Teachers’ teachers gather

Teachers’ teachers gather

One hundred and eighty teacher educators from around New Zealand gather in Auckland on Monday 5 July for their biennial conference, hosted by Auckland College of Education.

The Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ) is the national voice for teacher education, formed in 1999. It is made up of the public and private providers of teacher training qualifications above degree level.

The three-day conference, attended by the country’s top teacher education academics, is themed “Teaching and research, research and teaching”.

Sixty presentations will span early childhood through to secondary teacher training, examining diverse issues from the latest performance-based research exercise, through to preparing competent teachers, ongoing professional support, the debate on the qualifications structure, valuing of Maori, the impact of government policy on the education community, the use of information communications technology (ICT) in schools, spiritualism in teaching and more.

On Tuesday Hon Trevor Mallard will address the conference and present the TEFANZ Excellence in Educational Journalism Award.

TEFANZ 2004: Auckland College of Education, Monday 5 July to Wednesday 7 July inclusive. 74 Epsom Ave, Epsom, Auckland. Full programme on www.tefanz.org.nz. Media welcome to attend. Enquiries/rsvps: Susan Pattullo, (09) 623 8899 x 8782/ (027) 588 0557, or Eddy van Til, (021) 214 3663.

*******Programme overview*********

Monday’s keynote address “Value by Performance” will be delivered by Welby Ings, Associate Professor in Design at Auckland University of Technology, winner of the Prime Minister’s inaugural Supreme Award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence in 2001 and an outspoken critic of dehumanised systems of learning.

He will argue that the New Zealand education system has replaced the process of learning with simply measuring performance at all costs. Discussing examples of student work, he advocates replacing working for grades with valuing the intrinsic nature of the learning activity, part of a process he labels “trading beyond experience” to put the humanity back into learning.

World-renowned educationalist Professor Fred Korthagen from Utrecht University in The Netherlands will deliver Tuesday’s keynote lecture. Prof Korthagen argues that professional development of teachers, in order to succeed, needs to address people's core personal qualities that affect them professionally. He will discuss strategies that help people to become aware of their personal qualities, particularly their strengths, and how to develop them as part of their professional identity.

Some other topics and themes: Whether information and communication technology (ICT) in New Zealand schools is helping or hindering the real goals of education.

The impact of government restructuring of education on the way colleges of education operate within their professional community

Teacher education at Zayed University in Dubai

A workshop exploring the contents and implications of a four-year teaching degree supporting a “unified teaching service”

The central importance of spiritual development and what it means to be a spirit-aware teacher

Tolerance in schools for people with different sexual identities

Participation by Maori in power-sharing in state-funded education and assertion of dominant western worldviews

The emotional atmosphere of classrooms and how this impacts on students’ emotional development

Achieving better transition from home to early childhood centres

Research on optimum school size for student success

Broadening the focus of initial teacher education programmes beyond teaching and learning at the school to better study the social, political and ethical contexts of teachers work including professionalism and the purposes of education

Findings from the Ministry’s maths initiative – the “Numeracy Development Project” in 2003 in relation to different groups of students

Preparation for teaching in low decile schools

Preparation of students for teaching in Maori medium schools

A synthesis of evidence about quality teacher education practice and the implications

Employers’ views of beginning teachers and views of the new teachers on how well their programmes have prepared them

What attracts school leavers into teaching and their perceptions of teaching as a career

Discussion of guidelines that help schools identity gifted and talented students from minority cultures

Students’ perspectives on the meaningful and relevant lecture
Benchmarks for measuring the proficiency of teachers in Mâori language education

Listening to the views of secondary students to improve student learning

The problem with Kaupapa Maori: serving the class interests of the neotribal capitalist elite

Report on a noho Marae based programme in Rotorua designed to provide in depth instruction and experiences in the Maori world

Using video as a means of creating dialogue on issues of diversity, and implications for teacher pedagogy

Tensions between teaching and research within teacher education

Non-university teacher education providers weakened under PBRF ‘rankings’

Preparing beginning teachers to work with diversity amongst their students in the inclusive classroom

Importance of ongoing professional developing through induction programmes for novice teachers

Pasifika peoples’ involvement in ECE teacher education moving Pasifika peoples from the background to the foreground

Reflections from the PBRF Education Panel: The status of education research and recommendations for the future.

Teacher educators from the following institutions are presenting:

Auckland College of Education Christchurch College of Education Dunedin College of Education University of Auckland School of Education Waikato University School of Education Massey University School of Education Otago Unversity Auckland University of Technology Manukau Institute of Technology Bethlehem Institute Haemata Ltd Monash University, Australia

Presentations by other organisations:

New Zealand Educational Institute Ministry of Education Post-primary Teachers Association New Zealand Principal and Leadership Centre New Zealand Teachers’ Council

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