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2009 Annual Graham Nuthall Lecture

The Annual Graham Nuthall lecture offered an opportunity to engage with one of New Zealand’s notable educationalists Mary Chamberlain.  As Group Manager, Curriculum Teaching and Learning-Design, for the Ministry of Education, Chamberlain has been involved in the development of new national curricula and related assessment policies at both primary and secondary levels.  Chamberlain’s lecture focused on the current challenge for teachers to design learning experiences that not only engage but empower learners.  Energized by the ‘new’ New Zealand Curriculum, Chamberlain acknowledges its  potential to free teachers and allow them to create meaningful learning experiences that are contextual and relevant to the learner.

As an audience we accept that ‘learning is the thing’ and Chamberlain purports there are four big ideas that underpin best practice and hone the teacher’s ability to engage students; flexibility, pedagogy, student voice, and learning environment.   She sees the teacher’s job is to develop inventiveness, curiosity as well as delivering ‘the daily bread’ of curriculum.  

Chamberlain delivered some powerful messages for teachers including immutable facts like; students learn anywhere any time, learning is a lifelong endeavour, often by virtue of wanting to ‘help’ teachers interfere with students’ learning.  According to Chamberlain, it is important that teachers recognize that the student should be at the heart of learning and should in fact be able to lead their own learning. 

The Annual Graham Nuthall lecture has once again provided professional educators in Canterbury the opportunity to hear from a leading educationalist.  Chamberlain’s passion for learning infused her address and afforded her audience a rare opportunity to engage with current education theory in an accessible and engaging way.

View Mary Chamberlain's Presentation (PP3.74MB)

The Hidden Lives of Learners - Graham Nuthall's last book

The Hidden Lives of Learners takes the reader deep into the hitherto undiscovered world of the learner. It explores the three worlds which together shape a students' learning - the public world of the teacher, the highly influential world of peers, and the student's own private world and experiences. What becomes clear is that just because a teacher is teaching, does not mean the students are learning.

This book is the culmination of Professor Graham Nuthall's forty years of research on learning and teaching. It is written with classroom teachers and teachers of teeachers in mind. But realizing time was short and his life's work was laid out in learned papers for fellow researchers, he wrote this brief but powerful book for a much wider audience as well; for all those seeking a better understanding of classroom learning.

This book can be purchased for $39.95 from the New Zealand Council of Educational Research

This book can be purchased for $39.95 from the New Zealand Council of Educational Research. Website: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/, or email: sales@nzcer.org.nz .

Contact Details

For further information about the Trust please email: Karen Bell: nuthall-trust@canterbury.ac.nz

Graham Nuthall Classroom Research Trust
School of Educational Studies and Human Development
University of Canterbury
College of Education
PO Box 4800
Ilam
Christchurch