AUT - Research

Education

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Research within the School of Education is driven by students working towards postgraduate qualifications, staff pursuing their own research interests, and contracts for funding agencies such as the Ministry of Education and other partners.

Research interests in the School of Education include:

Learning and teaching, theory and practice 

• Educational philosophy (including Montessori education and Steiner education)
• Cognitive science, constructivism, enactivism, and other ways of knowing
• The construction of a 'good teacher' and of 'good learning'
• Learning communities, group leadership, and group dynamics
• Quality teaching practices for diverse learners
• Transformative learning environments

Curriculum and development

• Professional, curriculum, and resource innovation and development
• Aims, competencies. content, process, and learning/teaching tasks
• Course and programme design
• Learning in campus-based settings
• Languages of children
• Policy development
• Subject development (e.g., mathematics)

Teacher education 

• Development of beginning teachers
• Development of teacher education programmes
• Teacher education for a multicultural society 
• Mentoring and professional development

Early Childhood Education

• Philosophy and history of early childhood education 
• Theory and practice of planning for children's learning in early childhood education
• The history and currency of 'play’ within early childhood education
• Numeracy and literacy development 
• Parent education and the role of parents in early childhood education
• Family and social issues around education including attachment theory
• Observation and Assessment of young children
• Children’s perceptions of gender in pre-school

Adult and tertiary education and development including: 

• Workplace assessment
• Older adult education and employment
• The use of learning stories to access learning with adults

Schools

• Bicultural issues in education
• Pasifika
• Alternative education
• Professionalisation of career practice
• The link between teacher training institutes and primary schools

E-learning

• Open, flexible and online learning including the place of ICT
• E-portfolios

Educational administration

• Women in educational management
• Leadership and principalship

Professional inquiry and practice

• The field of research including methods such as multi-method research and credentialism
• Implications of sabbaticals in career
• Cross cultural definitions of career

Click here to find out more about research developments driven by AUT University.