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A Pasifika teacher outlines the process of how he uses the cultural identifiers for giftedness and applies these identifiers to students that he teaches. The Pasifika teacher also shared his presentation of the process and an explanation of gifted and talented Pasifika students.

Duration: 03:40

Giftedness explained

A Pasifika student who is able to articulate how his cultural identifiers for giftedness contribute to his world as a learner and how his gifts can be used to help others who rely on him as a role model.

Duration: 02:56

Giftedness

The Gifted and Talented Coordinator shares her story about how her involvement with the Pasifika Achievement Coordinator in the Digi Advisor project. The Digi Advisor project helped affirm what Pasifika initiatives the school already had in place to support their Pasifika learners.

Duration: 02:18

Resilience

An Auckland Girls Grammar School Samoan language teacher and a non-Pasifika music teacher collaborated on a consensus approach to see which cultural identifiers applied to Pasifika students they taught mutually. The Samoan language teacher acknowledges the value of having a process to identify gifted and talented Pasifika students, providing another avenue or lens to view how Pasifika learners can translate their particular strengths into classroom learning and achievement.

Duration: 02:33

Lineage and birthright / representation

An Epsom Girls Grammar School student discusses two specific cultural identifiers: lineage and birthright that pertain to her upbringing from her family. Notions of cultural identifiers for giftedness are found in the home, and this Tongan student articulates how family and cultural values are used as a foundation to accelerate her learning and achievement at school.

Duration: 03:29

Assessment and e-Learning

An Auckland Girls Grammar School Samoan language teacher explains how she combines e-Learning tools in her assessments to allow her students to achieve to their potential through the use of YouTube channels to film oral language assessments. This means that students are able to film their assessments without the time pressure or time constraints of timetabled classes as an example of ubiquitous learning.

Duration: 04:22

Digi advisors and the Virtual Learning Network (VLN)

A Pasifika teacher shares his story about the benefits of being involved in the Digi Advisor project and being involved in online communities of practice on the Virtual Learning Network.

Duration: 03:03

Pasifika Education Plan (PEP) and teachers

A Pasifika teacher shares his opinion and interpretation of the PEP, how teachers can use the policy document as a way to provide a strategic focus on Pasifika learners, parents, families and communities.

Duration: 01:30

Pasifika student success

Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, Assistant Vice Chancellor (Pasifika) Victoria University, discusses why it is important to New Zealand as a nation that Pasifika students are successful in education.

Duration: 03:27

Effective teaching relationships

Research shows that the teacher's interest, respect and care for the student is an important factor in student achievement in school.

Duration: 01:44

Language domains

Bilingual people are able to use their different languages in different places, with different people and for different purposes.

Duration: 01:34

Parents and bilingual learning

Parents are pleased with new approaches to bilingual learning. They see the advantages that children get from using both their languages.

Duration: 02:43

Secondary curriculum and vocabulary

Academic language, and particularly academic vocabulary, is a high priority for bilingual students, across all curriculum areas.

Duration: 04:03

Being bilingual

Research shows that there are clear educational advantages in bilingual learning, but using a Pasifika language has sometimes been considered a liability.

Duration: 01:27

Strengthening relationships

By integrating culture, caring, challenge and support into their pedagogies, teachers strengthen relationships and build communities of learners who succeed socially and academically.

Duration: 6:21

Transitions

School leaders have a role in establishing practices that support the continuity of their Pasifika students’ learning as they move from and into different learning environments.

Duration: 2:48

The gifts students bring

Inclusive pedagogies, where teachers deliberately and positively draw on their Pasifika students’ resources, value the diversity of student experience and help to lift Pasifika student achievement.

Duration: 2:06

High expectations

High expectations, together with the vision of Pasifika students as successful learners, improve relationships, pedagogy and academic outcomes.

Duration: 6:17

Behaviour management

Safe and supportive environments, with coherent, clear and consistently enforced codes of behaviour and restorative discipline practices, contribute to learning gains for Pasifika students.

Duration: 4:30

Relationships – Getting to know the students

Collecting relevant and sufficient data on Pasifika students’ achievement helps schools to track the progress of their Pasifika learners, make informed changes to their pedagogy, programmes and practices and be affirmed when their data reveals learning gains.

Duration: 05:50

Data – how it is used

Pasifika students find it motivating when teachers keep them informed about their levels of achievement, share the learning intentions with them and adjust their teaching to scaffold their learning pathways so that they know exactly what to do next.

Duration: 04:38

Strategies at work

Teachers use many different strategies to engage their Pasifika learners and help them to achieve. Their strategies work best when they are grounded in responsive and caring relationships with their Pasifika students and the focus on their learning is clear.

Duration: 05:03

Learning intentions

When teachers and Pasifika students negotiate the learning intentions, and share clear expectations and knowledge of the outcomes to be achieved, Pasifika students engage more confidently and more purposefully in their learning.

Duration: 04:16

Collaborative learning

Pasifika students benefit from working in collaborative ways with their peers in the classroom.

Duration: 02:31

Language

Knowing a Pasifika language is not a barrier to being successful in English-medium schooling. Teachers who value and share the languages that Pasifika students bring with them into the classroom and deliberately build their English language skills help their Pasifika students to succeed.

Duration: 02:43

Professional learning and development at Māngere Bridge School

Collaboration, inquiry learning and knowledge-sharing underpin the professional development and learning focus of the teachers at Māngere Bridge school. The learning and actions that result impact positively on their Pasifika students’ achievement and well-being.

Duration: 04:14

Professional learning and development at McAuley High School

McAuley High School has an unrelenting focus on raising the achievement of their Pasifika students. School-based teacher professional learning and development enables teachers to collectively inquire into and identify what works well for their Pasifika students.

Duration: 03:39

Leadership

School leaders who initiate and sustain an intensive focus on the teaching-learning relationship and promote collective responsibility and accountability for Pasifika students’ achievement and well-being can make a difference to the outcomes their Pasifika students achieve.

Duration: 01:01

Students as leaders

Negative stereotyping and a culture of mocking can be positively transformed by providing opportunities for Pasifika students to learn and grow their leadership potential, take ownership of their own development and be celebrated as achievers.

Duration: 03:02

Connecting Polyfest with academic performance

Pasifika students discuss the importance and relevance that the ASB Polyfest has played in their classroom learning, which in effect improved their academic achievement. Key points in this story also include the senior students mentoring younger students - tuakana/teina model, the opportunity to celebrate their culture by engaging with their traditional performing arts and being able to connect their cultural identifiers to Pasifika giftedness.

Duration: 05:33

Student advice for teachers

Senior Pasifika students provide advice for teachers of Pasifika students, highlighting the need for teachers to focus on the level of language that they use in classrooms to communicate with Pasifika learners.

Duration: 02:24

How the Correspondence School can support Pasifika students.

Glen Tuala - Pasifika Advisory Officer, Correspondence School. explains the flexibility that the Correspondence School can offer in developing a more personalised learning programme for Pasifika students.

Duration: 05:17

Know your students

Jim Halafihi, ICT teacher Papatoetoe High School, explains how establishing a positive rapport with your Pasifika students can provide a good starting point to knowing your students. When a teacher knows their students they are in a better position to respond more appropriately to their needs.

Duration: 06:01

Understanding Pasifika culture

Maggie Flavell, explains the the perspective of a non Pasifika person working with Pasifika students. She talks about the importance of learning about the Pasifika culture to enable her to better engage with Pasifika students and their families. She also talks about the value of having a good support network to support her own professional development.

Duration: 06:31

Providing authentic learning contexts for Pasifika students

Imeleta Faumuina, HoD English Tangaroa College, discusses the importance of providing authentic learning contexts to support meaningful student engagement.

Duration: 10:27

Strong student connections

Melaine Sagala - TIC Samoan Language, Avondale College, discusses the benefits of strong student connections for their learning. She also discusses a model for connection that has worked for her in the past.

Duration: 06:39

Each student is unique

David Faavae explains that with in the changing Tongan culture that Tongan boys can be very different, each requiring a different approach when working with them as teachers.

Duration: 04:05

Targeted support

Pennie Otto, Lecturer at MIT Tertiary Secondary School, discusses how she has developed a programme based on the Niue language and culture that has lifted Pasifika student achievement at her school.

Duration: 04:23

Pasifika students bring a wealth of knowledge

Teokotai Tarai, HOD Languages, Teacher of Cook Island Maori Language, explains how Pasifika students come to the classroom with a wealth of knowledge and experiences. This can provide a platform for better student engagement and success.

Duration: 06:14

What it's all about

It’s about creating environments with students at the centre, where Pasifika students have the focus and learning support they need to lift their academic achievement patterns.

Duration: 4:21

Building relationships

Mutually respectful, caring and open relationships, which motivate and engage Pasifika students, form the heart of effective teaching.

Duration: 5:11

Diversity and identity

This clip, from the Connections and Conversations DVD, considers the diversity within our groups of Pasifika students and their communities in terms of their identities, languages, experiences, and aspirations.
The DVD and accompanying booklet can be ordered via email from [email protected] or phone 0800 226 440. Quote Item number 11061.

Duration: 9:44

Different worlds, different experiences

This clip, from the Connections and Conversations DVD, highlights a variety of viewpoints on the range of different contexts and worlds that Pasifika students inhabit.These different contexts can provide challenges for some students. At the same time, they also can provide a basis for learning.
The DVD and accompanying booklet can be ordered via email from [email protected] or phone 0800 226 440. Quote Item number 11061.

Duration: 5:43

Relevancy and expectations

This clip, from the Connections and Conversations DVD, considers the potentially differing expectations of teachers and parents towards Pasifika students and their learning. The DVD and accompanying booklet can be ordered via email from [email protected] or phone 0800 226 440. Quote Item number 11061.

Duration: 4:14

Involvement and engagement

This clip, from the Connections and Conversations DVD, explores a variety of viewpoints from students, teachers and parents on the involvement and engagement of Pasifika parents and communities in the processes of schooling.
The DVD and accompanying booklet can be ordered via email from [email protected] or phone 0800 226 440. Quote Item number 11061.

Duration: 11:26

Parents matter

Many schools already involve Pasifika parents in supporting cultural events and activities. However, it should not stop there. Home-school partnerships that have a clear focus on Pasifika students’ learning with everyone able to make a positive and active contribution directly benefit Pasifika learners.

Duration: 04:16

Sharing information

Partnerships that share and align school and home practices and enable parents to actively support their children's in-school learning have shown some of the strongest impacts on student outcomes.

Duration: 03:29

Welcoming parents

Coming to school for special events is rewarding for Pasifika parents if the school makes them feel welcome and the focus is on their children’s achievement and strategies to extend their learning.

Duration: 01:46

Learning conversations

Sustained higher achievement is possible when teachers use pedagogical approaches and share strategies that enable Pasifika students to take charge of their own learning.

Duration: 05:56

Sylvia Park's parent centre

Sylvia Park school has set up a centre to be ‘the parents’ place’ within the school. The centre’s leader has a proactive focus on involving Pasifika parents through mutual learning conversations based on their child’s assessment data and their next-steps learning needs.

Duration: 03:56

STEAM – Engineering

Way before the creation of an electric drill, Tokelauans invented the vilivili – a hand-operated pump drilling device. Pacific ancestors have always been construction innovators.

Duration: 00:46

STEAM – Science

Pacific ancestors who were scientific innovators knew about the benefits of coconut oil long before it was trendy and profitable.

Duration: 00:55

STEAM – Technology

Pacific ancestors have been navigational innovators since long ago. They created, studied, and memorised navigation charts made of sticks.

Duration: 00:47

STEAM – Arts

Traditional tatau (tattooing) has been handed down from generation to generation. Pacific ancestors have been cultural artistic innovators from way back.

Duration: 00:59

STEAM – Maths

Pacific ancestors have long been financial innovators. They used tafuliae, shell money made up of different coloured shells that represented different monetary worth.

Duration: 00:50

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Connecting Polyfest with academic performance

Transcript

I think there’s a great correlation between Polyfest and academic success because during Polyfest everyone’s extremely busy and the schedule is just full-on. So I guess in a way you organization and your time management skills are tested and in some ways it can be positive and negative. But on a personal level I think it really benefitted me being part of Polyfest because I found that we had practices everyday after school, every lunch time, every weekend, every Saturday, so a lot of my time was occupied and I had to try and find time to fit in my schoolwork. And so I guess I became a more efficient learner outside of school, and my time management skills improved and I knew how to prioritize things and fit in time for schoolwork.

It was really time consuming, but I the end it really did pay off because not only did I learn more about my culture but I was also able to acquire the skills to learn new things in a short time span.

I believe Polyfest is a very good avenue for one’s success, academic success at school. In terms of the discipline you learn, to memorise the songs.

My memory has definitely improved over the years especially since I’ve been able to integrate my Polyfest skills into my schoolwork. I’ve been able to memorise a lot more things clearly and in a lot more detail because I’ve been able to pay attention that bit more.

The Polyfest environment you’re really pushed to try and succeed as a group, and this is carried on into our school work. So having practices every day. We’ve kinda, we’ve kept that mentality of being motivated every day and during class time we become more attentive, and effective listeners and learners.

Whether you’re a leader or you’re one of the group you learn a lot of the discipline and I believe that can be implemented into your schoolwork.

I believe that Polyfest really helped me because as a Tongan group member I was able learn skills that I wouldn’t have normally learned if I didn’t. And at the same time I was able to learn more about my culture and I wasn’t able to do that when I was a little girl. So it really did help me.

I’ve actually made quite a few friends in the Polyfest group. because we were together every day, six days a week, we would always get together outside of Polyfest to actually have study groups and the Samoan group, actually some of the girls, on Saturdays when we’d have an hour break we’d actually have our schoolwork out. So it is really good that Polyfest I guess, bring friendships together, that we could help each other in our schoolwork.

The relationships between the juniors and the seniors, I think in Polyfest especially, you they create a space that everyone feels welcome in. it’s not ah you’re older than me, so I shouldn’t be able to talk to you. They create a space that felt like home, especially, in such a big school where Polynesians are a minority. They made me feel at home, they made me feel like I belong somewhere especially since I was new. And I think that girls, if other girls, reached out and asked to be a part of Polyfest, then I would I think they’d find those relationships as well. They’d find it easier to be themselves and find friends.

We had quite a few juniors and they’d I guess it was good being part of Polyfest because they found it easy access to the senior students where they’d ask for help and it was a more comfortable environment being similar nationalities, or ah, the same nationalities and just being comfortable and confident to ask questions. Yea so I was able to help a few juniors during my time at Polyfest.

I believe that we should also see Polyfest as way a learning tool a way to handle learning. So a lot of kids at school they excel at Polyfest or at sports, but when they come into the classroom they’re a completely different person. So I believe Polyfest should be a way a learning tool to handle other students.

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