Becoming effective teachers for under 25 students: A model for professional development decision making

Judith Honeyfield - Bay of Plenty Polytechnic

Dr. Vaughan Bidois – Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi

Other team members:

Dr. Lesley Petersen - Eastern Institute of Technology

Mike Crossan - Wintec,

Liz Fitchett, Helen van Toor & Leonie Nicholls - Waiariki Institute of Technology

Overview of this project

• Five partners EIT, BoPP, TWWOA, Wintec, Waiariki.

• Ako Aotearoa funded – 2 year - NPF.

• 70% of case studies are trades programmes and national certificates with an industry focus

• 30% at degree level - Education (Primary and Early Childhood), & Computing.

• Utilises a Kaupapa Maori Framework – social, cultural and political context.

• Each institution has its own context, environment and cultural setting.

Aim and Purpose of the Project

• To investigate and evaluate decision making processes that positively impact upon the success and achievement of Under 25 students.

• To identify key factors that support decision making processes and professional development for effective teaching of under 25 students.

• To critically analyse existing perceptions of professional development in the advancement of a student-centred, teacher driven decision making model of success and achievement

Project background

• TES Priority Groups

The Tertiary Education Strategy (TES) calls for better performance from the tertiary education sector including raising achievement and progression for all students under 25 and for the Māori and Pasifika students.

• EIT Study

A study undertaken at the Eastern Institute of Technology in 2013, investigated teacher professional development for youth, Maori and Pacific students, found that there is no evidence-based model that guides professional development decision-making for teachers of this student cohort.

Decision making model

Student voices

Methodology - Kaupapa Māori

• Transformative and Collaborative Student-centered Research

• Critical and Reflexive in its Approach – Ethical Framework

• Culturally Responsive and Context Situated (Fa’a Samoa and Kaupapa Māori Approaches)

• 2 Research Team Hui to address and agree – Embedding Kaupapa Māori

• Acknowledging Diversity of Student Identity and Culture

• How do we know what we know? - Challenging ourselves as researchers and as a research team.

Social Policy Evaluation and Research (SPEaR)

Developing a Conceptual Framework

StudentFriends/ Whānau

Teacher

Staff Developer

Institution

Hapū/ Iwi

Government

Political

Structural

Cultural

Political

Structural

Cultural

Participants and tools

• 10 Case studies high number under 25 - Action research approach• Student focus groups• Teacher interviews• Staff developer and learner support staff interviews• Line managers and Heads of school• Project champion

• Range of PD interventions – delivery – resource development

• Student & teacher evaluations – iterative, critical and reflexive

Progress to date

• 253 Student interviews

• 76 Teaching staff interviews

• 12 Staff developers & student support interviews

• 28 Leadership team interviews

• PD activities constructed/monitoring

Key themes emerging informed by student voice across the five institutions :• Case study participants as champions – repositioning

• Decision-making processes engaging with and challenging the

traditional notion of PD ( external vs internal)

• Key questions emerging from the case studies - what is

professional development? - more reflective/reflexive about

own practice with under 25’s

• Leadership/sponsorship and champions – as researchers and

teachers

• General engagement – seen as valuable and yet some

disengagement

Project next steps

• Continued Data collection

• Capturing uniqueness of case studies

• Tracking PD planning, resources, decision-making and

outcomes for staff and students.

• Repositioning how we think and talk about PD as researchers

• Acknowledging current effective practice as well as identifying

areas for new resource development for PD for under 25’s

• Team meeting as reflexive praxis talks to social, political and

cultural influences on ourselves as educators and researchers

to transform the lives of our students.

THANK YOU

ANY QUESTIONS AND QUERIES