This thesis explores reasons for New Zealand���s problematic tail of literacy
underachievement and suggests one way to address the problem, is for schools to
operate as learning organizations.
A qualitative research design was used to identify elements of organizational learning
in the practices of three very different schools identified as improving the students���
learning outcomes. The research methods included semi-structured interviews, team
meeting observations, an anonymous questionnaire and document analysis. An
analytical framework identifying five elements of organizational learning, developed
from a review of the organizational learning literature, was used to evaluate each
school���s ability to learn about their teaching and learning programmes as a result of
reviewing students��� achievement information.
The research findings identified elements of the organizational learning framework in
the practices of all three schools. It was found that whilst the elements of the
framework were necessary, the entirety of the framework was most significant in
facilitating organizational learning. In order for the schools to learn to improve the
learning of their students, they needed to have a well defined infrastructure for the
collection, collation, analysis and use of student achievement information. The
occurrence of the infrastructure alone did not, however, facilitate organizational
learning. The school leaders and teachers needed to apply the appropriate curriculum
content, pedagogical and assessment literacy knowledge to the assessment data in
order to make sense of it and to use the information to review and refine their teaching and learning programmes. The acquisition of appropriate levels of professional
knowledge appeared to be facilitated within a culture where teachers felt safe and
confident to challenge and be challenged in their collegial discussions about students���
learning. Rigorous collegial discussions appeared to foster team learning and to be
leader driven. When the appropriate professional knowledge was not available within
the organization, learning only appeared to occur when the necessary expertise was
accessed from the external environment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:AUCKLAND/oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/274 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Millward, Pamela |
| Publisher | ResearchSpace@Auckland |
| Source Sets | University of Auckland |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Scanned from print thesis |
| Rights | Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated., https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm, Copyright: The author, http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/RestrictedAccess |
| Relation | PhD Thesis - University of Auckland, UoA1685919 |
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