Improving Achievement Using Digital Pedagogy: Impact of a Research Practice Partnership in New Zealand

Abstract

This present study reports the impact of a research–practice partnership among nine collaborating schools and researchers in Auckland, New Zealand. The goals of the partnership were to refine digital instruction in ways that would result in improved learning processes and achievement. The partners employed a design-based research approach to iteratively develop and test changes to the pedagogy. Results indicate moderate to large effect sizes in writing, and small effect sizes in reading and mathematics. Results also indicate increasing effects over time in reading and writing, but not in mathematics. Educational effects included greater use of discussions by teachers and greater use of open-ended activity types. These outcomes are discussed in relation to features of the partnership as well as digital pedagogy.

Keywords:

• design-based research
• 1:1 device use
• school improvement
• research practice partnership

Notes

¹ The New Zealand school year starts in late January and ends in December.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported here was co-funded by the Education Trust of the participating schools and the University of Auckland.

Notes on contributors

Rebecca Jesson

Rebecca Jesson is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. She is Associate Director of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre, where she works with teachers and school leaders to redesign their instructional provision based on research evidence of what is working for their particular context. Rebecca's research interests are in the teaching and learning of literacy, and use of dialogic pedagogies to promote learning. Please address correspondence regarding this article to Rebecca Jesson, Woolf Fisher Research Centre, Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92601, Symonds Street, Auckland 1150, New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected]

Stuart McNaughton

Stuart McNaughton is Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. His research programme includes work on the development of a psychological model of socialisation (incorporating concepts of teaching, learning and development) applicable to informal and formal educational settings which provides a means of analysing development within and across settings. Associated with this is the demonstration through research applications of ways of incorporating cultural processes in research tools and in explanations of teaching, learning and development. These applications contribute to solutions to a long standing difficulty in developmental and educational psychology, explaining the role of culture in teaching and learning.

Aaron Wilson

Aaron Wilson (PhD) is a senior lecturer in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy and an Associate Director of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre. His research interests are in interventions to address disparities in education, disciplinary literacy teaching in secondary schools, English, blended learning, and teacher professional development. Aaron has led the literacy strand of the Starpath project since 2011 and was the Principal Investigator and National Coordinator for the Secondary Literacy Project 2009-11, an intervention in 60 secondary schools that aimed to raise the achievement of underachieving Year 9 and 10 students.

Tong Zhu

Tong Zhu is a research fellow at the Woolf Fisher Research Centre at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. His current research interests include the analysis of hierarchical structured data (with particular application to New Zealand primary and secondary student achievement data), categorical data analysis, applied statistics and data visualisation.

Victoria Cockle

Victoria Cockle is a research analyst at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include mixed methods analyses which contribute empirical understanding to projects which work to better meet the needs of underserved students in New Zealand and in Pacific Nations.