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

Publication Details

The Schooling Improvement team of the Ministry of Education sought to examine the current state of Pasifika academic achievement in Schooling Improvement initiatives and in individual schools. Part of the examination was to identify aspects of Schooling Improvement (SI) work that has been shown to enhance or hinder academic achievement for Pasifika students and to offer some recommendations. This report is a summary of a detailed technical report from Auckland UniServices Limited prepared by the Woolf Fisher Research Centre. Details of each of the sections summarised here are contained in ‘Ua aoina le manogi o le lolo: Pasifika Schooling Improvement Full Technical Report’ (Amituanai-Toloa, McNaughton, Lai, & Airini, 2009).

Author(s): Meaola Amituanai-Toloa, Stuart McNaughton, Mei Kuin Lai and Airini

Date Published: February 2010

7. Summary of Pasifika Student Voices

Students have ‘big’ dreams that they want to fulfil:

  • Students talked of success at school in terms of being able to ‘tautua’ (serve) family and country
  • Children generally expressed considerable enjoyment of school, and high motivation to succeed at school; more so at primary school than secondary school.
  • Students want to be critically engaged and contribute to learning.
  • Students identified attributes of teachers and teaching that enabled them to be more successful learners. These included teachers:
    • believing in students and their ability
    • providing clear instructions and challenging academic work
    • making use of their background knowledge
    • providing opportunities to discuss and express ideas
    • taking time to more clearly explain new conceptual ideas and breaking these down for understanding
    • listening to students
    • expressing positive affect.

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