Designing more Effective Teaching of Comprehension in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms in New Zealand

Abstract

A research-practice partnership is described which is designing more effective teaching of comprehension in the middle and upper primary school years. The partnership involves researchers working with schools serving largely indigenous Maori and immigrant Pacific nations communities in the poorest areas of New Zealand's largest city. The approach taken is collaborative, staged, analytic theoretically intense and culturally located. Results from the first stages show the significance of systematic profiling of teaching and learning. This has enabled researchers and teachers to target areas where research can be designed to be more effective and interventions are able to be tested.