There are many alternative teaching practices that have been hugely successful in empowering students to reach their full potential. We also know that making the shift will require significant commitment from our whole education community – students, whānau, hapū, iwi, communities, leaders, teachers, boards, unions, professional bodies, professional learning providers and government agencies.
“By being aware of the thinking and beliefs that inform our practices, we can empower ourselves to reframe what we know, or what we think we know, to help us deliberately design for different and more equitable outcomes. We now have greater access to the full story, so let’s be brave enough and honest enough to do what is right for the benefit of all.”
High Expectation Teaching (HET) is an Aotearoa New Zealand pedagogy offering a viable alternative to the current ways of grouping, and an empirically proven means of lifting achievement.
Developed following the early work of Christine Rubie-Davies (2006, 2007; Rubie-Davies et al, 2007) that showed students with high expectation teachers made more than two years’ academic growth in one year, compared with students in other classes who made little progress over one year.
Observations and interviews showed very different beliefs and classroom structures between these and other teachers. An experimental study (Rubie-Davies et al. 2015; Rubie-Davies & Rosenthal, 2016), showed that all teachers could be trained to become high expectation teachers, and that when they did, student achievement improved significantly.
Using mixed ability and flexible grouping coupled with high-level learning activities for all students.
Fostering a warm, supportive class climate where teachers form close relationships with all students but also where peers support each other.
Using skill-based goal setting coupled with teacher monitoring and feedback to develop student motivation, engagement, and autonomy.
These three key principles are interwoven. Using mixed and flexible forms of grouping means that students often work together on collaborative activities, supporting each other to be successful. This significantly impacts student achievement (d=0.54; Hattie, 2009).
Interesting, exciting, and suitably challenging activities enable all to experience the pleasure of accomplishment.
While goal setting serves to strengthen the relationship between teacher and student with students understanding how to improve, and seeing themselves making gains results in them being motivated and engaged in their learning. Both goal setting (d=0.56) and feedback (d=0.73) have large effects on student learning as does a supportive teacher-student relationship (d=0.72).
Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC) is a research-based professional development and pedagogical change initiative (Hunter et al., 2018).
DMIC has evolved in response to the persistent inequities for Māori and Pacific students with those schools with large Pacific communities prioritised for inclusion in the professional learning development (PLD). DMIC uses a whole-school approach and predominantly involves teachers of primary, middle, and lower secondary school students. The PLD uses in-class mentoring and practice-based pedagogies to support teacher uptake of culturally sustaining and ambitious mathematics pedagogy (Hunter et al., 2018; Hunter & Hunter, 2023).
The use of ability grouping as a key pedagogical practice has been prevalent in mathematics classrooms in Aotearoa New Zealand for many years. Interview data with Pacific students highlights the dissonance that students experience when required to work in an individualistic and competitive atmosphere of ability grouping (Hunter & Hunter, 2018).
A key aspect of DMIC PLD is challenging the use of ability-grouping in mathematics and instead transforming practice to support teachers to recognise and build on the strengths of students from diverse cultural backgrounds to develop equitable outcomes.
As shown in Hunter et al (2020) and Fitzgerald et al., (2021) shifting classroom practices away from ability grouping takes both time and specific attention to pedagogical practices. This includes supporting teachers to notice student strengths, redesigning assessment, and introducing new classroom structures for managing interactions. These studies also show how teacher beliefs related to ability grouping can change as teachers enact a new approach.
DMIC Case Study:
Corinna School
Wellington
Reciprocal teaching is a cooperative learning approach that aims to improve students’ reading comprehension skills.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, many teachers and students know it as RT3T, which has been developed and led by Dr Julia Westera. It is being utilised for all schooling levels and across the curriculum.
“The aspects of it to me which are important are around the mixed ability grouping, it is around the fact that the children step up and have agency, that they start to take over the role of teacher and that they work together, they have turns being the teacher and they are also able to assess themselves.”
Shirley Hardcastle - Principal, viscount School
RT3T uses instructional coaching with teachers and ākonga working together, in a structured learning environment in which ākonga quickly become engaged and develop confidence and competence in literacy and leadership.
RT3T facilitators work closely with teachers and school leaders during the initial coaching sessions, and assist with the integration of the deeper thinking, collaborative and well-being strategies and culture across learning areas, school-wide and in home-school partnerships.
RT3T appeals to all ages and ethnicities, and can provide success across all achievement levels, with cohorts continuing to progress in academic and everyday skills each year.
Academic John Hattie ranked reciprocal teaching the third highest-impact strategy out of 49 teaching strategies.
(Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge)
It should not be seen as a comprehensive literacy or learning programme. Instead, it should become an integrated component of a balanced teaching and learning programme.
It is readily incorporated into most learning areas.
Reciprocal teaching also counters bullying and strengthens social relationships in the classroom.
It has been shown to be very effective for Pasifika students.
Because of its potential to strengthen peer learning and learning-to-learn skills, it can be especially effective when used at the start of the school year
It improves reading comprehension, a skill that is fundamental to access to the curriculum and lifelong learning.
The number of reciprocal teaching sessions experienced by students was critical.
Reciprocal teaching is a way of ‘working smarter not harder’.
It has been shown to accelerate progress for very low achievers in low-decile schools.
Whanganui Iwi – taking the local community on the journey.
Led by Ngā Tai o te Awa Trust, Poipoia kia Mōhio has community, whānau, hapū and iwi as its starting point. Putting this into practice meant holding community wānanga to explore the whakapapa of streaming in their rohe to explore who it benefits, to hear the stories from both young and old, and to ask what it might look and feel like if things were done differently. Their approach is one that pitches the collectivism of te ao Māori against the individualism of our western education system.
Students in lower streams felt labeled as dumb leading to low self-esteem and disengagement.
Teachers often have low expectations for Māori students.
Suppression of te reo Māori and Māori values creates alienation.
Streaming decisions are often unfair and lack transparency.
‘Streaming locked me in the bad class’
For Ngā Tai o te Awa, the move away from streaming is not the end goal, it is one milestone on the journey to wellbeing for all in their community.
“The disruption we seek is for mana whenua to lead collective actions to end streaming rather than individual learning settings. We are pitching the collectivism of Te Ao Māori against the individualism of our Western education system”
Dr Tiwha Puketapu
