficult to motivate, that they present them with their greatest…