Aussie (Australian United States Services in Education)
chief education officer Sheena Hervey. Photo by James
Beech.
A former Dunedin College of Education director says New
Zealand teachers should be wary of packaged programmes that are
designed to be read out like scripts in the classroom.
Aussie (Australian United States Services in Education) chief
education officer Sheena Hervey shared her experiences of
working as a senior literacy consultant in New York City and
San Diego over the past eight years, in her speech at the New
Zealand Reading Association (NZRA) Conference in Queenstown
on Monday.
The education consultant said about 180 New Zealanders and
Australians were working in New York schools. They had been
recruited by superintendents to provide personnel development
for their American counterparts.
"Their teachers have tremendous pressure to succeed, but
enter teaching with very little pre-service training," Ms
Hervey said.
Packaged programmes were a lucrative business in the United
States. However, they were an easy option.
"Teachers need to understand the curriculum, know how kids
learn and know their students very well through assessment.
If those three things disappear, the ability of teachers to
meet the needs of their students disappears."
Ms Hervey said there was not so much pressure from publishers
in New Zealand, as it was too small a market and New Zealand
teachers had fought packaged programmes. However, she
cautioned delegates not to take the situation for granted.
The Otago Council of NZRA hosted the 33rd annual conference.
About 400 teachers, lecturers, researchers and principals,
from early childhood to tertiary levels, attended.
Convener Robyne Selbie, of Dunedin, said the conference's
purpose was to educate, inform and bring pedagogy theory and
practice together while promoting literacy.
"Literacy is more than reading and writing. It's the whole
exposure of literature, multi-literacy with technology, the
instructional practice that goes on in classrooms and the
research that informs practice."
The conference is being held in Queenstown for the first time
since the 1970s and concludes today.
The International Reading Association conference will be held
in Auckland in July.
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