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CRIMINALS IN THE CLASSROOM: THE UNI, THE POLY EXAMINING ITE SELECTION PROCESSES

NZ’S GROWING SUPPORT FOR OPEN EDUCATION

AND THE WANANGA:

THE RISE OF TERTIARY EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS

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IMPROVING GOVERNANCE OR GOVERNMENT HIJACK?

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A BILLION DOLLARS:

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EDUCATION SUPERSTAR: WHAT’S THE FUSS ABOUT FINLAND?

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BEHIND THE CHRISTCHURCH EDUCATION SPEND

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POSTGRADUATES REVOLT OVER STUDENT ALLOWANCE CHANGES

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PATHWAY OF THE POOR?

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NAVIGATING THE SYSTEM:

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Education Review’s print edition is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to in-depth coverage of education in New Zealand.

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TWITTER FEED About 730 new graduates have successfully found places on state-subsidised new graduate programmes Proposed tougher standards for overseas nurses rejected as discriminatory 28 January 2013 The Nursing Council has rejected its proposal that nurses trained in India and the Philippines sit an exam and face tougher English language requirements to nurse in New Zealand. Financial stick raised over new grad places13 Ex-president wins back

• Education in Review: reflections on 2012 • NovoPAIN • The silver lining of cloud-based learning • Bulk buying: the pros and cons of Government procurement reforms • Paving the way for future growth • The Teacher Brain Drain • Charter Schools: answer to underachievement or mad experiment? • Town & Gown • Decile decisions • Early childhood education in 2012: a round-up • The Christchurch conundrum • Failure to launch: postgraduate initial teacher education • The big u-turn on class sizes • Public property: schools’ achievement

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NEWSFEED NEW GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT RATES UNCLEAR 28 January 2013

About 730 new graduates have successfully found places on statesubsidised new graduate programmes PROPOSED TOUGHER STANDARDS FOR OVERSEAS NURSES REJECTED AS DISCRIMINATORY 28 January 2013

The Nursing Council has rejected its proposal that nurses trained in India and the Philippines sit an exam and face tougher English language requirements to nurse in New Zealand. Financial stick raised over new grad

EDUCATION REVIEWseries

Don’t forget the arts

Budget Day is a time I dread and look forward to in equal measures. It is usually a game of trying to spot which areas have missed out amid the announcements of all the ‘winners’. Tertiary education was, moreover, a winner in Budget 2014. Especially for those with a vested interest in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects. Of the $198.6 million of operating funding for new investment in tertiary education, most will be spent on increasing tuition subsidies in science, agriculture, pharmacy, and physiotherapy. A recent report emerging from Education Counts on employment earnings supports this big push for science. It confirms what many of us know or suspect: that graduates from the humanities subjects typically earn a lot less than their science counterparts. Due to a lack of interest and ability, a career in a science or mathematics related field was ruled out from an early age. Regardless of earnings potential or tuition subsidies, there is no way I would have chosen a different course of study. There will be many, many students around New Zealand who, like me, are wired with more of a bent for the arts. I only hope they are not starting to doubt themselves as they make their decisions about what course of study to follow. I wonder about the trickle-down effect of Minister Joyce’s STEM push. Are parents in living rooms and career advisors in secondary schools around the country nudging students towards the sciences on the promise of better prospects? It must be happening in some guise because universities are reporting a shift in enrolments from arts to STEM disciplines. While I agree it is sensible to consider which way the employment supply-demand seesaw is tilted, part of me feels sad that the arts and humanities are being cast as a poor relation to the sciences. Perhaps a BA might not lead you to the level of salary you would earn if you studied medicine – or perhaps it might – but either way, it seems we need to get past this short-term focus and look to the greater value that the arts play in society. Jude Barback, Editor editor@educationreview.co.nz

INside: 2

Criminals in the classroom: are teacher education providers selecting the right people?

One year on: tracking down our teacher students

Faces of teacher education

Teach First NZ – one teacher’s reflection

MOOCs finding their place in New Zealand tertiary education

Putting student voice to good use

Finding the best path to school-based teacher education

Open education – possible future or utopian idea?

Collaboration = innovation: delivering education without borders

Born to teach

Improving governance or government power grab?

The door to tertiary education – open to whom?

PBRF changes not to everyone’s liking

Crossing the threshold

One big happy family: uni, polys and whānanga collaboration

EDITOR Jude Barback PRODUCTION Aaron Morey Dan Phillips ADVERTISING & MARKETING MANAGER Belle Hanrahan PUBLISHER & GENERAL MANAGER Bronwen Wilkins EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Shane Cummings CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kelsie Davie-Morland, Frances Denz, Meg Jones, Vivienne Mackisack, Marci Powell, Annie Riley, Te Manaaroha Rollo, Yolande Thom IMAGES Thinkstock

PostGrad Education Vol 5 Issue 3

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ISSN: 1173-8014 Errors and omissions: Whilst the publishers have attempted to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information, no responsibility can be accepted by the publishers for any errors or omissions. Education Review is distributed to key decision makers in the education sector and its distribution is audited by New Zealand Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC). Distribution: 6450

ITE SELECTION

CRIMINALS IN THE CLASSROOM ARE TEACHER EDUCATION PROVIDERS SELECTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE? Student teachers who will ultimately be denied teacher registration are being accepted onto teacher education programmes, casting a question mark over the stringency and consistency of ITE provider selection processes. JUDE BARBACK investigates whether concerns are warranted and whether EDUCANZ might hold the cards for change.

o become a registered teacher in New Zealand, applicants need to satisfy the Teachers Council that they are (or are likely to be) a satisfactory teacher, of good character, qualified to teach, and have a Police vet satisfactory to the Council. It’s a fairly modest list of requirements, yet nearly 50 applications for teacher registration were declined by the Teachers Council last year. Some were declined for being insufficiently qualified, some for failing to be of good character, and some for having criminal convictions. Teacher education programmes don’t come cheap. As fees stand at the moment, full-time study of a Bachelor of Education programme from AUT University will set a domestic student back around $5,500 per year for three years, or four if he or she

2 Postgrad Education 2014 EDUCATION REVIEWseries

goes on to take the Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching; the one-year Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Primary) course from Massey University costs $4,833, on top of the prerequisite bachelor’s degree. It stands to reason that a student parting with $20,000 to become a teacher expects to become a teacher at the end of the journey. But if teacher applicants are being rejected by the Teachers Council on the grounds of criminal convictions, it begs some serious questions about the entry standards and vetting procedures of initial teacher education (ITE) providers, and the level of transparency under which they engage with prospective students. A student teacher with a conviction will inevitably be in contact with children during their practicum placements in schools. While this in itself does not justify cause for concern in every case, owing to the

supervised nature of practicums and the varying nature of convictions, it does open the door to the possibility of exposing children to someone who will ultimately be deemed unsuitable to teach. In terms of gaining access to teaching children, there are many points at which an unsuitable person could slip through the net, including at the point of employment by a school and at the point of teacher registration. The unfortunate and high profile cases of two sex offenders in New Zealand schools are evidence that it does happen. However, these cases in particular have prompted an overhaul in these areas. Recruitment protocols have been strengthened in schools, for example. But has much scrutiny been given to the point where a teaching career potentially begins – the point of acceptance onto an ITE programme?

ITE SELECTION Where to draw the line... and who draws it?

Of course, there are convictions and then there are Convictions. It is important not to put everyone in the same basket. There are certain convictions that would never be considered as suitable for teaching, such as those for sexual offences. The new Vulnerable Children’s Act will formally exclude people from teaching with certain convictions. However, it is not so black and white when it comes to lesser convictions. The Teachers Council’s document (Approval, Review and Monitoring Processes and Requirements for Initial Teacher Education Programmes) specifies that all applicants who are offered a place in an ITE programme must have a Police vet. Associate dean of teacher education at University of Waikato, Beverly Cooper, believes practices are fairly consistent across all providers. “No one has open entry – all providers interview, Police vet and call for referees’ reports for all applicants.” But it does not follow that what is uncovered by a Police vet or referee report will result in one provider making the same decision as another. A conviction is discussed in its own context, and in the wider context of the applicant’s suitability to teach, which can be fairly subjective. In terms of the weight of the conviction, the aforementioned Teachers Council document also states that when making decisions regarding admission into a programme the provider needs to take account of the severity, recency, age at offending and pattern of offending of convictions. Many people with minor convictions are covered by the Clean Slate Act 2004. It is generally accepted that in some circumstances previous convictions may be very historic and of a minor nature and ought not to be a bar from teaching. As Lexie Grudnoff, deputy dean of education at the University of Auckland, says, an applicant who has a five year old conviction for drunk driving and nothing else would be looked at differently from someone who has a pattern of drink driving convictions over five years. Cooper adds that such decisions are not made lightly. “Those who have evidence of criminal convictions which we could consider must provide referees statements from professional people such as a school principal that can vouch for the person’s ‘good character’ and who have seen them interact with young people. All applicants for ITE are interviewed face to face and those with a conviction are, in addition, interviewed by the associate dean teacher education and/or the dean. “Providers of ITE take their responsibilities very seriously and are very careful over who they select. [They] are very aware that there is a possibility that any student with a conviction may not be registered.” Cooper says if there is any significant doubt about the severity or recency of the offence, student teachers are not shortlisted or interviewed for a programme. “In most cases the conviction is minor and occurred when they were very young. The student is informed of the risk and often advice is sought from NZTC.”

However, it would seem not all providers take such a stringent approach. Teachers Council disciplinary tribunal member Patrick Walsh says that information he has received suggests that there are some candidates accepted into teaching programmes with more major convictions for assault, drug use and burglary. “In relation to these offences, ITE providers need to be mindful that there is a clear public expectation that students will be safe in the hands of teachers and that any person with these convictions who might pose a potential risk ought not to be accepted into teacher training.” Are Teachers Council’s disciplinary processes pitched at the right level? Walsh believes they are “fair and robust”. He acknowledges that it is a difficult balancing act in which the prospective teacher’s career, reputation and livelihood is weighed against the right of every student to be safe in a school and to be taught by a competent teacher. Walsh admits to having serious concerns about the current competency process. “This process is very robust and transparent in a school setting and it seems to me that if a teacher is dismissed for incompetency in a school, then unless there are serious process issues the Teachers Council should move quickly to deregistration rather than offering more professional development.” He points to international research which demonstrates that students lose two years of learning under an incompetent teacher. “The test I use is: would I be happy for this teacher to teach my child? If the answer is no, then other parents ought not to have to suffer this teacher either,” says Walsh.

Are ITE providers calling the shots?

However, while there is alignment between Council requirements for ITE programme approvals and registration as new teachers, it would seem that ITE providers can still choose to accept students at their own discretion. Secondary Schools Principals Association president Tom Parsons believes there is a huge variance between training providers’ standards and those in the profession. “We’re in a stupid situation of having education providers dictate what they’re going to train the profession in without any industry input,” he told the Dominion Post. Walsh says that although ITE providers are aware of the Council’s policy on criminal convictions, they are not bound to follow it, and can in fact have their own interpretation of this policy. Walsh speculates that many ITE providers are motivated by “bums on seats” and consequently may fail to apply rigorous standards. “This results, in my view, in some ITEs setting a low benchmark for those applying for teaching with criminal convictions,” says Walsh. “The risks associated with this include that people are accepted into teacher training with convictions which would be below the legitimate expectation of public, parents and indeed the teaching profession itself. “It also has the net effect that some of these teachers will not be approved by the [Council] for registration because they fall below their standard.

For me this is unacceptable because it wastes tax payer money training them, and the personal investment from the student.” But ITE providers claim they are held accountable by the Council. Every ITE programme is approved by the Council, monitored by the Council every two years, and reapproved by the Council every six years. Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ), the body that represents all providers who offer degree level ITE programmes meets regularly with the Teachers Council to discuss issues. Cooper, who is the chair of TEFANZ, says, “We all take the same approach”. Lexie Grudnoff agrees that the Teachers Council, as the overseeing body and gatekeeper of teacher registration holds ITE providers accountable. She says the Council questions the provider if there are issues regarding an applicant’s convictions. But it could be argued that by this point it is too late – if the Council has issues with an applicant’s convictions, the implication is that the investment into his or her training is potentially wasted, and a person who has been deemed unsuitable to teach has already been in classrooms during their student teacher placements. While it is of some reassurance to know that the Council feeds back to the provider and that a provider can learn from the experience, is this really acceptable practice?

Convictions during the programme

The other potentially difficult area is when convictions occur during the ITE programme. Teachers Council director Dr Peter Lind says ITE providers have in their programme regulations a requirement for student teachers to inform them if they are charged with an offence while in the programme – depending upon the nature of the charge they could be a risk going out on practicum amongst children. Student teachers also have a requirement to inform their providers if convicted of an offence and its nature. Lind says if neither of these is followed by the student teacher then the student teacher’s honesty and good character are called into question. However, Cooper says that unless a student discloses a conviction as per the provider’s policies, they cannot advise that student of the consequences. She adds that there is no information sharing between the courts and ITE institutions, which can make this a difficult situation for both the provider and the student. Lind says that it would be impractical for courts to liaise with providers in this way. “Students are often only listed as a ‘student’ in the court records so the court staff won’t know they are student teachers. To expect them to find out the area of study and then the name of the provider is unrealistic. “From my contact with providers, on the whole most of them do not have any issue around this matter,” adds Lind. The problematic aspect is that a new offence, such as an excess breath alcohol offence, for example, can expose convictions previously masked by the Clean Slate Act. The student may have been accepted onto the programme with no record of conviction, but when he or she applies for

EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014

ITE SELECTION registration three years later, a list of minor offences that occurred when the student was younger appear when the Police vet is repeated. This, as Cooper acknowledges, “does not look good”.

Will EDUCANZ make a difference?

The Teachers Council is soon to be replaced by the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (EDUCANZ) and the proposed structure and function of the new professional body have already suffered much scrutiny and debate. Walsh believes EDUCANZ has the opportunity to better reflect the Government’s and the public’s expectation that those wishing to teach must reach high professional standards. “I think the new EDUCANZ body provides an exciting opportunity to front end some of the quality issues we have had in the teaching profession. If we are able to set a high benchmark for entry into the teaching profession including criminal convictions, it will have an overwhelming effect upon the quality of teaching and consequently learning outcomes for students. “Feedback from principals suggests that the screening process used by some ITE providers is not strong enough to prevent those that are clearly not suited to teaching entering the profession. Addressing this issue must be a top priority for EDUCANZ.” Walsh says the new body should establish a national standard for those with criminal convictions applying for teaching, which all ITE providers much accept and apply. His thoughts echo some of the ideas expressed in John Morris and Rose Patterson’s New Zealand Initiative Teaching Stars report, in which the authors state that entry standards to ITE are too low. Apart from the minimum literacy and numeracy levels required by Teachers Council, entry standards are up to the individual providers and selection processes are “unregulated and variable”. It also states that ITE providers resist failing nonperforming trainee teachers. The Teaching Stars report recommends that EDUCANZ should be charged with lifting the quality of ITE programmes, by accrediting providers based on entry standards and processes, curriculum, and teacher graduate standards. It also suggests that EDUCANZ should explore the possibility of developing a nationally consistent screening tool to select candidates with the right intellectual abilities and personal dispositions for teaching. The report gives the example of an online tool used at the University of Melbourne, called ‘Teacher Selector’ which programme applicants need to complete to assess their suitability for teaching, and suggest EDUCANZ considers adopting such an approach for New Zealand. However, Massey Institute of Education director Sally Hansen says she would have some trepidation about moving to a standardised approach, as is happening in some other parts of the world, such as North America and Australia. “I would be very cautious about introducing a one-size-fits-all approach.” Bev Cooper agrees. She says the introduction of a formal pre-registration process for ITE students is likely to pose some difficulties in terms of resourcing and practicalities. “The new body could determine if the conviction would lead to registration and signal this to the provider. But decisions for entry are made on a whole range of evidence supplied by the candidate and their referees [regarding their] suitability. “In addition a face-to-face interview is carried out by staff at the faculties/ colleges and includes members of the profession on the selection panels the Police vet alone does not mean a person is suitable for teaching. Many people without convictions are not accepted for teaching. “The process would need to be thought through very carefully.” Indeed it will, as EDUCANZ slowly begins to sprout from the underpinning legislation. It is a difficult balancing act. There are certainly strong arguments to be made for presenting the industry with a one-size-fits-all approach to pre-registration processes, including national selection and screening tools. But there is also an argument for treating individuals as individuals when it comes to deciding their suitability for teaching, and this includes putting any convictions into the appropriate context. Ultimately, it boils down to what is best for New Zealand students, and on that premise, providers and the professional body will surely work together to make the right decisions going forward – we hope.  4 Postgrad Education 2014 EDUCATION REVIEWseries

PROFILES

ONE YEAR ON:

TRACKING DOWN OUR TEACHER STUDENTS Last year Education Review profiled teacher students ANNIE RILEY and KELSIE DAVIE-MORLAND about their path to becoming teachers. One year on, we catch up with them to find out how they’re getting on. Annie Riley, Massey University

At the end of 2013, I complete the Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Primary) at Massey University. My undergraduate qualification is not in education; I completed a Bachelor of Communication at Massey University in Wellington at the end of 2011. I have just finished my first term of teaching at Westmount School in Hawkes Bay and can say it was fun, exciting, interesting – and long! My course prepared me very well and I feel confident planning and implementing new learning, which considers both the curriculum and the best interests of my students. I have built upon both the theory I learned and my practical experiences. I am now beginning to establish myself as a teacher and develop my own personal teaching philosophy. The 12 weeks I spent in classrooms whilst at university were very beneficial. However, there is nothing quite like having your own classroom and I still have a lot to learn! In saying this, I am lucky to have found myself in a supportive and collegial environment where I am able to draw from experienced teachers. So far, I absolutely love the job and I look forward to continuing to learn alongside my students.

Kelsie Davie-Morland, University of Waikato

I’m now in my second year of the conjoint degree. I have recently accepted a double major in Theatre and English as well, which is stretching me a little thin but I would not have it any other way. This year has definitely been an eye-opener in terms of what’s required for teaching. I haven’t been on practicum or into a classroom yet, but learning the tools to take into the classroom has been incredible. Who knew the detail that needed to go into planning lessons? The lecturers have been nothing but understanding and are incredible at what they do. I’ve learnt so much about behind the scenes of being a teacher and have made me appreciate what my teachers did for me. To be quite honest, at the end of last year, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a teacher. Many times I said to myself, “This wasn’t what I expected; it’s not what I want”. But having stuck to it, I’ve found a new passion and excitement. I can’t wait to get out into a classroom and start inspiring kids the way I was. The assignments are a bit daunting, but of course, Rome wasn’t built in a day. My advice to anyone wanting to enrol in the conjoint degree is stick with it. You are going to have doubts, you will have second thoughts, but if you hang in there, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. And don’t be afraid to keep in contact with your old teachers, they’ll be a treasure trove of knowledge! To view last year’s article, please visit: http://goo.gl/V2eR5X 

PROFILES

FACES OF TEACHER EDUCATION Education Review asks VIVIENNE MACKISACK and TE MANAAROHA ROLLO how they found themselves in teacher education, and the joys and frustrations of working in this sector.

Vivienne Mackisack Associate Director Primary Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland In 2009, I was associate principal in a lowdecile primary school when I was offered the opportunity to work closely with the Faculty of Education at The University of Auckland in the Reframing Practicum Project, which is focused on addressing the theory-practice divide in initial teacher education. Given the Faculty of Education’s determination to see schools and the university partnering to provide robust and authentic professional experience for student teachers, it was an easy decision. My involvement in the project furthered my growing interest in working with student teachers during practicum and presented me with opportunities I had not anticipated. I worked with university academics as a colleague and I was provided subsidised access to further study. The courses that I was able to enrol in for my Master of Education were closely aligned to my areas of interest and strength, both academically and professionally. I was offered a one-year secondment to the Faculty in 2010 and made the final commitment to initial teacher education in 2011. This was not an easy decision. I left a 30-year career in schools, but it was the right decision for me. I chose to move to the Faculty because I enjoy the research-based, evidence informed focus of the university environment as this challenges my thinking and enables me to advance my own learning. I also saw the opportunity to participate in critical initiatives in ways that were not available in a school. The work that our faculty and school partners are doing together to design practicum experiences that provide connection between teacher preparation and professional practice as a teacher gives me confidence in the future of teacher education. Regardless of regulatory or policy requirements or initiatives, together we can ensure that student teachers make the transition from preparation to teaching. Because we continue to believe in our work together, we are learning together. We are proving that the theory-practice divide can change on many levels. It is a privilege to be teaching tomorrow’s teachers and while we have many student teachers who thrive at university, it can be a difficult environment to navigate for some student teachers for many reasons. As a programme leader, my work with our student teachers must take account of the New Zealand Teachers Council’s Graduating Teacher Standards, the expectations of a research-led, innovative university and my own commitment to the Registered Teacher Criteria. This role can be extremely challenging and it is immensely rewarding – often both at the same time. Teaching at this level of education is justly demanding and I am now a teacher

who is learning to be a researcher. While it is not easy, I will persevere. Initial teacher education needs researchers in our universities who are committed teachers. This is a whole new world for me. I believe that it is a world worth investing in, as a university initial teacher educator and with my colleagues in schools.

Te Manaaroha Rollo (Te Mahurehure-Ngāpuhi & Ngāti Tahinga/Ngāti Te Ata-Waikato) Faculty of Education, University of Waikato Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro nōna te ngāhere Ko te manu e kai ana i te matauranga nōna te ao. The bird that partakes of the miro berry reigns in the forest The bird that partakes of education reigns in the world. Education has always been the pillar of my life, and what makes me the person that I am today. When I talk about education, I talk about mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) to which the marae was my school, and my elders were my teachers. The alternative education was mātauranga Pākeha being educated at Matihetihe Native Māori School in Mitimiti, Hokianga, and Hillary College in Otara. After leaving school, completing form seven (Year 13), I held many positions as a youth worker, managing community and cultural centres, kapa haka tutor, and a full-time entertainer. However, my real passion was to be a teacher in secondary schools, as I enjoyed my educational experience at Hillary College. After returning from my overseas adventures (where I lived for 10 years in Melbourne, Australia and three years in Linz, Austria), I remember calling Ngāpō Wehi (my kapa haka mentor) who encouraged me to get a degree so that I could achieve my dream of becoming a teacher. This was accomplished here at the University of Waikato, where, after graduating with a BA (Honours), and Masters, I am currently undergoing my PhD oral examination. Although I was a pōhara (poor) student and felt the pressure of managing my learning (especially submitting assignments), I really enjoyed my journey here at the university. Teaching at secondary schools was very rewarding as it gave me an opportunity to put theory into practice. I enjoyed teaching, building productive relationships with students, staff and the community. However, the main reward was seeing my students grow, achieve and move on to employment or further education. If my students were happy, then I was happier. However, work at secondary schools was not always easy, as I felt that my creative teaching pedagogies were overshadowed by the demands of administrative work. In 2012, whilst employed as HOD Māori at Melville High School for seven years, I applied for the position as lecturer at the Faculty of Education in the Professional Studies in Education department. At first I was half-hearted about the application, as my heart was still with my students. However, I needed a change and more challenges in my educationally drivenworld. After accepting the position at the Faculty of Education, my whole life has been given a new focus, a new direction. Although, I felt that I made a difference to student’s lives at secondary schools, I now have the opportunity of training new secondary school teachers to make a difference to the upcoming generations. Over the past two years, I had to endure the learning process of designing paper outlines, coordinating papers, upskill my computer skills (Moodle, MyPortfolio), prepare my lectures and tutorials, teaching, attend meetings, complete my PhD, under research, attend conferences and support graduation ceremonies. Has it been busy at the Faculty of Education? Absolutely. However, the core business as a lecturer is to ensure that the students get the best education, and develop as competent teachers. I believe that students reflect teachers, and my main aim as a lecturer is to support student teachers to become unique, individual, effervescent, inspirational and productive teachers. After all, New Zealand and the world depend on our future teachers, and so do our secondary school students. Education has always been the pillar of my life, and will continue to be…

Ko au te manu e kai ana i te matauranga, nōku te ao. I am the bird that partakes of education, the world is mine 

EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014

PROFILES

TEACH

FIRST NZ – ONE TEACHER’S

REFLECTION

The Teach First NZ programme aims to tackle educational inequality by developing top graduates into educators who go on to teach in low decile schools. Teach First NZ teacher YOLANDE THOM reflects on her first year at a low decile Auckland secondary school.

hilosopher Martin Burber once wrote, “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware”. As a lifelong traveller, I continually find myself on a journey in uncharted waters. My journey with Teach First NZ is no exception. Late one afternoon I found myself in a room, surrounded by a group of strangers, listening to a presentation that emphasised the inequalities in New Zealand’s educational outcomes. This not only inspired me, but also motivated me to apply and take on a new challenge with Teach First NZ, helping young people aspire to and reach their full educational potential in life. Being able to look back on my first year with a fresh pair of eyes, I realise that my journey was one that required resilience and integrity. There have been many challenges and frustrations along the way. One of my biggest challenges has been working with low literacy Year 9 students. These students come into secondary school sitting below or at level 2 of the curriculum, yet at that stage they should be sitting at level 4. As much as these students are challenging though, they are also very rewarding, and I find myself focusing on the milestones that they achieve along the way. Each milestone is one step closer to the student’s individual educational destination. In addition, it has also been important for me to allow all of my students to take ownership of their learning with appropriate support in place, so that they have the choice to decide on a pathway that works best for them. Having said this, the same has been applicable for me. I too have found myself in an environment where I have been encouraged to take ownership of my learning and development, as a new teacher who has been visibly supported by my school, my mentors, The University of Auckland, and Teach First NZ. My most recent highlight has been exploring student voices in one of my junior classes. Throughout term one I continued to focus on developing culturally responsive pedagogy. It has been important for me to teach my Māori students as Māori and my Pasifika students as Pasifika. The lens through which I view the world is influenced by my prior knowledge and experience, including implicit expectations and beliefs about how the world works. It is significantly different from the majority of my students; therefore, my lens influences what I notice within my classroom and how I interpret it. With this in mind, I wanted to hear students voice what they felt they learnt throughout our first unit of work: “I learnt more about sacrificing for your own family, achieving what you really believe in, and knowing more about what you really want in life” and “we got to learn new things about our cultures”. I also wanted to hear from my students about what they enjoyed the most: “these two assessments let me express myself about my culture and others”; “I got to express my Māori side”; and “I actually found out what my mountain was, [and] which waka my ancestors were from”. Not only did the students have an opportunity to learn more about their culture, but I also got to know more about my learners, their family and what’s important to them. Upon reflection, the first year of Teach First NZ laid the foundation, and in the second year I’m building upon that. When you are in the first year it’s often hard to navigate your way through, as there are many potholes, detours and roadblocks along the way. However, having experienced and learnt from some of these, my second year journey is more fluid. This means that I am able to enjoy the small Kodak moments, along the continuous journey of teaching and learning. These moments are often what others refer to as the ‘money shot’ or the ‘light bulb’ moments. They are the unexpected delights along the way, the moments that make you smile, and the moments that make teaching worthwhile.  Yolande Thom is from the Teach First NZ 2013 Cohort and is teaching English at Tamaki College, Glen Innes, Auckland. She graduated with BA English & History from the University of Canterbury.

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OPEN EDUCATION

MOOCS FINDING THEIR PLACE IN NEW ZEALAND TERTIARY EDUCATION Following the Innovations in Tertiary Education Delivery Summit, JUDE BARBACK reflects on how MOOCs fit in to the fabric of New Zealand tertiary education.

s they expand their reach year on year, MOOC (or massive open online course) providers like Coursera and Udacity are becoming increasingly familiar to students around the globe, including here in New Zealand. Indeed, our initial forays into MOOC-land are becoming more serious as a number of providers add MOOCs to their course offerings. Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce recently hosted the Innovations in Tertiary Education Delivery Summit, in which MOOCs took centre stage. The Education Counts discussion document on MOOCs helped to give a picture of how they fit into the New Zealand tertiary education landscape. Several New Zealand universities have jumped aboard the MOOC bandwagon. The University of Waikato is now offering an advanced fiveweek MOOC on data mining, following on from the entry-level MOOC, Data Mining with Weka, which the university is currently running for a second time. Massey University also now offers MOOCS, such as ‘Agriculture and the World We Live In’ and ‘Emergency Management’ both starting this month. The University of Auckland has partnered with FutureLearn, a UKbased consortium founded by the Open University to develop and deliver MOOCs from this year as well, starting with ‘Data to Insight: An Introduction to Data Analysis’ and ‘Academic Integrity: Values, Skills, Action’. While Kiwi students are beginning to embrace the concept, the MOOC model does not look set to replace more traditional tertiary education delivery models. Gerard Dunne, who has completed several MOOCs through different providers, says it is hard to see how MOOCs would replace undergraduate learning at a university at this stage. “While there is the opportunity to have interaction via discussion forums and to ask questions of lecturers and teaching assistants, the forums often head off topic, and with classes so large, it’s rare to receive answers from faculty. However, other students often provide interesting answers and viewpoints, of which there is no shortage!” Dennis Viehland of Massey University agrees that the limitations of MOOCs – no formal degree credit, lack of personal interaction, mixed variability in the quality and quantity of instruction – suggest that most tertiary institutions have nothing to fear from MOOCs. University of Otago’s vice-chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne states in an editorial, “although there may be a handful of opportunities in this space, the concept of the MOOC will not displace the traditional university experience and the business case for the future of MOOCs actually hangs by a thread”. Hayne points out that university education is more than just knowledge transfer, and that “residential learning opportunities cannot be replicated over the internet”. She observes that education is a two-way street and that under a MOOC, students cannot access or gain feedback from the worldclass leaders who appear on their screens. While some institutions are approaching MOOCs with more caution than others, Dennis Viehland believes most online educators perceive MOOCs as an opportunity. He points out that many MOOC teachers are integrating the material they developed for MOOCs into their in-class teaching and even moving to a “flipped classroom” model, whereby the MOOC videos are used for out-of-class lectures and key issues are discussed in the classroom. Viehland also believes education stands to gain from the ‘education analytics’ undertaken by MOOC providers who examine how online students learn then feedback to MOOC instructors, course designers and instruction support personnel. “What works best in MOOCs can be passed on throughout the education system.”

However, MOOCs have attracted harsh criticism from a number of universities around the world. In May this year, the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education sent letters and accompanying videos to the leaders of Coursera, Udacity and edX stating that their claims about online higher education were “overblown, misleading, or simply false”. In response, Anant Agarwal, chief executive officer of edX, told U.S. News that massive open online courses (MOOCs) are still an emerging field and he welcomes the debate surrounding the future of higher education. “We are literally giving away our platform for free. At edX, we are focused on people not profit, and we welcome all points of view and dialogue about promoting the advancement of education, both online and on campus.” It is a debate that will continue to play out across the world, including here in New Zealand. While the giants of the MOOC world are establishing themselves as global players, there are calls for a New Zealand provider that is institutionally neutral, although, as Viehland points out, MOOC infrastructure is expensive and with New Zealand universities already operating under constrained resources, a strong business case will have to be developed and accepted. 

EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014

STUDENT VOICE

PUTTING STUDENT VOICE TO GOOD USE

Selected from 19 schools, Clevedon School, Marist Catholic School (Herne Bay), Gladstone Primary School (Mt Albert) and Rhode Street School (Hamilton) are the first to participate in Cognition Education Trust’s inaugural Student Voice Impact on Teacher Decision Making project.

hane Ngatai’s email signature features the words ‘Principal and proud of it’. His school, Rhode Street School in Hamilton, is one of four New Zealand primary schools that have embarked on a year-long professional development project that is all about integrating student voice into decisionmaking. Ngatai is clearly passionate about student voice and it is not hard to understand why his school was selected by Cognition Education Trust for the initiative that will see the schools taking part in a series of workshops facilitated by consultants from Cognition Education Ltd. Rhode Street School has focused on including student voice to inform teaching planning and direction for many years now. Ngatai points to a range of initiatives that have encouraged this focus on student voice, including the school’s student-led conferencing, where students have total ownership and control of the process; over 98 per cent of whānau attend these conferences. Then there is the “phone home initiative”, where students call their whānau at least twice a week to share their learning successes and log these conversations into the school’s student management system for data analysis. Students also attend the staff’s professional development and learning sessions to input their ideas and suggestions, which has proved particularly useful in areas such as ICT development and environmental issues. They run the school’s annual Kai Festival, where over 2000 people attend to sample the kai grown, harvested and cooked by the students. They then decide how to spend the profits for their community. This year, with the help of the Cognition project, the school intends to take student voice to the next level, specifically targeting its focus to include student voice in designing the local curriculum for writing, reading and mathematics as well as incorporating students’ ideas for authentic learning contexts, modern learning environment design, and whānau engagement. Students will also design the profile for what a successful Rhode Street scholar will look like after Years 1 to 8 at the school. The school’s appraisal procedures also reflect this focus on student voice, with teachers linking to archived documentation, video and mp3 voice evidence of student voice in action in their appraisal blogs. Ngatai says that although it is early days, they are already seeing results for this year’s focus on student voice. Edeh Nobari, deputy principal of Clevedon School, which is also taking part in the project, says so far the project has been wonderful for their school. “We are really grateful to be on it and feel like we won the lottery!” she says. “The two training workshops run by Cognition so far have been extremely valuable and helped us to develop our project plans and challenged our thinking around how we gather students’ voice and our project design.” Like Rhode Street School, Clevedon School is using the project to build on what they have already started to achieve. “Over the last two years we have been working very hard to develop

8 Postgrad Education 2014 EDUCATION REVIEWseries

STUDENT VOICE our students’ assessment capability and this project is going to be a huge support as we continue this journey. Our school currently gathers student voice on a variety of things and have started to analyse the data we gain from this but are aware that we need to do much more with what we learn. We are looking forward to learning a lot more about how to improve in this area in order to do the very best for our students.” Nobari says the project has helped the school to focus its attention on the importance of not only gathering, but of using student voice to inform practice. “Since starting the project, we have become more strategic in our school-wide focus of this area. For example, we have used staff meetings to look at and develop our school-wide expectations of what assessment capable learners look and sound like at each level, of which gathering student voice is a integral part of this.” Like Rhode Street, Clevedon’s charter also now includes specific actions on gathering and using student voice, and has incorporated it into teacher appraisal processes. Gladstone School in Auckland, another project participant, hopes to use the project to build students’ awareness of learning so they can better partake in learning processes. Jesse Lee from Gladstone says that the first step has been to develop the

students’ awareness around the language of learning. Interviews were conducted with students across the school around ‘what makes a good learner?’ and it was concluded that students generally do not have the language to articulate what makes a good learner. Ultimately, Gladstone hopes to use students’ views on their achievement as the benchmark for school planning and practise. It is also interested in student voice as a way to measure teacher effectiveness with an aim to develop effective pedagogy at the school. Student voice is not a new concept. There is a lot of research, both here and internationally, on incorporating student voice into school decision making: Rudduck and Futter’s UK study looked at the benefits of student input into designing school environments; Jagersma and Parsons’s Canadian study discussed the importance of student voice in curriculum design. In the United States, Soundout is an assistance programme designed to help schools garner meaningful student involvement throughout education through a series of frameworks, each including tips, outlines, rubrics and other devices to help engage students as “partners in school change”. Closer to home, Rachel Bolstad looked across a series of “student voice” projects undertaken for the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) in 2011, questioning, among other things, how much influence student voice had on engaging adult audiences and assisting in educational

decision making. In doing so Bolstad concluded that ‘student voice’ was better reframed in terms of “youth-adult partnerships” and suggested that while these partnerships are already working well in many schools, in other schools they contradict the more traditional ways of thinking about the roles of adults and youth. In her book Student-centered leadership, Viviane Robinson states that these relationships, along with those with the community, must be strengthened in the course of everything else the school is working on. “Effective educational leadership is not about getting the relationships right and then tackling the difficult work challenges. It is about doing both simultaneously so that relationships are strengthened through doing the hard, collective work of improving teaching and learning.” Certainly, student voice can be used in different ways to achieve different things, and this is reflected in the Cognition initiative: each of the four schools is looking to use the project in slightly different ways, reflecting their own aspirations. The four schools will be given opportunities to collaborate throughout the project. Cognition intends to publish and distribute the collective findings of the project so that educators throughout New Zealand can learn from the schools’ experience. 

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EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014

ALTERNATIVE ITE

FINDING THE BEST PATH TO

SCHOOL-BASED TEACHER EDUCATION Teacher education providers are increasing their collaboration with schools in different ways, but all reporting success. While clearly the way to go, resourcing remains a concern and Education Review questions whether there is room for a more unified approach among providers.

he Teaching Stars report by John Morris and Rose Patterson released earlier this year cast some concerns over the current state of teacher education in New Zealand. Among the observations was the suggestion that there is currently insufficient time in school-based practicums in teacher training courses. The minimum requirement is 14 weeks of in-school training, when international research suggests at least 20 weeks is optimal. The report goes further – it recommends a more “clinical” approach is taken to teacher education, in which providers of graduate or postgraduate programmes could establish a network of partnerships with schools to allow teacher trainees to embark on a period of sustained professional practice during a two or three-week placement block. The idea is underpinned by an approach recently implemented in Australia. However, a closer look at school and teacher education provider partnerships taking shape in New Zealand shows that we are already on our way to addressing this. However, are providers best to do their own thing, or could more be achieved through taking a united front?

Victoria University and Macleans College partnership

One provider-school partnership of note is that between Macleans College in East Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington, which Morris and Patterson mention in their report. The partnership, which began this year, provides a school-based teacher training programme for aspiring secondary school teachers. The trainees are based at Macleans College and have access to Victoria University’s online Graduate Diploma in Teaching programme, including lectures and research. The in-school and online theory work complement each other. They have major subject mentors and the programme includes classroom observation and then teaching. They complete a seven-week teaching practicum at Macleans and another seven weeks in another school. 10 Postgrad Education 2014 EDUCATION REVIEWseries

There is, of course, more to being a teacher than classroom contact, and the programme helps aspiring teachers prepare for aspects of pastoral care and extra-curricular activities that are typically part of school life. As members of staff, aspiring teachers are part of a faculty, and will join one of the eight whānau houses in the school. Byron Bentley, principal of Macleans College, says the partnership with Victoria University came about through a desire to see an “improvement in job-readiness of students graduating from teacher education programmes”. “Through experiential learning and serving an ‘internship’, aspiring teachers graduating from a partnership programme will be more ready to meet the demands of teaching in a school as a first-year teacher. This should improve first-year teacher productivity as they will be better prepared for teaching from the day they commence working in their first full-time role.” Bentley says the partnership is proving to be successful. “The key success is that teachers are far more advanced in their ability to teach and manage a class of students than other aspiring teachers who have spent the year to date solely in a tertiary organisation before they embark on their first practicum in schools.” Bentley says teachers who have come down this path tend to exhibit greater confidence when dealing with students, as they have been exposed to this on a daily basis while at Macleans College. His evidence comes from comparing other aspiring teachers with those who are part of the Victoria/Macleans arrangement, as well as anecdotal evidence provided by the visiting lecturer from Victoria University. “The routines and structures of school life are better understood by the Victoria/Macleans College aspiring teacher as they are living and breathing school life every day, including pastoral care responsibilities and involvement in the school’s extra-curricular programme.” In addition to their time at Macleans College, the aspiring teachers will also have a seven-week practicum in another school during the year, which

will serve to expose them to different students in a different setting. Bentley is open to the possibility of implementing similar partnerships with other institutions, but with the proviso that the programme would have to be well-designed and would need to be a joint venture between the two organisations where there is shared responsibility for the learning undertaken by the aspiring teacher. “The course would need to be designed to maximise the application of the learning occurring in the school environment. So, the partnership arrangement would need to ensure there is strong coherence between the academic theory and the application of this theory in the teaching in the classrooms of the partnership schools.”

ITE provider-school collaboration on the rise Victoria University is not the only one to introduce more collaboration with schools in their teacher education programmes. Massey University’s Institute of Education is also looking to increase collaboration with schools, through a pilot it is running this year. The project, funded by Ako Aotearoa, involves collaborating with schools as part of its teacher education programme. In addition to co-teaching, the project allows schools to have a role in co-constructing teacher education programmes. If successful, the pilot will extend to other schools to inform the design of Massey’s new Master of Teaching and Learning programme, due to be launched next year. Alison Sewell, an initial teacher education programme co-leader at Massey, says the pilot – which is currently being run with College Street Normal School, Central Normal School and Palmerston North Intermediate – is proving to be very successful so far. “The rationale is to bring together the theory and practice; to take the theory and observe how it is lived out in the school environment.” Sewell says it is also helping to strengthen further the relationships between the university and the schools. The University of Auckland is also offering a

ALTERNATIVE ITE new teaching programme from July this year – Master of Teaching (Primary) – that will combine campus-based and school-based teaching and learning. Students of the programme will carry out their practical teaching experience with Learning Hub Schools. These schools will also enable a collaborative approach to the teaching of courses.

Waikato’s CUSP programme findings

The rationale for such approaches is supported by research undertaken at the University of Waikato. The research, led by Ann Harlow, Bev Cooper and Bronwen Cowie, reflects on the university’s Collaborative University School Partnership (CUSP) programme for Initial Teacher Education (ITE). The CUSP programme was grounded on the notion of bringing communities of teacher educators, teachers and pre-service teachers together to establish shared goals and processes to support pre-service teacher learning. Prior to the CUSP programme, microteaching episodes from the Faculty of Education and four-week practicums exposed a lack of connection between the placement and the practicum, and tended to be disruptive to schools. The faculty strived to collaborate with the local Normal schools to co-construct a more coherent and relevant practicum experience, and thus, CUSP was born. The programme involves first-year pre-service

teachers being placed in pairs in one classroom for one day a week during the first semester and in a second classroom for one day a week in the second semester, followed by a three-week practicum. The research found that the majority of preservice teachers who had experienced CUSP placements and practicum in their first year felt this experience had helped them to feel confident about building relationships with children in the classroom, to be reflective about how children learn, to make connections between theory and the practice of teaching and learning and to develop a good understanding of what it means to be a teacher. The research recommends the CUSP programme is continued, however it also identifies the importance of support from associate teachers and clarity around practicum expectations to enable student teachers to get the most out of the programme.

Separate models or centralised approach?

Perhaps such a “clinical” approach to schoolbased teacher education, as advocated in Teaching Stars, may not be warranted after all, with many providers demonstrating a move towards a more collaborative model anyway. However, one repercussion of providers taking

their individual paths is that it perhaps makes resourcing more difficult than if a more central approach was accepted by all. PPTA president Angela Roberts expressed concern to the New Zealand Herald that increased teacher training in schools would require extra resources in schools, which could mean teacher trainees would possibly not be exposed to lower decile schools. Massey Institute of Education director Sally Hansen says that there will be focus on priority learners, given the Ministry of Education’s emphasis on this area for new teacher education programmes. Consequently the institute will also look to partner with schools from a range of deciles. Like Roberts, Hansen sees resourcing as the biggest challenge moving forward. Just as funding is of concern to the schooling sector, so too is the level of resourcing for the teacher education sector. While the sector appears to be moving forward in the same direction in terms of providers’ collaboration with schools, perhaps there is room for more collaboration between providers. Certainly TEFANZ (Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand) is proving to be a useful medium for sharing best practice and advancing ideas; such a forum may help address the ongoing challenge of resourcing. 

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EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014 11

EDUCATION DELIVERY

OPEN EDUCATIO N:POSSIBLE

FUTURE OR UTOPIAN IDEA?

JUDE BARBACK considers the debates around open access and open educational resources.

support the open access, open education movement. In principle, anyway. Once upon a time, in another decade, in another hemisphere, I worked for a large publishing house, managing the publication of medical journals. It was a good time to be in publishing. Print subscriptions to the journals were beginning to diminish slightly, but not enough to frighten the powers signing off decadent travel and expenses claims. Online subscriptions to the journals were on the rise, and the big pharmaceutical companies (which certainly didn’t have any t&e qualms) continued to dish out the big dollars for advertising in the journals and reprinting any articles that made their product look good. It was an exciting industry to be in, travelling to editorial meetings in far-flung corners of the globe, eating at fancy restaurants, staying in opulent hotels. But in the background, an open access revolution was beginning to build momentum. People started questioning why scientific information wasn’t free and readily available for everyone. They started questioning the profits and motives of the big corporate publishers: were they really in the business of disseminating information widely or more interested in making money from the process? The question marks over open access, coupled with the global recession, brought the golden years of publishing to an abrupt halt; editorial meetings via scratchy teleconference calls began to take the place of fine dining experiences. It is a difficult place to find yourself – in a job that you love and that pays the bills but that you also suspect might be on the wrong side of an argument.

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The pros and cons of open access

Open access proponents support the UK Wellcome Trust’s stance, that “the benefits of research are derived principally from access to research results”, and therefore that “society as a whole is made worse off if access to scientific research results is restricted”. Publishers argue that the vast majority of potential readers can access the vast majority of content through libraries, thanks to consortia agreements between publishers and libraries. Open access advocates counter that open access is a solution to the “serials crisis”, a situation where many libraries have been forced to cut journal subscriptions because of price increases. Others counter that inadequate library budgets, typically around two per cent of a university’s budget, are equally to blame. Publishers maintain the value added via the peer review, editing and production processes along with the journals’ reputations is enough to warrant maintaining a commercial model, even one that incorporates open access in some guise. Meanwhile, the open access brigade believes a robust peer review system can be achieved without a publisher’s costly administration of the process. And so the to-and-fro arguments continued. Something had to give. Publishers began to promote more fiercely their long-standing initiatives to grant free online access to developing countries. Embargo periods came into play, whereby journals allowed all content to be free after 18, 12 or even six months. Publishers came up with open access initiatives in an attempt to both satisfy the cries for open

access, and to remain profitable. Open access journals were launched. Hybrid models emerged; such models kept the existing subscription revenue channels open, but allowed authors the option of publishing their article via the ‘gold’ open access route at considerable expense to the author or their funder – usually between US$1000 and US$3000. The industry soon became peppered with brands like Wiley OnlineOpen, Taylor & Francis Open Select, Sage Choice, Springer Open Choice, Oxford Open and so on. Publishers had to somehow assert their position as gatekeepers of the definitive versions of articles, as well as satisfy the requirements of the increasing number of institutions that encouraged or mandated academics to deposit their articles into research repositories. Accordingly, publishers established policies that allowed authors to post versions of the final papers on their personal or their institution’s websites with the stipulation that they must clearly cite the publisher’s version as the definitive, formal, final version.

New Zealand’s burgeoning support for open access

The University of Waikato recently became New Zealand’s first university to approve an open access mandate, whereby researchers are encouraged to deposit the full text of their peer-reviewed academic publications into the University’s digital repository, Research Commons. Matt McGregor, from Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand based at the Royal

EDUCATION DELIVERY Society of New Zealand, says the University of Waikato is leading the way for the New Zealand tertiary sector. However, Waikato isn’t the only New Zealand institution to commit to open access initiatives. The Media Text Hack Group, a group of academics from across Australia and New Zealand, led by faculty at the University of Otago, has successfully produced an open textbook. The group got together for a weekend in November last year to collaboratively write – or ‘hack’ – the open textbook for undergraduate students in Communication and Media Studies around Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. The textbook, which was released in its first version in February this year, includes nearly 50 entries on a range of topics and issues common to curricula across the region. The project was spearheaded by Otago’s Dr Erika Pearson, who thinks textbooks are often too expensive. “Textbooks currently available for New Zealand first-year students are often produced overseas, usually the US, and can have a cripplingly high price tag. Open texts are not only more affordable for students, they also are more flexible for teachers, who can pull apart open textbooks to find the more relevant and useful materials for their classes.” The word ‘textbook’ seems an outdated noun for such a resource. The text can be read linearly, like a book, and the online format also means that readers can also dive in and out of sections as they wish, following hypertext links across the material and out to useful information across the web. The real beauty of the ‘book’ is that it is a resource that can be developed and expanded in its future versions. The open textbook uses a Creative Commons Attribution licence, enabling anyone to share, adapt and rewrite the textbook, as long as credit is given to the original creators. The project was partially funded by Creative Commons International, through a grant to Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand. University of Otago copyright officer

Richard White describes the Creative Commons licensing as “the perfect vehicle”. “It ensures our rights as creators are preserved while at the same time enabling others to share our work as widely as possible.” White describes it as “a real 21st century textbook”, one that “harnesses the power of the web to break out of the print model we’ve had for the last several hundred years”. White sees the open textbook projects as a return to the “core principles of academia: sharing knowledge, learning from and building on the work of others”.

“

Information wants to be free because it has become so cheap to distribute, copy, and recombine – too cheap to meter. It wants to be expensive because it can be immeasurably valuable to the recipient. That tension will not go away.

”

Stuart Brand, ‘The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT’. Pearson says another project is on the cards, a “cookbook” that “will hopefully guide and inspire others to produce their own open educational resources”. “Open textbooks ensure that educational resources are accessible, affordable and reusable, helping communities to realise the goal of enabling universal access to education.”

Open education – possible future or utopian idea? The open educational resources movement is certainly gaining traction; however, a growing

number of projects and supporters does not necessarily mean a systemic change in education is imminent. The barriers remain. Authors and publishers tend to be wary of open licences for fear of losing quality, control, profits, brand strength, website traffic and so on. Yet with each passing year, new models emerge allowing more flexibility in the way open educational resources can be produced and distributed. There is some question over the expectations placed on learners. An open education advocates unstructured and unrestricted use of learning resources, and therefore requires vastly more autonomy and self-managed learning. The humble textbook, with its publisher’s logo, offers the promise and reassurance that the pages within its covers contain the wisdom of experts, paid to write balanced and high quality content. But is this a false security blanket? Who is to deem one source of knowledge superior to another? This is surely the very essence of academia – filtering through the vast pool of knowledge and information to determine what is relevant and why. Back in my university days, I quickly learned to bypass the shiny new textbooks for their more worn, dog-eared predecessors in the secondhand book shop, as these were likely to come with the text highlighted and invaluable notes scribbled in margins from students gone before me. The added notes may not have been relevant or even factual – it was up to me to evaluate their worth, but even so, it was a risk I was willing to take; I would still rather have the choice of considering someone else’s ideas, than not. Open education is about giving people more choice, more options. There are a number of valid arguments that are yet to be fully addressed and taken into account when forging ahead with open educational resources, but as the Media Text Hack Group and others are demonstrating, it is certainly within the realms of possibility. 

EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014 13

ICT

COLLABORATION = INNOVATION:

DELIVERING EDUCATION WITHOUT BORDERS MARCI POWELL looks at the how digital and collaborative learning are transforming tertiary education in New Zealand and beyond.

t’s an exciting time to be a student or teacher living in New Zealand as digital technology is continuing to transform education as we know it, creating new learning opportunities for students and teachers alike. The rollout of ultra-fast broadband (UFB) is well underway, with the education sector being given priority status by the Government. Innovative technology solutions in visual collaboration have also brought enormous benefit and impact to education: sparking learning and global awareness, adding extra value to lessons, making content more absorbing for students, and encouraging intercultural and cross-border teamwork. With technology advancing at a rapid pace, one of the challenges facing tertiary institutes is the need to stay ahead of the digital curve. Students are quick to embrace what’s new and expect the technology they use for personal interactions to be available in the lecture hall. Recognising the need to help educators adapt to new teaching practices, The Mind Lab and Unitec Institute of Technology recently launched a new postgraduate qualification in digital and collaborative learning, the first of its kind in New Zealand. Through the availability of innovative programmes like this, teachers can develop new digital skills, implement progressive teaching practices and gain the ability to transfer this knowledge directly into their teaching environment.

The collaborative classroom

Collaborative environments are online spaces — often cloud-based — where the focus is on making it easy to collaborate and work in groups, whether the students are in the same physical location or not. Class or project groups can assemble a collaborative workspace very quickly using widgets to pull information from a range of sources. Collaborative learning is being further spurred by the integration of video into virtual classrooms. As a result of the growth in online and virtual education, video conferencing has become a key enabler for providing a richer, more flexible, and cost-efficient means to online learning.

Creating educational equity for all

Because of the increase in the ability to access education over video, we can now provide educational equity to students in even the most remote locations. Not only are courses now becoming more accessible, other applications such as student services, coaching, virtual office hours, interviewing, recruitment, administrators and staff are also highly mobile. The availability of distance 14 Postgrad Education 2014 EDUCATION REVIEWseries

Five key benefits of video collaboration in education 1. Classroom experiences and learning opportunities are enhanced: students have the chance to participate in cross-cultural exchanges, speak other languages, interview subject-matter experts and participate in virtual field trips. 2. Increased access to education: equity in access is achieved for students who are too ill to come to school or college, live remotely, or who are travelling. Campuses can also expand services to students and alumni by allowing greater enrollment and access to career services from any location. 3. Student achievement is likely to improve: Students have the opportunity to practice skills they need in the workplace. Gartner Research reports that by 2015, 90 per cent of enterprise tablets will be video-enabled. Technology such as video collaboration in the workplace plays an important role in employee performance and productivity. In addition, students gain the applied skills employers need such as critical thinking, problem-solving and team work. 4. Educators have more opportunity to participate in collaborative activities: participating in professional development workshops and seminars via video helps educators avoid having to take time off from class schedules to travel. This allows more instructors to take advantage of additional training, saving campuses money in travel and lodging costs. 5. Distance-learning is improved: one of the best reasons to launch a distance education initiative is to increase access to courses and programmes, particularly when meeting the needs of an underserved population. Students enrolled in distance-learning courses can benefit through virtual and interactive face-to-face encounters, rather than just being text-based. This increases engagement and participation. learning through video conferencing has widened the subject choices available to students. In many cases, this has led to the retention of students who might have otherwise left home to study elsewhere.

Overcoming first time jitters For those taking the leap into video collaboration in the classroom for the first time it may seem overwhelming. Here are some common video

collaboration challenges and tips for getting the most out of the experience: 1. Sharing content – with the right video conferencing solution e.g. high- definition you can see all the participants clearly, plus share content with them anytime, anywhere – all in real time. 2. Full participation – video collaboration features eye contact and non-verbal cues, encouraging everyone to collaborate and contribute as if they are in the same room. 3. Getting everyone in front of the whiteboard – choose a video collaboration solution that allows everyone in your meeting to brainstorm and annotate directly on your content in realtime. 4. Being a good host – full participation is easier when you use video collaboration and content sharing technology that lets you see everyone you’ve invited to a meeting while also viewing and annotating on the content.

Video collaboration within the flipped classroom We are also seeing greater flexibility in the way education is delivered over video with flipped classrooms gaining in popularity. In a flipped classroom environment, instruction is delivered by on-demand video and online content at home; while the classroom time is reserved for activitybased ‘homework’ and practice. For example, when I teach, I normally teach from one campus to four others using video. I use a virtual meeting room to connect all campuses and can then share and receive content remotely. First, we all join the meeting in what I call the “big classroom”. Embracing the idea of flipped learning, students will have already viewed my pre-recorded lecture prior to coming to class. This ensures that face-to-face time can be spent in a problem-based learning environment. Students then go into their collaborative student groups for 20-30 minutes to work using their own devices, such as tablets or laptops to join their assigned meeting room. If they need me to facilitate or answer questions, they use Microsoft Lync to message me and I visit their online meeting room. After the allotted time, we all meet back in the “big classroom” to discuss outcomes. As for class time, instead of only sharing content, my students and I share, annotate and collaborate with the content using touch screen interactive whiteboard technology. Sessions are also recorded for absentees.

ICT

CASE STUDY: INDONESIA OPEN UNIVERSITY What does the future hold?

Globally, I believe its students who are pushing educators to be more innovative and forward thinking in the way they teach and how students learn. People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want. As New Zealand moves forward, higher education will become increasingly mobile, resulting in students carrying their university in their pockets. Campuses will still exist as places of teaching and learning, research, community engagement, and varied forms of student experience. But digital technologies will transform the way education is delivered and supported, and the way education is accessed in remote and regional areas. If universities are to be the future of education rather than relics of the past, they do not need to have a campus on every corner but, rather, be accessible wherever our learners are, at times and in forms to meet their learning, social and psychological needs.  Marci Powell is Polycom’s Global Director for Education Industry Solutions and Chair Emerita and Past President of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA). She began her career as a classroom teacher and has over 20 years’ experience in her field, with wide-ranging expertise in thought-leadership and strategic planning in the use of technology to address education needs.

The university, with its main campus in Jakarta, is a state school applying a distance and open learning system. It reaches 600,000 Indonesian students across multiple locations, including those in remote areas of the country and overseas. The university comprises 38 campuses and works in conjunction with other state universities, private institutions, and government agencies to conduct education programs. Executive staff and administrators previously relied on quarterly meetings, email, and the postal system to communicate. This resulted in considerable time and cost spent travelling long distances. To defy the distance between campuses, the university selected Polycom meeting room and voice solutions. Installed at all 38 campuses, they have helped expedite and improve internal communications, and enabled immediate team meetings when required.

“Administration is an enormous responsibility, having the ability to meet face-to-face is changing how we communicate with our colleagues in other regions of Indonesia,” says Professor lr. Tian Belawati, rector of Universitas Terbuka. The university has also extended the benefits of video collaboration to students and the general public by allowing them to join seminars, workshops, and public lectures. A professor of mathematics based in Bandung (140 km southeast of Jakarta) held a ‘Public Study of Mathematics’ session for participants at all campuses nationwide. “The feedback has been extremely positive,” said Professor Belawati. “Students can ask questions in real-time and it doesn’t matter where they are located.” These solutions also allow the university staff to record lectures for viewing at a later date and to post to its website.

Education EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014 15

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KEY FEATURES The Casper Suite features the most comprehensive management features for iOS management, including: • • • • • •

iOS device management Self Service App and eBook Distribution Inventory Settings and Security Management Remote Control

TERTIARY TEACHING

BORN TO TEACH

Metlifecare Senior New Zealander of the Year FRANCES DENZ has won awards for tertiary teaching excellence, yet she has never had any formal teacher education. Here, she shares why she believes great teachers can be born and not always made. FRANCES’ TOP TERTIARY TEACHING TIPS

» Intense reflection by me on the delivery of each session – what worked, what didn’t work and why » Involving students who know more than me in the teaching » Telling appropriate stories, and adapting these to the group » Eliminate alienating jargon where possible; » Immediate feedback from students after class » Precision in timing » And most importantly – loving teaching, believing in my students, and a passion for my topic.

was thrilled to win the Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award in 2013 as it gave academic credence to my teaching methodology. I have had little formal education over the years, due to personal circumstances, and had to learn to prepare, develop, and deliver programmes with no training or support of any kind. I come from a long line of what used to be called “bossy women”. Women who knew what they wanted, and how to get it. My mother was a left wing working class (as it used to be known) woman who dearly wanted to be an intellectual. My childhood recollections are of her excitedly opening the airmail Guardian newspaper and devouring international political news. Our house always had teenage boys in the kitchen listening to her discuss such fascinating topics as the Israeli Five Day War or the fall of Tony Benn. I always thought those boys came to listen to Mum and was quite surprised when one recently told me it was because of three attractive daughters, and they put up with Mum! My dad, of Māori descent, trained as a doctor in the thirties in Britain. As a registrar in the Seamen’s Hospital in London, the vast majority of patients had no English, and he had only English and Māori. He diagnosed by very close observation using sight, sound, and smell. From when I was a very small child, he taught me how to observe people’s responses using all the cues available. I learnt to focus on people’s needs that were expressed in many ways.

18 Postgrad Education 2014 EDUCATION REVIEWseries

In middle age, I became a tutor for those wishing to start a business. The demand for this course was such that over seven years I trained about 5000 people in groups of 20 per class. With no training at all, except for two two-day courses as an educator, I had to develop my own style. One course taught me that story telling was a useful tool, which was handy to know as I was doing that anyway, and the other was on neurolinguistic programming (NLP). My key learning from this was that I only learnt three things per course – and that if I wasn’t careful, my own pupils would do the same. I wanted better results than that! I discovered the quickest way to success was to ask the students what worked and what didn’t work over a cup of coffee or at lunch time. By my ability to closely observe the students I knew when I had “lost them”. If I asked them quickly why they had lost concentration or focus, I would get practical information that stopped me making the same mistake again. Perhaps the example (story) I was giving was not totally on message, perhaps it was too long, or perhaps it used the wrong words. I became very aware of the different learning styles and how to adapt and move between kinaesthetic, aural, or visual language and examples. Inclusivity was key to the whole group staying up to speed, which was challenging as the classes contained a mix from academic graduates to those with little or no education. Reflective learning became an important component for me. Replaying each class in my head, considering each student in turn and the cues they had given me, and how I used those cues to adapt my approach became a major review focus. I also asked for regular feedback on the course material to make sure that it suited the targeted groups and updated it as required. As a practitioner with no academic training, I hate jargon. I believe jargon frequently excludes more people than it includes. It puts up barriers that can reflect power bases, and it disenfranchises many. Therefore, I try to use straightforward language and add the jargon only if it is essential to the learning process. Communication is a two-way process and requires both the delivery and receipt of information to be as painless as possible. I also learnt that classes made up of adults

brought many skills to the table, and if they knew more about a topic than I did, they were asked to contribute. I knew from my own experience that timing was of utmost importance to students. As an ex-smoker, I knew how a person’s attention wandered if the smoko break was late and others were also hanging on for a finish. So I now pride myself on starting absolutely on time, which respects those who turn up on time, and finishing to the minute of the agreed time. This makes people feel safe! In recent years, I have moved to teaching governance to highly successful and committed people who are very experienced in their own field. Again understanding the level of knowledge a person has and giving them the opportunity to share it with the group is a valuable teaching tool. It does expose any misinformation that person may have gained and gives me the opportunity to replace their inaccurate understanding if required. This, of course, does require tact and understanding! Teaching governance certainly requires an ability to reflect on one’s own experience, and we have built this reflective process into the course so that our practicing directors integrate their own experiential learning with the theoretical course material. As these clients are very busy directors of business, timing is very important indeed. Information needs to be clear, explicit, brief, and carefully targeted to meet their needs. They are very impatient of any waffle. Above all, however, I credit my success to a love of teaching, belief in my students, and a passion for my topic. 

POLICY

IMPROVING GOVERNANCE

OR GOVERNMENT POWER GRAB?

The Government’s plans to reform university and wānanga governance councils to create smaller, skills-based councils have been opposed by many in the sector.

ertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce’s proposed changes to university and wānanga governance councils have angered many staff and students. The reforms will see the councils decrease from 12 to 20 members to eight to 12 members. Specific representative requirements will be removed and the Minister and councils will have rights to appoint members with “governance capability”. Joyce says the Government will be appointing approximately a third of the members of each council, with the make-up of the rest of councils determined by each institution’s constitution. Despite the increased control from Government, Joyce says the reforms will offer institutions more flexibility. “Through these reforms, universities and wānanga will have more freedom to determine the make-up of their councils than under the previous highly prescriptive model,” says Joyce. “They can, for example, choose to retain student and staff representation, and I expect many, if not most, will.” However, many groups don’t see it that way and have expressed concern over the Government’s increasing control of university governance. Academic Freedom Aotearoa said the changes are an attack on academic freedom and do not provide enough separation between universities and government. The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) agrees. President Lesley Francey says Minister Joyce is wresting control of universities and wānanga into the hands of his own ministerial appointees and of business supporters. “As the Minister notes himself, New Zealand’s universities and wānanga are already financially stable and perform well internationally. There is no justification for these proposals, other than silencing

local community voices that do not support the Minister’s own economic vision,” says Francey. The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) shares this view. “Our analysis of existing Council representation reveals that having a preponderance of Ministerial appointments is extremely dangerous. Eighty-six per cent of his appointments have been CEOs, company directors, accountants or commercial lawyers, none have had a background in higher education,” says Daniel Haines, president of NZUSA. One of Joyce’s requirements for the reformed councils is that they must include at least one Māori person, which is in line with the Government’s aim to bolster Māori achievement levels. However, Ivy Harper, Tumuaki of Te Mana Ākonga, the National Māori Students’ Association, says that while the association is pleased that Māori are included in the proposed governance structure, it is disappointing that democratically elected students, staff and other representatives are likely to lose their seats around the decision-making table. Auckland University Students’ Association president Jessica Storey agrees. “There are 40,000 students at The University of Auckland. It is not much to ask for two students to be elected to speak for them at a public institution where each student pays thousands of dollars in fees each year.” However, it isn’t just student organisations that are miffed at the reforms. The University of Auckland’s vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon told Radio New Zealand that increasing the government’s influence over universities would harm their international reputation. “I can’t see what the benefits will be because there has never been any demonstration that the current governance arrangements of universities are deficient. The New Zealand universities’ if you look at their world

rankings relative to their income, are the most efficient universities in the developed world.” Staff from Massey University have expressed concern that the proposed changes to university councils will make it harder for New Zealand institutions to attract full fee-paying international students. Professor Frank Sligo, director of stakeholder relationships within Massey’s School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, says those recruiting in China are concerned about the negative impact the Education Amendment Bill might have on their work. “Those of us with experience in overseas recruiting in China worry about what will happen when the perception enters Chinese social media that the New Zealand Government is increasing its control over our universities,” says Sligo. “Chinese academics want their students to experience what they know they are not yet getting at home. They value New Zealand’s independence from direct government control. They want educational experiences that allow students to become independent, critical and creative thinkers.” Sligo says that New Zealand universities are already trying to manage Chinese concerns about the declining status of New Zealand in the international rankings of universities. “With international students spending approximately $26,000 per annum on international tuition fees, we are playing an enormously competitive game. Any perception that New Zealand universities are losing their independence will undermine our ability to recruit in China – and universities from other western countries will not fail to exploit this.” However, despite this wide array of concerns about the effects of a change to the governance of universities and wānanga, the reforms are expected to come into play from 1 January 2016. 

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info@sit.ac.nz 0800 4 0 FEES www.sit.ac.nz EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014 19

POLICY

THE DOOR TO TERTIARY EDUCATION –

OPEN TO WHOM? The new reports on tertiary education enrolments and earnings need to be considered in the context of the high costs associated with being a student.

he release of two new reports shows that the proportion of New Zealanders studying higher qualifications is slowly increasing, and those with a qualification at degree or postgraduate level are likely to achieve greater earnings. But what about the high costs involved to get there? Tertiary student unions argue that the high costs of tuition and living are shutting people out of higher education and creating inequality in tertiary education. One of the reports, Tertiary Education Enrolments 2013, showed that 56 per cent of study undertaken by New Zealanders was at degree or postgraduate level in 2013, compared with 48 per cent in 2005. The enrolments report was released alongside an earnings report, What Young Graduates Earn When They Leave Study which revealed that people with a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification on average earn 62 per cent more than those without a qualification. “This updated research shows a large jump in earnings between those who hold a degree compared to those with a lower level qualification, and the return for those who study in some particular fields of study is greater,” says Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce, alluding to the fact that graduates of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects currently tend to earn more. However, a closer look at the enrolments report shows an overall drop in tertiary education enrolments from 2012, with the number of public tertiary education enrolments declining, but increasing at private training establishments. It also shows an overall decline in the number of domestic students, while international student enrolments continue to increase. These findings ask some uncomfortable questions about why this is happening. Tertiary Education Union (TEU) national president Lesley Francey says current education policy is directly transferring both students and public money out of high quality public institutions, and into private companies. “Private not-for-profit tertiary education providers have their place supporting the public education system. But other private companies should not be allowed to strip students and public funding from the universities, polytechnics, and wānanga.” The TEU also says the cost of being a student is too high and making tertiary education inaccessible for many New Zealanders. Demands to reduce the cost of education and remove the financial barriers to students participating form the basis for TEU’s latest Te Kaupapa Whaioranga blueprint document, launched earlier this year. “Tertiary education is not primarily a public subsidy and skills factory for big business. It is about providing opportunities and hope for students and their local communities. If debt prevents students getting an education then our public education system is failing and our country is losing out,” says Francey. “The best way to demonstrate that we are committing our education system to the wellbeing of students first and foremost, rather than corporations, is not to saddle them with huge debts while they study.” Indeed, student debts are problematic for many, particularly in light of hefty tuition fees. As part of its 2014 Budget strategy, the Government has announced an $83.3

20 Postgrad Education 2014 EDUCATION REVIEWseries

million dollar subsidy for science, agriculture, and some health science courses; even so, there are still calls to make tertiary study more affordable for students. Many students leave tertiary education with sizeable student debt. While this in itself is a deterrent to further study, New Zealand’s student loan repayment scheme has also been criticised for being too severe. The New Zealand Union of Students’ Association’s president, Daniel Haines, describes the student loan scheme, in which a domestic student earning over $19,084 must make compulsory 12 cents in the dollar repayments on their student loan, as “one of the most regressive in the world”. “By freezing the repayment rate in New Zealand at a level below full-time minimum wage, payments are imposed on those people who have the least ability to pay”, said Haines. Haines says student debt in New Zealand continues to grow and puts this down to the Government’s cuts to student support. The student allowance has only experienced meagre increases over the past 15 years. “Money cut from student support disproportionately affects postgraduate students who had their entitlement to receive allowances removed in 2012, students over 40 who have had their allowances restricted to 120 weeks, and students over 55 who have had all allowance eligibility completely removed,” says Haines. Indeed, the enrolments report shows that enrolments by older students fell at every qualification level from 2012 to 2013, with continued strong decreases in the number of enrolments in non-degree qualifications. Haines believes we are heading towards a society of those who can afford to access higher learning, and those who cannot. “Our public institutions should be open to those who have the ability to learn, not simply those with the ability to pay.” Haines also points to disparities between assistance for student housing costs and that for all other low income New Zealanders. The Accommodation Supplement entitles people to support of up to $145 per week in certain parts of Auckland, while housing support for students is capped at a maximum of $40 per week. “Where’s the incentive to move from a benefit into study, or from a low-paid job into having a qualification that could potentially move someone out of poverty, if that choice is completely unaffordable?” 

POLICY

PBRF CHANGES

NOT TO EVERYONE’S LIKING With the proposed changes to the Performance-Based Research Fund announced, some are pleased to see a focus on more external research income. Others, however, are dismayed that the greater role of research is being neglected in the process.

he new and improved PerformanceBased Research Fund (PBRF) is nearly here, with changes to the funding system slowly taking shape, getting ready to be introduced between 2015 and the next Quality Evaluation in 2018. However, the new-look PBRF is not to everyone’s liking, with many claiming the increased emphasis on external funding is to the detriment of research that might benefit the wider public.

Changes to the PBRF

In 2012, the Government committed an additional $100 million investment into PBRF over four years, which will result in the fund reaching $300 million in 2016/17. In order to get the best value for money, it was decided an overhaul of the PBRF system was necessary. The review confirmed many of what the tertiary sector knew to be the system’s more clunky traits. Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steve Joyce says the PBRF compares favourably with other performance-based funding systems around the world, however he concedes that it is complex and carries significant compliance costs for institutions and researchers. Accordingly, in March this year, Joyce announced the likely changes to take place following a brief and targeted consultation period. The changes will focus on simplifying the research assessment process, saving time, reducing costs and strengthening public reporting on research performance. There will also be more emphasis on recruiting and retaining new and emerging researchers, and on attracting external research income from international sources, New Zealand industry, iwi, and not-forprofit organisations. There is also the possibility that the proportion of PBRF income allocated based on external research

income (contestable public research funding) will be increased to 20 per cent of the fund. The external research income component is one of the three elements comprising the PBRF and currently represents 15 per cent of the fund allocation – the other components are the Quality Evaluation (60 per cent of the fund) and the Research Degree Completions (25 per cent). If the external research income component is increased, the value of the Quality Evaluation component will be reduced from 60 per cent to 55 per cent of the fund. The rationale for increasing the external research income component is to better reward tertiary education organisations that attract income from contestable research funds and contract research. According to Joyce, doing so will apparently bring New Zealand more in line with international practice.

Public good neglected

However, the changes surrounding external research funding have sparked criticism from some quarters, with Tertiary Education Union (TEU) vicepresident Sandra Grey calling it a “grave mistake” to award greater financial rewards to university research that is already getting external private funding. “Universities have a role to research all issues, both those that external agencies are willing to pay for and those that they are not. There is some research that business may never want to take place but is still crucial to the wellbeing of our communities. There is also blue skies research that may have no immediate economic benefit but is crucial to our understanding of the world.” Grey gives the example of asbestos health research that manufacturers tried to ignore for years. “The problem is that the users of public research are not just those people who pay for it, but

everybody. Just because an external agency does not want to pay for research does not mean it is less worthwhile than other research. In fact, it may be more important. And the only way it will be funded is publicly through the PBRF system,” says Grey. Academic Freedom Aotearoa chairperson Professor Jack Heinemann agrees. “When academic staff and students serve as critic and conscience they may from time-to-time challenge government, industry and civil society agendas and thereby fall out of favour with those wealthy enough to offer grants and contracts. But the critic and conscience role helps to create space for new ideas and new entrepreneurs as well as prevent poor policy and products. “To do nothing now to promote the role of the critic and conscience would be to prolong the life of a funding mechanism that encourages conformity and obedience, rather than innovation and novelty,” says Heinemann. Such concerns were at the heart of many of the 127 submissions received by the Ministry during the initial consultation period last year, including Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand’s submission, which stated that while external funding is important, “it is essential that research outputs remain accessible to the wider New Zealand public, including commercial organisations that are better suited to benefit from those research outputs”. While the PBRF review has prompted some interesting debate about the wider role of research, others are more persuaded by the more immediate boosts to New Zealand’s economy that a more externally-focused funding process is likely to bring. The next PBRF round will certainly prove to be interesting with the new changes embedded by then. 

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TERTIARY TEACHING

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD

With one professor describing it as “the most important and innovative teaching development in the last 20 years” and an increasing number of faculty and students singing its praises, we find out what is the fuss over the ‘Threshold Concept Theory is all about.

hen Professor Jonathan Scott arrived at the University of Waikato in 2006, he was aware there was a record of underperformance amongst first-year electronic engineering students, and as with the rest of the world, retention rates in the discipline were concerning. He had to do something to turn the stats around. He crossed the campus to the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research, based in the Faculty of Education, in search of some teaching help. In what was a serendipitous moment, institute director Professor Bronwen Cowie was looking into a relatively new teaching theory called ‘Threshold Concept Theory’. Equally fortunate was that senior research officer Ann Harlow in the office next door had just finished a project and had a gap in her calendar to work with Professor Scott. He volunteered to be, with his class, the guinea pigs upon whom to test the theory.

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That was more than four years ago. The idea of threshold concepts emerged 11 years ago from a national research project in the United Kingdom. It was developed by Professors Erik Meyer and Ray Land who’d found that certain concepts held by economists were central to the mastery of their subject. The two men argued that the concepts could be described as ‘threshold’ because they had certain critical features in common: they were integrative, troublesome, transformative and irreversible. They required people to transform previously held views or understandings. Professor Scott spent three months boning up on the theory. “Part of the problem with electrical or electronic engineering is that you’re essentially dealing with something you can’t see and that scares the living daylights out of some people. The more I read about threshold concepts, the more sense it made. It gelled with engineering.” After the first year, work continued as a two-year Teaching Learning

TERTIARY TEACHING

and Research Initiative (TLRI) was awarded. As Professor Scott worked with each new intake of students, Ann Harlow went into labs to monitor progress, interviewed students and carried out online surveys, while Senior Research Fellow Dr Mira Peter undertook the quantitative analysis. Retention rose to 80 per cent, “which is considered superb in the worldwide electronics business,” says Professor Scott. It required a big shift in the way Professor Scott taught his subject. “The first thing I had to do was reduce the content – and I really had to think about how to do that. With electronic engineering you hit the ground hard, you don’t start easy and build up, and you have to grasp some pretty difficult concepts from the start. Instead of teaching five concepts in that first year, I cut it down to two.” Ann Harlow says that for any number of reasons students might fail to grasp the threshold concepts, which is what makes them ‘troublesome’. What they’re being asked to learn might be counter-intuitive, alien, involve difficult language and even seem incoherent. “So learners may find themselves in a state of limbo, in what we call the liminal space – a suspended state of being stuck.” Teachers therefore need to address troublesome features and present the concept in a variety of ways, says Ms Harlow. “Sometimes the students will grasp a concept in one situation but not in another. They’ll get it one day and not the next. Then you get your light-bulb moment, when you cross the threshold, and once you learn it you never go back. You cannot remember what it’s like not to have that understanding.” To help students with their learning, Professor Scott introduced scratch cards so students could get immediate feedback on tests. He worked with summer scholarship student Toby Balsom to design online tutorials that students could use instead of old fashioned tutorials. Once they’ve mastered five problems in a row, they can move on to the next section. These have garnered great praise from the students. “Sometimes it takes more than a year for a student to truly grasp a threshold concept. Learning by rote just won’t work,” Professor Scott says. The TLRI research project, facilitated by Ann Harlow and Dr Peter, also included practitioner researchers in different disciplines across campus – in English, leadership and doctoral writing. “We regularly get together to analyse progress and there’s a lot of argy-bargy as people get their heads around Threshold Concept Theory. It does require steady reading and a big investment in motivation and time.” But Ann Harlow cautions that teaching threshold concepts requires a lot of commitment by lecturers, and that insights gained by learners as they cross thresholds can be exhilarating, but also might be unsettling, often requiring an uncomfortable shift in identity, as one student commented. “There are a few ideas that are difficult, like ‘Thevenin’, but that is highlighted as being tricky and he [Prof Scott] spends quite a few lectures just so that we can pick it up. When we first did it I had no idea, and thought, ‘Sure, I’ll take your word for it.’ But now I can do most of it on my own. I would recognise it now – it’s hard, but I can do it. It is just remembering how to simplify the circuit down, because everything has its own set of rules – like whether it’s in parallel or series, there is a lot to remember. Once you pick it up it’s OK, but when you are learning it is a struggle.” At the end of 2013, Ms Harlow and Dr Peter convened a conference called ‘Transforming Disciplines: Emergent Learning and Threshold Concepts (ELTC)’. Attendees came from universities in New Zealand and Australia and covered diverse fields including engineering, physics, religious studies, medicine, accounting, economics, drama and blended learning. Ann Harlow says the conference provided an excellent opportunity to contextualise the theory inside the traditions and practices of many given disciplines. Professor Meyer, co-developer of the theory, was there and gave the opening address. His focus was on variation within the theory. His example was open catchment hydraulics and demonstrated the structural complexity of the ways in which students can develop a capacity for meta-learning by judging responses to assessment tasks,

generated by others and themselves. He said threshold concepts provided teachers and learners with a new analytic lens. “A number of presentations pointed to the need to explore with students their conceptions of what learning actually is, which in itself is complex,” says Ms Harlow. “They need to know the processes and purposes of learning. Once the concept is grasped, the challenge becomes bridging one concept with another and understanding the ways they relate. Taking this stance has implications for curriculum design and assessment. I don’t think it’s for the faint-hearted.” Professor Scott is a committed convert. “I’m confident enough to say this is the most important and innovative teaching development in the last 20 years, but it’s easy to mess up, and requires hard work. It requires a lot of effort to understand and use the theory.” A question that arises at events such as the ELTC conference is ‘where to next?’ “I really want to flip the classroom,” says Professor Scott. “Instead of students coming to class and being given a talk on what they have to learn, we would say ‘read this’ or ‘watch this’ and later when they come to class we give practical examples of what they’ve been reading about, solve problems together.” It is already being done in online courses and in some Californian schools, with the aid of sites like the Khan Academy. The learning of threshold concepts – moving through the so-called ‘portal to understanding’ – tends to happen when you are applying ideas, not when you are hearing about them at a lecture. It’s at this time that the support of knowledgeable staff is most important. Flipping the classroom leaves the students to gather information by themselves and brings in staff when the students are called upon to apply what they have read about. Dr Peter and Professor Scott are currently applying for a new TLRI grant to conduct research into what impacts a flipped classroom might have on student learning of threshold concepts in electronic engineering. 

Enhance your career

Are you thinking about further study? Do you want to develop new skills and be at the forefront of knowledge in your field? Consider a 180-point Masters from The University of Waikato. >> An internationally recognised programme >> 12-18 month programme (full-time study) >> Qualifies for study awards >> Summer School, online and oncampus study options >> Broad range of specialised choices in Education, Educational Leadership, Disability and Inclusion Studies, Sport and Leisure Studies. To find out more contact the Faculty of Education on 0800 83 22 42 or email educ_grad@waikato.ac.nz or visit www.waikato.ac.nz/education Faculty of Education Te Kura Toi Tangata

EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014 23

PARTNERSHIPS

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY:

UNI, POLYS AND WĀNANGA COLLABORATE

In recent years, an increasing number of universities have partnered with polytechnics, institutes of technology and wānanga to leverage education opportunities for students. Here, MEG JONES, shares how the Bay of Plenty Tertiary Education Partnership is making a tangible difference to the region.

ay of Plenty Polytechnic and the University of Waikato have been working together for more than a decade to increase tertiary education opportunities in the Western Bay of Plenty. In 2006, the polytechnic and the university formalised their unique relationship by signing a partnership agreement. The agreement allows students to staircase seamlessly between the two institutions while delivering research and education solutions that will ultimately help address skill shortages in the region and help the community support its own economic growth. In 2010, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi joined the Tertiary Partnership and in early 2014 Waiariki Institute of Technology also joined, extending opportunities to the entire Bay of Plenty region. This is the first collaboration of its kind in New Zealand. Dr Alan Hampton, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic chief executive, says that while the four institutions remain autonomous, collectively through the partnership they are looking for opportunities to work together that will benefit students and the Bay of Plenty region. “We strive to provide access pathways to higher education, increase the range of programmes, certificates, diplomas and degrees offered in the area and combine on research with particular relevance to the region,” says Dr Hampton. “We also aim to support and grow development in our Māori communities through improved levels of participation and success in tertiary education. “The partnership institutes are also collaborating on a major capital project to build a new shared campus in Tauranga’s CBD. We believe the CBD campus offers

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better options to work together to profile the region as an education destination as well as providing the education options that our region needs for long term sustained growth. Funding support for the development is being sought within the region.” The creation of a CBD tertiary campus is seen by the partnership’s community stakeholders and partners, including Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, as an important contributor to a strong and vibrant city centre, enabling opportunities for further investment, economic development and better public spaces that will benefit the wider region. A number of potential sites have been considered but the Tauranga CBD is the most appropriate for the medium to long term needs of the institutions. Modern tertiary delivery centres around community integration and a CBD location is also attractive to today’s students (international and domestic) who benefit because of their easy access to other amenities such as retail, hospitality and financial services. Each of the partners already works closely with both local industry and communities. It is these close ties that have enabled collaboration to bring about the Titanium Industry Development Association (based at the Polytechnic’s Windermere Campus) and the Coastal Marine Field Station adjacent to Tauranga Harbour. The formation of the latter allowed the partnership to mount a quick response after the Rena grounding to provide critical baseline data before oil began leaking from the ship. Subsequently the partnership marine team (under Professor Chris Battershill of the University of Waikato) has developed and implemented an Environmental Monitoring and Protection Programme for the site.

Large numbers of students have already benefited from the pathway opportunities provided between the polytechnic and the university. For example, students completing a New Zealand Diploma in Business can pathway through to the University’s Bachelor of Business Analysis, Bachelor of Management Studies (majoring in accounting, marketing, finance, tourism, public relations or strategic management), Bachelor of Tourism or the Bachelor of Social Sciences. Other pathway opportunities exist for the Diploma in Computing/Bachelor of Science (Applied Computing), Diploma in Environmental Management or Diploma in Marine Studies/Bachelor of Science (Biological Sciences), Diploma in Tourism/Bachelor of Tourism and the three different Diplomas in Engineering (mechanical, electrical and civil)/Bachelor of Engineering. Diploma in Marine Studies and Bachelor of Science (Biological Science) graduate Rex Fairweather is one of many students who has benefited from the pathway opportunities. “I began my diploma in 2010 as a mature student and found the course fulfilling and the tutors knowledgeable and inspirational. In October 2011, the CV Rena grounded on the Astrolabe reef and I volunteered to assist in the sub-tidal reef monitoring programme with the Polytechnic,” says Fairweather. “In 2012 I began a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in biological sciences through the University and also conducted voluntary work associated with Rena through the University’s Coastal Marine Field Station. “I believe there is an increasingly strong future in the field of marine science within New Zealand for those interested in pursuing this field and would not hesitate to promote the advantages of this pathway.” There are 271,248 people in the Bay of Plenty now, estimated to reach 403,000 by 2051, of which the highest growth will be in young Māori. Government data shows the region lags well behind the national average of 14.2 per cent of people who have bachelor degree qualifications or higher. As a result, skill shortages will significantly impact the region’s ability to support its own economic growth. The Tertiary Partnership aims to respond to this projected skill shortage by providing work-ready graduates who will continue to make sustained improvements for our region for generations to come. 

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EDUCATION REVIEWseries Postgrad Education 2014 25

Meningococcal C can take it all away Meningococcal disease can kill in less than 24 hours. Children and young adults in New Zealand are well known high risk groups for meningococcal disease. Education workers may have up to 6 times increased risk of invasive meningococcal disease compared to the general public1.

Protect with Meningitec Suspension for I.M. Injection Meningococcal Serogroup C Conjugate Suspension for I.M. Injection Vaccine Meningococcal Serogroup C Conjugate Vaccine

References: 1. P De Wals, P Deshaies, G De Serres, et al. Risk and prevention of meningococcal disease among education workers: A review. Can J Infect Dis 2004;15(2):89-93. MENINGITEC (Meningococcal Serogroup C Conjugate Vaccine) contains 10µg of Neisseria meningitides serogroup C conjugated to 15µg diphtheria toxoid. Meningitec is given to protect children from 6 weeks of age, adolescents and adults against meningococcal disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis (c). Meningitec will not prevent meningitis caused by other groups of Neisseria meningitides or meningitis caused by other organisms. Meningitec has benefits and risks Do not have this vaccine if you are allergic to any of the ingredients in the vaccine including diphtheria toxoid or if you have had a previous allergic reaction to Meningitec. Delay vaccination if you have severe acute fever. Precaution if you have a reduced immune response, are pregnant or breast feeding or are elderly. Tell your healthcare professional if you are taking or have recently taken any other medicines. Side effects at injection site – pain, redness, swelling, tenderness. Systemic side effects – tiredness, irritability, decreased appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea, drowsiness. Talk to your healthcare professional to see if MENINGITEC is right for you. If you have side effects, see your healthcare professional. Meningitec is an unfunded Prescription Medicine – a charge will apply. For more information call 0800 Te Arai (832 724) or visit www.medsafe.govt.nz. Te Arai BioFarma, Auckland. TAPS CH3935