Ua Aoina le Manogi o le Lolo: Pasifika Schooling Improvement Research - Summary Report

12. Implications: What Does This Mean for Schools and for Schooling Improvement?

The general and specific summaries of results in Section 3 above contain implications for schools and Schooling Improvement. These are fully developed in the Policy Paper (Lai, McNaughton & Amituanai-Toloa, 2009) and the Full Technical Report (Amituanai-Toloa, McNaughton, Lai & Airini, 2009). The implications fall into three major groupings:

• Implications for the development use and management of evidence (data) systems in schools. For example:
• • The capacity and capability of schools to collect and keep good and reliable data is a pressing need.
  • Resourcing to achieve the capacity and capability is needed: programmes, staff and specific expertise.
• Implications for Schooling Improvement. For example:
• • Both rate of gain and level of achievement need to be considered when evaluating effectiveness of schools and Schooling Improvement with Pasifika students.
  • More research is needed on the features of schools and clusters that are more effective with Pasifika students and especially considering the major sources of variations in effectiveness we have identified (e.g., gender, Summer Learning Effect).
• Implications for the development of more effective instruction in schools. For example:
• • While the descriptions here add to a developing knowledge base, more research is urgently needed into identifying the features and attributes of the pedagogical practices that are known to be effective for Pasifika students.
  • Schools need to develop (and share) strategies which enable effective and reciprocal ways of engagement with the community to utilise their knowledge and expertise in order to build reciprocal relationships between home and school to enhance student identity and learning.
  • Valuing parents as resources and student voices for what they convey and how they can add to empowerment and motivation to achieve academic success.