Exploring the resources to learn more about how effective professional development can contribute to realising Māori student potential

Several groups of teachers in Te Mana Kōrero 2 are shown undertaking focused professional development or discussing teaching, learning, and student achievement issues within a professional learning community. School leaders and teachers can identify and discuss examples of this as a way into inquiring how they might undertake professional learning and development related to realising Māori student potential.

To help the facilitator, some of the information and ideas that the group could identify and/or discuss when exploring the questions below are suggested in blue.

How effective professional development can contribute

Te Mana Kōrero 2

• Can you identify the groups undertaking focused professional learning and development?

[School leaders and teachers at Rotorua Lakes High School and Mokoia Intermediate, Greymouth High School]

• What professional learning and development projects are these groups undertaking?

[Rotorua Lakes High School and Mokoia Intermediate: learning how to relate effectively to Māori students/how to engage them fully in learning (through Te Kotahitanga); Greymouth High School: wanting to find out how Māori students learn and how teachers can help them – Relationships, Pedagogy, Culture; Waipu School: enhancing literacy practices]

• Why have these professional learning and development projects been undertaken?

[Rotorua Lakes High School and Mokoia Intermediate: continued deficit theorising by teachers, low expectations of Māori student achievement; Greymouth High School: analysis of achievement information indicated significant underachievement]

• How are students involved in this professional learning and development?

[Rotorua Lakes High School and Mokoia Intermediate: students surveyed by senior students on what was hindering them from achieving and/or what was important to them about learning (in addition, the goals and processes of the teachers’ professional development journey have been shared with them)]

• Can you cite examples of teachers:

- presenting a set of shared values and expectations about student learning and teaching to each other?

[Rotorua Lakes High School: a teacher states that the professional learning and development journey has meant that “everyone’s talking on the same lines, everyone’s using the same language, everyone’s got the same vision”; Waitara School: teachers have established a series of jointly held beliefs about teaching and learning, which they have represented visually as a koru pattern.]

- focusing on student learning in their discussion?

[Rotorua Lakes High School: “It’s the talk about the kids’ learning [that happens now], it’s not the talk about the kid’s behaviour”; Waipu School: the professional discussion between the two teachers is focused closely on what students are achieving as readers and what must be done to enhance their reading skills.]

- sharing expertise on their developing skills and knowledge?

[Rotorua Lakes High School: “If someone else wants to pinch an idea from me, that’s fine”; Greymouth High School: teachers share effective learning activities with each other and discuss how they could be adapted for each others’ classrooms; Waitara School: teachers visit each others’ classrooms as a group and share teacher input and student achievement information (“teachers learn from each other and have a chance to demonstrate what they are doing. This builds cohesion across the school”).]

- observing each others’ practice and giving each other focused feedback?

[Greymouth High School: teachers talk of peer observations (“teachers are quite happy popping in and out of each others’ classrooms for peer observation – they don’t feel that they’re being judged, they don’t feel that someone else is watching them – it’s just that someone is going to give them a hand”) and the positive effect that this has had on building positive staff relationships; Rotorua Lakes High School: the discussion that follows peer observation between colleagues helps promote reflective practice.]

- reflecting on their practice and making changes as a result of this reflection?

[Greymouth High School: teachers reflect with each other on ‘where they lie’ against the Relationships, Pedagogy, Culture diagram and on their next developmental steps.]

• What evidence is there that focused professional learning and development about teaching and learning is effective in raising the achievement levels of Māori students?

[Mokoia Intermediate: principal states that Māori student achievement levels in reading (and maths) have risen significantly according to PAT results.]

• Can you cite any other evidence that focused professional learning and development about teaching, learning, and student achievement has ‘made a difference’ to Māori students?

[Cite voice-over statement that focused professional learning has “improved relationships and interactions between teachers and students, encouraged a focus on reflective practice … and led to greater student engagement and ownership of learning”.

Cite voice-over statement that “the opportunity to engage in professional conversations raises the awareness of teachers’ thinking, practice, and even their influence”.

Rotorua Lakes High School: teachers reflect that “My teaching’s got more energetic”, “I am involving students more”, “Students are driving the programme now”, “Kids are pretty happy in the classroom”, “They’ve got a classroom relationship with an adult that is non-threatening”, “They know that we’re here to teach and we want them to learn – it’s a win/win situation”, “The classroom’s a lot nicer place to be”, “You’re not alone in the classroom any more – you’re now with 30 other adult learners as well”, “There’s a lot more job satisfaction”. In addition, students reflect that “We are learning more now”, “Teachers have got to know us better”, “We have more of an input into our learning like when we do our test and we might want revision or harder work”.

Russell Bishop states that “You’re seeing a maturing of the teachers in the range of strategies and interactions that they use in classrooms and the whole academic relationships that have happened in classrooms that are evident on the faces of the children.”]

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