Browsing by Author "Khoo E"
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- ItemAn Ecological Approach to Understanding Assessment for Learning in Support of Student Writing Achievement(Frontiers Media S.A, 2018-02-23) Cowie B; Khoo EIn this paper, we report on a project conducted in a New Zealand primary school that aimed to enhance the writing achievement of primary school boys who were achieving just below the national standard for their age or level through the use of peer feedback and information and communication technologies (ICTs). The project involved a teacher collaborative inquiry approach where all seven teachers in the school and the school principal participated to achieve the project aim. We adopt an ecological approach as a lens to offer a holistic and comprehensive view of how peer assessment and use of ICTs can be facilitated to improve writing achievement. Data were collected through teacher interviews and written reflections of practice and student learning, teacher analysis of student work, team meeting notes, classroom observations, and student focus group interviews. Findings from the thematic analysis of textual data illustrate the potential of adopting an ecological approach to consider how teacher classroom practices are shaped by the school, community, and wider policy context. At the classroom level, our ecological analysis highlighted a productive synergy between commonplace writing pedagogy strategies and assessment for learning (AfL) practices as part of teacher orchestration of an ensemble of interdependent routines, tools, and activities. Diversity, redundancy, and local adaptations of resources to provide multiple pathways and opportunities—social and material and digital—emerged as important in fostering peer assessment and ICT use in support of writing achievement. Importantly, these practices were made explicit and taken up across the school and in the parent community because of whole staff involvement in the project. The wider policy context allowed for and supported teachers developing more effective pedagogy to impact student learning outcomes. We propose that an ecological orientation offers the field a productive insight into the contextual dynamics of AfL as classroom practice that is connected to the wider community and that has long-term value for developing student independence and learning outcomes.
- ItemTeacher Use of Digital Stories to Promote Reflective Practice Supportive of Migrant and Refugee Children’s Sense of Belonging(Springer Nature, 2023-07-14) Khoo E; Mitchell L; Sammons MCreative and innovative reflective methods are important to prompt and sustain alternative and novel ways for teachers to consider their professional identity and practice. Digital storytelling is one such method that enables the sharing of valued events including narratives of lived experience. This paper reports on a case study investigating teacher use of digital storytelling to promote reflection and pedagogical awareness in support of immigrant and refugee children’s developing sense of belonging. The case study is part of a larger funded project aimed at strengthening the identity and belonging of refugee and immigrant children in early childhood education. In the case study, four early childhood education teachers in an education and care centre planned and created their digital narratives, reflected on the process, and considered the opportunities and implications for integrating digital storytelling in their practice. A range of qualitative data were collected through observations (notes, photographs, video recordings), focus group interview, and teacher created artifacts. Thematic analysis identified that teachers valued their experiences with creating their own digital stories in identifying and affirming their values and identities as teacher practitioners, and in thinking more deeply about coming to belong. They recognised the transformative potential of digital storytelling in promoting understandings of belonging, facilitating reflective practice and identifying relevant belonging-based pedagogical strategies. They recommended other staff and parents could undertake a similar process, predicting that this would enable even stronger reciprocal connections between staff, parents and children to facilitate greater understanding of children’s cultural backgrounds and home experiences as a basis for establishing more targeted belonging-based pedagogies.