Student Achievement

We have invested in research from inception to measure the effectiveness of our pedagogy. 

The research to date shows that the strong improvement in learning outcomes is supported by:

• an effective Learning pedagogy that is materially changing the school experience of students from years 1 to 13

• high levels of parental engagement

• affordability of 1 : 1 digital devices for all students from years 1 to 13

• provision of fast internet to all students to enable any time, any place, any pace learning from any one

Bibliography of Research Publications about the Manaiakalani  Programme

Peer reviewed academic journals and book chapters

1. McNaughton, S., Rosedale, N., Oldehaver, J., Corkin, E., Siryj, J., Jesson, R., & Zhu, T. (in press). Parenting beliefs and strategies for children’s self-regulation and social skills and Internet use. In J. Li (Ed.), Research on lifelong education.

2. Wang, S., Wilson, A., Jesson, R., Liu, Y., & Meiklejohn-Whiu, S. (2023). Opportunities to learn literacy in digital classrooms in New Zealand primary schools: Does class achievement level make a difference?. Teaching and Teacher Education, 130, 104171.   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X23001592

3. McNaughton, S., Jesson, R.(2023). How a Digital Intervention in Schools Contributed to Students’ Social and Emotional Skills, and Impacted Writing. NZ J Educ Stud https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-023-00296-1   https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40841-023-00296-1 

4. McNaughton, S., Rosedale, N. A., Zhu, T., Teng, L. S., Jesson, R., Oldehaver, J., ... & Williamson, R. (2023). A school-wide digital programme has context specific impacts on self-regulation but not social skills. E-Learning and Digital Media, 20427530231156282.   https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40841-023-00296-1 

5. McNaughton, S., Rosedale, N., Zhu, T., Siryj, J., Oldehaver, J., Teng, S. L., ... & Jesson, R. (2022). Relationships between self-regulation, social skills and writing achievement in digital schools. Reading and Writing, 1-19.  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11145-021-10232-8 

6. McNaughton, S., Zhu, T., Rosedale, N., Jesson, R., Oldehaver, J., & Williamson, R. (2022b). In school and out of school digital use and the development of children’s self-regulation and social skills. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), 236–257. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12447

7. Rosedale, N., Jesson, R. N., & McNaughton, S. (2021). Business as usual or digital mechanisms for change? What student DLOs reveal about doing mathematics. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, 13(2), 17–35. Link to paper

8. Williamson, R., Jesson, R., & Shepherd, D. (2020). The Summer Learning Journey: Ameliorating the summer learning effect using blogging. Computers & Education, 145, 103738.  Link to paper 

9. Wilson, A., & Jesson, R. (2019). T-Shaped Literacy Skills: An Emerging Research-Practice Hypothesis for Literacy Instruction. Set: Research Information for Teachers, 1, 15-22.

10. McNaughton, S., Rosedale, N., Jesson, R. N., Hoda, R., & Teng, L. S. (2018). How digital environments in schools might be used to boost social skills: Developing a conditional augmentation hypothesis. Computers and Education, 126, 311–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.07.018

11. Jesson, R., McNaughton, S., Wilson, A., Zhu, T., & Cockle, V. (2018a). Improving achievement using digital pedagogy: Impact of a research practice partnership in New Zealand. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 50(3), 183–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2018.1436012

12. McNaughton, S., Zhu, T., Rosedale, N., Oldehaver, J., Jesson, R., & Greenleaf, C. (2019). Critical perspective taking: Promoting and assessing online written argumentation for dialogic focus. Studia Paedagogica (Special Issue: Better Learning through Argumentation), 24(4), 119–141.

13. Rosedale, N., McNaughton, S., Jesson, R., Zhu, T., & Oldehaver, J. (2019). Online written argumentation: Internal dialogic features and classroom instruction. In E. Manalo (Ed.), Deeper learning, dialogic learning, and critical thinking: Research-based strategies for the classroom (pp. 263–278). Routledge.

14. Jesson, R., McNaughton, S., Rosedale, N., Zhu, T., & Cockle, V. (2018). A mixed-methods study to identify effective practices in the teaching of writing in a digital learning environment in low income schools. Computers & Education, 119, 14-30. 

15. Williamson, R., & Jesson, R. (2017). Log on and blog: An exploratory study assessing the impact of holiday blogging on student literacy achievement. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 16(2), 222-237.

16. Jesson, R., Meredith, M., & Rosedale, N. (2015). Porous learning: what do families and schools need? TLRI reports.

17. Jesson, R., McNaughton, S., & Wilson, A. (2015). Raising literacy levels using digital learning: a design‐based approach in New Zealand. The Curriculum Journal, 26(2), 198-223.

18. Jesson, R., Meredith, M., & Rosedale, N. (2015). Reconsidering home learning in the digital learning environment: The perspectives of parents, students, and teachers. SET Research Information for Teachers, (3).

19. Jesson RN, Annan J, McNaughton S, Snedden P (2014) Manaiakalani: Tackling the educational challenge of poverty through innovation and collaboration in Twelve thousand hours: Education and Poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand 253-259 (6 pages) Dunmore Publishing

2017 Evaluation of the Manaiakalani programme

Professor Stuart McNaughton, Director of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre (WFRC) and Chief Education Scientific Advisor for the Ministry of Education has noted:

"The evidence is that substantial acceleration occurred for students in years 4 to 10 when tracked over three years, especially in writing (which was the partnership focus between 2012 – 2014). If a child was continuously present in a Manaiakalani school, that is they got the full ‘dosage’, the rate of gain in writing was twice that expected nationally. This means that these students on average made one more year’s progress above the expected rate per year if they were there for three years. The accelerated rate for reading and maths, although lower at half a year’s additional gain, was still educationally significant."