(Amended 12.12.11)
This module focuses on the partners who support students’ learning (including the students themselves), their responsibilities, and the contributions they can make to enabling students to meet the National Standards in reading, writing, and mathematics.
Building effective partnerships is one of a set of professional development modules designed to support school leaders as they lead professional development about the National Standards for years 1–8 within The New Zealand Curriculum. The modules are suitable for use during the cycles of professional inquiry that leaders and teachers engage in to improve outcomes for their students.
This module highlights the need for schools to create opportunities for partnerships and examines ways in which these partnerships can work, especially in the context of communicating about and reporting on students’ progress towards the standards.
This module draws on the concept of ako as the basis for teaching and learning relationships within which educators also learn from students (and their families) while employing teaching practice that is deliberate, reflective, and research-based.
Partnerships between teachers and students are an important aspect of the instructional strategies that teachers use.
For information on instructional strategies and partnerships, see:
All the partners who support a student’s learning can help to establish the expectations for that student.
For information on expectations, see:
This module has three main sections.
Key outcome of the module, which
Reflective questions for school leaders and teachers, which
Leading shifts in practice through focused activities, which
A final section, Resources and references, lists texts cited or quoted in the module along with resources that include useful information about establishing effective partnerships to support students’ learning.
School leaders can use this module to identify and explore shifts in practice that might be needed as their school works with the National Standards.
Teachers can use the reflective questions and/or activities to help guide them through any changes they might need to make as they work with the National Standards.
The key outcome for this module is that partners (students, teachers, school leaders, boards of trustees, families, whānau, communities, and providers of educational support) work together to provide opportunities to improve student progress and achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics.
Indicators that this outcome is being achieved include the following:
Students are metacognitively involved in their learning and can discuss their learning confidently with teachers, parents, families, whānau and communities.
Students, parents, families, whānau, and communities are engaging with the school to support student learning, particularly for students who are not meeting expectations.
Schools are using culturally responsive processes, which may include the use of translations, interpreters, or outreach workers to engage students, parents, families, whānau, and communities in dialogue that enables them to understand the National Standards.
Schools are communicating information (about students’ progress and achievement in relation to the National Standards) to families, whānau, and communities effectively, in plain language or through a clear translation.
[T]he nature of parental or caregiver involvement in their children’s education is crucial to improved outcomes. A key research finding is that school–home partnerships are critically dependent upon the agency of educators, their ability to avoid deficit or stereotypical characterisations of parents and caregivers, and their ability to initiate links, respond to, and recognise strengths within the diverse families of their students. Partnerships that align school and home practices and enable parents to actively support their children’s in-school learning have shown some of the strongest impacts on student outcomes …
Alton-Lee, 2003, page 43
Research shows that student outcomes are enhanced when effective links are made between schools and other contexts in which students are socialised.
School staff, students, families, and whānau need a shared language in which to discuss students’ reading, writing, and mathematics progress and achievement in the New Zealand Curriculum and the school curriculum. The principle of ako is fundamental to developing connections that work. Productive partnerships – where Māori students, whānau, iwi, and educators work together to produce better outcomes – are a key aspect of ako. A broader interpretation of ako encompasses all parents, teachers, and students as they learn with and from one another in order to support all students to achieve their goals.
The National Standards signal a renewed emphasis on building effective partnerships for learning. This can mean trying new approaches and avoiding a blaming attitude.
The following reflective questions are designed to help school leaders and teachers understand their school’s current beliefs and actions in relation to partnerships. They can then make comparisons with the expectations of working together that are expressed in the first paragraph of the introduction in both the National Standards books.
Use the reflective questions to identify areas for further exploration through the activities that follow.
1. Do our teaching and learning processes support students to engage actively in their learning? For example:
2. What are our professional strengths and learning needs in relation to building partnerships to support our students’ learning?
3. How can we ensure that our reporting processes in relation to the National Standards meet the diverse information needs of students, families, and whānau?
Use the understandings gained from discussing the reflective questions above to identify the shifts in practice and/or professional learning that may be required in the school. Select from the following activities to support these shifts as part of professional inquiry.
Consider the principle of ako when exploring partnerships in these activities.
Select activities that will help deepen understandings of partnerships. Further exploration may be needed to reach the outcome for this module. For example, discussions may reveal a need to explore real or perceived barriers to partnerships.
The activities can be used in a variety of ways for whole staff, syndicate, group, or individual inquiry. For example, an activity that relates to mathematics may be carried out differently from the same activity when it relates to reading and writing. Teachers working with years 1–3 may also carry out some activities differently from those working with years 4–8.
The activities in all of the modules, including this one, are based on the core resources listed in the Overview. Refer to these as appropriate when exploring practice through the activities.
Do our teaching and learning processes support students to engage actively in their learning?
1. Create a set of questions for students, drawing on the suggestions in the self-audit tool (questions for students). Working with a random or focus group of students, use the questions to generate discussion about the degree to which students are able to reflect on their involvement in their own learning.
2. Discuss the results in pairs or groups of colleagues. Consider further questions such as:
What are our professional strengths and learning needs in relation to building partnerships to support our students’ learning?
1. Survey or review the ways in which the school draws on students’ families, whānau, communities, and cultures as foundations for learning in reading, writing, and mathematics. This may include gathering data about the percentages of families and whānau who are currently actively engaging with the school in supporting students’ learning.
2. Working with groups of teachers, use the Post Box activity (described in English Language Learning Progressions: Facilitation Manual for School Self-access Professional Development, page 7; available at ESOL Online) to explore teachers’ knowledge of the English language learners in the school.
Consider the following questions.
3. Identify a student who receives supplementary learning support of any kind. Using this student as an example, map the people and services that are real or potential partners in the student’s learning. Include parent, family, whānau, and community support. Consider the following questions.
How can we ensure that our reporting processes in relation to the National Standards meet the diverse information needs of students, families, and whānau?
1. Explore Reporting to parents and whānau on Assessment Online. Select one section (for example, Principles of effective reporting) to work through together. Plan ways to maximise the reach and effectiveness of reporting.
2. Find out what parents, families, whānau, and communities want to see in reports on student progress and achievement. The 'questions to select from for parents and caregivers' in the self-audit tool can be used to help generate relevant questions.
Consider the following questions:
3. Refer to the reporting templates and examples on Assessment Online and, as a group, select one and use it to write a plain-language report on the progress and achievement in reading, writing, or mathematics of one year 1 (and/or year 5) student. To support the report writing, ask that student’s teacher to share assessment results and other information gathered over time.
Note that the template you have selected is only one example; there are many effective ways of writing reports for families and whānau.
Analyse current school communication to parents about reading, writing, or mathematics. How clear and accessible is the communication? Rewrite it in plain language.
Consider how our current reporting practices might change to support plain-language reporting.
Do our teaching and learning processes support students to engage actively in their learning?
What are our professional strengths and learning needs in relation to building partnerships to support our students’ learning?
How can we ensure that our reporting processes in relation to the National Standards meet the diverse information needs of students, families, and whānau?
Use a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to explore one or more of the reflective questions or the indicators for the outcome of the module. Exploration might involve asking questions such as the following:
Consider planning professional learning around the Te Mana Kōrero DVDs. For example, the DVD Te Mana Kōrero 3 focuses on the need to build and sustain effective, mutually respectful school and whānau or community links to support Māori student achievement.
This section includes details of texts that are cited or quoted in the module and/or that will be helpful to users of this particular module. The full list of core resources is available in the Overview.
Updated on: 12 Dec 2011
