Making sense of learning at secondary school: An exploration by teachers with students

Project Description

Within New Zealand in recent years there has been a growing sense of dissatisfaction with current secondary school structures and processes. While teachers, students, parents, and politicians seem variously (although, it must be said, quite differently) disenchanted with many current secondary school practices, most of what is reported in the media is built on idiosyncratic experience and anecdote, not on evidence-based research.

International and national research shows that the two most important factors in students’ engagement and variance in achievement are the students themselves and the teacher (Hattie, 2002). Few studies, however, have sought to understand learning simultaneously from the perspectives of both parties immediately engaged in the process—the teachers and the students.

The initial challenge in this project was to make student learning processes explicit by asking secondary students how they understand and make sense of learning at school. This challenge, however, must be understood within the context of student and teacher interactions in the secondary classroom.

The second challenge of this project was to support teacher researchers as they bring together the ways in which they and their students make sense of learning and examine ways in which these are coherent or otherwise.

Project Outputs

2011

Publications

Bell, B. (2011) Theorising teaching in secondary classrooms. Understanding our practice from a sociocultural perspective. New Zealand. Routledge

2006

Presentations, conferences and workshops

Kane R. G. (2006). Making sense of learning: Researchers, teachers and students in partnership. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Ontario Teachers Federation and Ontario Council of Deans of Education, Toronto, 27-28 January 2006.

2005

Presentations

Kane, R. G., & Maw, N. (2005). Making sense of learning at secondary school: Involving students to improve teaching practice. Cambridge Journal of Education, 35(3), 311-322.

Presentations, conferences and workshops

Kane, R. G. (2005). Building communities of learning through participation and respectful dialogue. Paper presented at the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) conference, School of Education NSW, Sydney, 3-6 July 2005.

Kane, R. G., & Maw, N. (2005). Building communities of learning through participation and respectful dialogue. Paper presented at the biannual conference of the International Study Association of Teachers and Teaching (ISATT), Sydney, 3-6 July 2005.

2004

Presentations, conferences and workshops

Kane, R. G., & Maw N. (2004). Making sense of learning in secondary classrooms: An exploration BY teachers, WITH students. Paper presented at the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA), Manchester, August 2004.

Kane, R. G., & Maw N. (2004). Paying attention to students: Making sense of learning at secondary school through consultation in the classroom. Paper presented at the biannual conference of the Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ), Auckland College of Education, 5-7 July 2004.

Kane, R. G., Maw, N., de Ville, P., Kapao, J., Righton, C., Lin, T., Little, J., Mondares, J., Harris, B., White, K., Mylvaganam, M., Shaw, A., & McLeod S. (2004). Making sense of learning in secondary schools: Exploring perspectives of researchers, teachers and students. A symposium presented at the annual conference of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE), Wellington, 24-26 November 2004.