From teachers to New Entrants and everyone in between,

Kagan is true shared pedagogy!

Kagan - Extraordinary!

What makes Kagan Professional Development truly special is its holistic approach to transforming classroom dynamics. Before diving into academic content, Kagan recognises that the foundation of effective learning lies in creating a classroom where every student feels safe, valued, and connected.

Our comprehensive focus on classbuilding and teambuilding activities helps weave a tight-knit classroom community where students genuinely care about and support each other's success - imagine a classroom where the phrase "we're all in this together" isn't just a saying, but a lived reality!

What sets us apart?

What makes us different? We don't just talk theory - we give you practical, proven strategies that you can use right away to boost engagement, ensure equity, and help your students achieve excellence. Want to learn more about how we can support your teaching journey?

  • While other cooperative learning PD might give you general principles, Kagan provides specific, repeatable patterns for classroom interaction that teachers can implement immediately. These structures have catchy names like "RallyRobin" and "Numbered Heads Together" that make them easy to remember and reference.

  • In Kagan structures, every student has a specific role (eg share, show, discuss, explain) and responsibility. This ensures that every voice is heard and valued, creating an inclusive environment where success depends on everyone participating. It’s accountability but with support.

  • Teachers actually experience the structures as learners before implementing them. This experiential learning helps educators truly understand how to create those safe, supportive spaces for their students.

  • We deliberately build positive peer relationships through structured interactions. Those carefully designed classbuilding activities help students discover and appreciate each other's unique qualities and contributions. Meanwhile, teambuilding exercises strengthen bonds within small groups, creating micro-communities where students feel comfortable taking risks and supporting each other's learning.

  • One interesting aspect of Kagan in New Zealand is how they've worked to align their approaches with local educational priorities, including cultural responsiveness and the New Zealand Curriculum's key competencies. Seamlessly incorporate akō and tuakana teina concepts in every learning session for a more holistic and inclusive approach. Their structures can be particularly effective for supporting Māori and Pasifika learners, as they align well with collaborative cultural values and the importance of whanaungatanga.

Kagan's multi-faceted approach incorporates many other empirical instructional strategies.

Kagan has carefully extracted the most effective principles for learning and turned them into concrete approaches that work with real students, in real teaching situations.

BRING IN KAGAN

  • Workshops

    Our workshops are dialogic & relational, and cater for every educational context. Topics include: cooperative learning, behaviour management, well-being, leadership, and key curriculum areas.

  • Implementation

    To ensure uptake and implementation we offer strategic planning, consultation, leadership PLD and in-class support for teachers which includes modelling, coaching, planning sessions, and resources.

  • Kāhui Akō

    Kagan brings Kāhui Ako together through shared teaching pedagogy. From juniors to seniors, these strategies create cohesiveness and consistency in how we teach, support hauora, guide behaviour, and develop leadership.

  • Tōmua / PRTs

    Kagan's structured approach is invaluable for new educators. Through clear frameworks across essential domains - from classroom management to curriculum delivery - Kagan builds teacher confidence and competence.

PLD Options

  • Our Discover Kagan 60 min Intro sessions are the best way to decide if embarking on Kagan PLD is for your school or Kahio Akō. Any PLD requires both a time and financial commitment, so being able to have your whole staff, or Kahui Akō team experience Kagan before making a decision is a service we are only too happy to provide.

    Combined with this, we also offer Fishbowls where we will run Kagan Structures with your students. (Believe it or not, some teachers think it’s easy to use Kagan with adults, but don’t believe it will work with children..!)

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  • Running a workshop with teachers from the same school community is our most popular and sought-after option. School leaders frequently choose to include Teacher Aides, Release Teachers, along with any other educators who are involved with the school on a regular basis, ensuring that everyone is represented in the professional development experience.

    A Kagan workshop will bring your staff together, and is a day of learning, sharing, relationship building and networking - perfect for large primary or intermediate schools and secondary schools which can become quite compartmentalised.

  • icture this: meetings that embody true manaakitanga, where professional dialogue flows naturally and every voice enriches the conversation. Kagan’s Cooperative Meetings transforms traditional staff meetings into vibrant professional learning communities.

    We've found that when meetings mirror the engaging practices we want in our classrooms, magic happens. Decisions become shared journeys rather than top-down directives (goodbye, endless email threads!), and cross-curricular collaboration flourishes.

    For tumuaki and team leaders, this means practical strategies that honour both curriculum goals and local priorities while building a more connected, energised teaching team.

  • Kagan’s strategies create powerful consistency in teaching approaches, supporting hauora, and fostering leadership across all our learning spaces within the Kāhui Ako.

    Our comprehensive workshops are thoughtfully designed to enhance every aspect of our educational practice, reflecting the principles of ako and whanaungatanga that are central to New Zealand education. Whether you're teaching in a junior hub or guiding senior students through NCEA, Kagan's structured approaches support the key competencies and help create inclusive, culturally responsive learning environments. The workshops delve into evidence-based cooperative learning strategies, effective behaviour management aligned with PB4L, wellbeing approaches that support Ka Hikitia, and leadership development that builds tuakana-teina relationships naturally.

    By weaving these strategies into our local curriculum, we strengthen our collective capacity to deliver the kinds of learning experiences that define excellent education in Aotearoa. When every learning space across our Kāhui Ako hums with purposeful collaboration, we're truly embodying the spirit of "ako mai, ako atu" - learning together, growing together.

  • At times over the year we run open workshops where individual teachers attend the training.

    Research shows that there is a much better success rate with implementation when either a whole school or faculty train together.

    Sign up if you’d like to be notified of any trainings in your area.