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    4.  — Relational learning in practice

Relational learning in practice

A showcase teaching practices in creating learning environments and experiences to build and sustain relationships with students.

There are several key questions that are helpful as we consider how we create the learning environments and experiences which will build and sustain these relationships. For example, how do different teaching approaches enable students to build connection with their discipline, with their teachers, with their peers, with place and with their evolving sense of themselves? How do the choices we make as educators contribute to the sense of belonging and meaning needed for student success?

Three students testing a car's electrical systems

How might staff support relational learning in their practice?

Suggested activities:

  • create opportunities for cohort building within or across programmes
  • encourage collaborative practices that maximise students’ opportunities to engage with and learn from their peers
  • develop learning environments where students and staff are relationally and actively engaged
  • support place-based learning with environments and communities and establish links with work contexts (where practical)
  • locate learning ‘in time’

Teachers might:

  • explore practical applications of mātauranga, kaupapa Māori pedagogies, and Te Tiriti in teaching
  • practice Indigenous pedagogies that centre Pacific values and knowledge systems, such as ako (which means both to learn and to teach) as a process that involves learning and reflecting,1 where both the learner and teacher benefit from the sharing of knowledge2
  • provide opportunities for learners and teachers to dialogue about the learning experience
  • make use of quality blended learning designs that embrace connectivity and participation

Relational learning in practice

Personal chemistry: Engaging students at scale 

Personal chemistry: Engaging students at scale 

In the world of first-year chemistry, with over 1,000 students, how do you create meaningful connections? Dr Kaitlin Beare has been experimenting with innovative approaches to foster relational learning at scale. 

View all case studies

Page updated 22/02/2023 (minor edit)

  1. Morrison, Sandra L., and Timote M. Vaioleti. “Ako–A traditional learning concept for Maori and Pacific youth, and its relationship to lifelong learning.” Bildung und Erziehung 64, no. 4 (2011): 395-408. ↩
  2. Tomoana, Ria, and Whitireia New Zealand. “Sharing successful teaching and learning strategies for Māori, Pacific, and Youth learners.” Whitireia, New Zealand: An Ako Aotearoa Publication (2012). ↩
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