Goal setting teacher inspired from a young age

Goal setting teacher inspired from a young age

Fiona Toloa may have graduated with a Master of Professional Studies in Education with First Class Honours (MEd) on Monday but she has actually been teaching and inspiring others all her life.

As a young girl at Henderson South Primary School she excelled at maths and reading and was often asked by teachers to help her class mates.

“I felt really good about helping other people. I guess it started from there. Seeing how their faces just lit up when they understood it.”

But it was in her time at Rutherford College that Fiona was inspired by her chemistry teacher the late Mr Laver, to become a teacher herself.

“He was quite strict on me and made sure I got all my work done. He never gave up on me. I was the only brown person in my class and he just kept pushing me and pushing me and I just thought ‘I can actually do this’.’

She enrolled in the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and became a teacher. Her positive approach inspired hundreds of students at Otahuhu College where she taught science for 15 years.

“I just saw a lot of students were struggling with reading and writing and literature and in the science area. I just wanted to inspire them to set goals in the field of science.”

In 2010 she created a Health Science Academy in the school with the help of the CEO of the Pasifika Medical Association Debbie Sorensen and the previous principal, Gil Laurenson. The academy led to 19 of the 23 year-13 students entering top medical science degrees including dentistry and medicine.

Fiona decided to return to study and was awarded a scholarship to complete the MEd. She embarked on a mixed-methods study which examined teacher expectations for Pasifika students learning NCEA level 1 Science in a low decile urban secondary school.

She explored three research questions; What are teacher expectations for NCEA level 1 Science students? What are students’ perceptions of teachers’ expectations? And, Is there a relationship between teacher expectations and Pasifika academic achievement?

She interviewed four NCEA level 1 science teachers and had 56 anonymous students answer a six-point student questionnaire on self-belief, family expectation, high and low self-expectation, teachers’ pedagogy and teacher-student relationships. Results showed teachers expected their students to achieve NCEA level 1 Science depending on their work ethic and behaviour. Students’ perceptions of their science teachers’ expectations were similar to teachers’ expectations. However, teachers believed that for students to achieve, the onus was on the students whereas students believed the onus was on the teacher.

Fiona hopes her research will assist in raising the achievement of Pasifika students in science. She now teaches at Manurewa High School but also plans to return to study for her PhD one day.
Fiona says as well as her teachers, she was also inspired by her supervisor Professor Christine Rubie-Davies and her mother, Dr Meaola Amituanai-Toloa, a former teacher and a senior lecturer at the University. Meaola was also appointed the country’s first Associate Dean, Pasifika in 2008.
Fiona has some wise advice for people wanting to start an education in science.
“My advice is; don’t let anybody hold you back. Just make the decision to do it and just do it. Just follow it through.”

“You just have to set those goals and just do everything in your power to achieve those goals and ask for help when you need it because no man is an island.”
ends

© Scoop Media