Maori students benefit from new teaching methods

4.00pm

New ways of teaching Maori students has shown dramatic improvements in achievement and behaviour, a pilot project has shown.

Te Kotahitanga project interviewed groups of students and teachers in four schools to identify problems and then translated the findings into practical solutions.

Researchers found Maori students saw the most important facet as the in-class, face-to-face relationships and interactions between students and teachers.

In contrast, teachers suggested the most important influence on achievement was the children themselves, their whanau circumstances, or systemic issues.

There was a similar experience when students and teachers were asked about reasons for absenteeism.

When the new interactive methods were tried out, the result was a dramatic drop in absenteeism, much better achievement, far less aggression and a change in school culture, the research report said.

Education Minister Trevor Mallard and Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia released the report today.

They said it had important implications for Maori education and would be developed further.

"We are putting a real focus on using research like this to help Maori student achievement, as it puts the spotlight on what actually works in practice, in the mainstream classroom," they said in a joint statement.

Mr Horomia said Maori under-achievement was well known and something had to be done about it.

"Maori development is short on processes to close the gap," he said.

"If we don't capture and educate these students when they're between 11 and 14, then all the rest is wasted."

Lead researcher Professor Russell Bishop of Waikato University said it was between those ages that achievement nose-dived.

"We had to find out what the problems were...we had to find starting points," he said.

"It is about changing the interactions between teachers and students, the must both be active rather the teacher being active and the student being passive."

The schools used in the project were not identified. It will be expanded into 12 schools, with the results known in 2005.

- NZPA

Te Kotahitanga - Experiences of Year 9 and 10 Maori Students in Mainstream Classrooms [PDF]