Master of Teaching (MTchg) programme is to prepare teachers who engage in
practice that promotes equitable outcomes and opportunities for disadvantaged
students from priority learner groups. In New Zealand, these include learners from
low socio-economic communities who are often Maori and Pasifika students. The
aim is to develop student teachers’complex understandings of practice combined
with strong commitments to social justice.
The schools that are part of the MTchg are viewed as‘learning hubs’because
they are intended to provide sustained and systematic opportunities for student
teachers to practise and hone the required skills, knowledge and professional
practice. Currently there are 12 schools involved in the programme. Student
teachers work intensively in two different schools over the year. The intention is to
address what Darling-Hammond ( 2006 ) has identified as being the central issue
confronting ITE: how to foster learning about and from practiceinpractice. The
schools are considered to be‘learning hubs’for two main reasons.
First, the schools provide opportunities for MTchg students to begin to develop
the expertise necessary to work effectively with all learners. In thefirst six months
of the programme, in addition to a three-week practicum, a maximum of ten student
teachers work in one school for two days a week. While the student teachers work
primarily in one classroom with an experienced mentor teacher, the Adjunct
Lecturer has oversight of the group and designs professional learning experiences to
meet student teacher needs and requirements. In the last six months of the pro-
gramme, another group of four to six student teachers are deliberately placed in a
school situated in a low socio-economic community with a high proportion of
priority learners. In addition to being in the school for two days a week, the MTchg
students undertake a 3-week practicum at the beginning of the school year so they
can experience and participate in the establishment of class learning environments
and whole school activities connected with the start of the teaching year.
The MTchg students are in the same school for the summative 6-week practi-
cum, three weeks of which they take full responsibility for the class as mandated by
policy. During this practicum the student teachers also undertake site-based
supervised research into an aspect of their practice. Over the six months, a
University Liaison Lecturer works with the school’s Adjunct Lecturer to ensure that
MTchg students are provided with an effective professional learning environment
and that they are meeting university and school expectations and requirements. The
mentor teacher, Adjunct Lecturer and University Liaison Lecturer collaboratively
undertake the summative assessment of the student teacher’s practicum and their
readiness to start teaching.
Second, participating schools are viewed as learning hubs because they facilitate
a different and more collaborative way of teaching the programme. The new courses
in the Master of Teaching were co-constructed by interdisciplinary faculty and
school teams, and they combine campus and school-based teaching and learning.
The aim of this approach is to help make explicit the links between theory and
practice and to support student teachers to teach in ways that promote equitable
outcomes for all learners. For example, in two courses that combine mathematics
and literacy teaching, student teachers conducted observations and tasks in partner
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