This issue of set: Research Information for Teachers focuses on the
senior secondary school, especially the challenges and complexities—for both
parents and students—of successfully negotiating the NCEA system. Plus there’s a
thought-provoking article on using a variety of subject areas to assess students
against National Standards, and much more.
1 September
2010
A new webpage has been written by our Key Competencies team, providing
information for educators to support the use of the NZCER teacher and student
surveys: Key competencies in the classroom. The page provides links to
information about the development of the surveys, and ideas about how data from
these surveys might be collected, analysed, and used in schools.
31
August 2010
This, the second issue of Assessment Matters, addresses a number of
topics, including the importance of developing teachers’ and students’
assessment capabilities and participation, and assessment of learning as
conducted through the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and
the Premier Scholarship examinations in New Zealand.
27 August
2010
Dr C.E. Beeby, first Director of NZCER. Photo: Kenneth Quinn. The Beeby Fellowship is a joint initiative between NZCER and the New Zealand
National Commission for UNESCO. The Fellowship is worth $25,000, with the
recipient expected to spend several months developing resources drawn from their
research. It’s aimed at people already actively involved in an innovative
educational programme and is intended to enable them to document, analyse, and
write a resource about their work. Applications are due by 31 October.
16
August 2010
A group of NZCER researchers has written a paper looking at why many students
who are making normal progress according to their results in NZCER’s Progressive
Achievement Test (PAT) in mathematics, would fail to meet the new National
Standard in mathematics.
9 August 2010
Latest e-ResearchEd newsletter:
e-ResearchEd No. 3,
May 2010 [HTML]
Our latest newsletter is out, featuring our upcoming conference on assessing
adult learning, more about or science test, the Beeby Fellowship award, surveys
for schools, the Marking Service, Research news, and a host of new titles
recently published by NZCER Press.
2 August 2010
NZ$44.00 excl GST
Editors Robin Averill and Roger Harvey
Crammed full of classroom practice, investigative learning experiences and
key research- and practice-based ideas, we predict it will quickly become a
dog-eared resource in every primary school. It’s aimed at teacher educators and
new graduates as well.
29 July 2010
NZCER Press 2010
ISBN 978-1-877398-64-3
NZ$28.80 excl GST
Editors Jo Fletcher, Faye Parkhill and Gail Gillon
This is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding how to motivate
children in reading, writing and oral language. It includes chapters on
phonological awareness, strategies for Maori, Pasifika and Asian students, and
support for students with dyslexia.
29 July 2010
NZCER Press 2010
ISBN 978-1-877398-65-0
NZ$33.78 excl GST
Tracking debates about educational standards since 1945, the authors present
a fresh and fascinating perspective on the contemporary controversy over
national standards.
29 July 2010
NZCER Press 2010
ISBN 978-1-877398-63-6
NZ$37.60 excl GST
Tom Nicolson and Sue Dymock
The authors present five research-based strategies to help students find,
understand and use new vocabulary. Aimed at teachers, it links to the Literacy
Learning Progressions and will be useful for meeting the National Reading and
Writing Standards.
29 July 2010
NZCER Press 2010
ISBN 978-1-877398-62-9
The latest issue of set is full of good news.
There’s encouraging research that shows that the benefits of an intervention can
continue even after it ends. In the feature section on junior primary, an oral
language development programme based on one-on-one conversations about books is
showing promising results, interactive whiteboards are enhancing science
learning and teachers are improving students’ enjoyment and achievement by
directly teaching social skills.
25 June 2010
View contents of set 2010: No.
1
 NZ$32.00 excl GST
Helen Timperley and Judy Parr (Eds.)
This book presents sets of principles and practical suggestions to guide
school improvement efforts. It will provoke thinking, talking and action by all
those engaged in building better schools.
23 June 2010
NZCER Press 2010
ISBN 978-1-877398-60-5
Applications have opened for the 2010 Margeret M Blackwell travel fellowship.
It pays for accommodation and travel associated with research into early
childhood education topics and is open to practitioners in early childhood
education. Applications must be in by 30 July 2010.
2 June
2010
 NZ$24.00 excl GST
Elizabeth McKinley and Irena Madjar (Eds.)
This collection of stories from young people starting out at university gives
a glimpse of the realities and challenges of leaving familiar surroundings of
school, family and community and settling into, and succeeding in, a new
environment.
26 May 2010
NZCER Press 2010
ISBN 978-1-877398-59-9
Analysis of secondary school survey data by the New Zealand Council for
Educational Research (NZCER) shows support for the NCEA qualification has
further consolidated among principals, teachers and boards of
trustees.
29 April 2010
Media release: Consolidation
of support for NCEA [ 106KB PDF ]
Latest e-ResearchEd newsletter:
e-ResearchEd No. 2,
May 2010 [HTML]
Our latest newsletter is out, featuring news on new science resources for use
in schools, a series of free sessions around the country to introduce the new
Kick Starts resource and new science tests to schools, a newNCEA report, our
forthcoming conference and research news.
29 April 2010
NZ$17.60 excl GST
Ally Bull, Chris Joyce, Lorraine Spiller & Rosemary Hipkins
The latest publication from NZCER Press is Kick-starting the Nature of
Science. Nature of Science is the core strand of science in The New
Zealand Curriculum. This resource aims to support teachers to understand
the different aspects of the Nature of Science and what this might mean in
practice. All aspects of this strand are covered: Understanding about science;
Investigating in science; Communicating in science; and Participating and
contributing. The authors ask a key question, “what might Understanding
about science look like in the classroom?” and then go on to suggest many
practical activities.
9 April 2010
NZCER Press, 2010
ISBN 978-1-877398-58-2
 NZ$20.00
excl GST
Edited by Anne Meade
The final early childhood Centres of Innovation (COI) publication has been
released this week. In the COI programme, innovative early childhood centres
investigated their own practices through action research projects, and shared
their findings with the early childhood community. Dispersing Waves
gathers together reports from completed projects, and some that closed early
when the COI programme came to an end in June 2009.
3 March
2010
NZCER Press 2010
ISBN: 978-1-877398-56-8
Expressions of interest have opened for the 2010 Teaching and Learning
Research Initiative (TLRI) funding round.
NZCER administers the $1.75 million fund on behalf of the government.
Expressions of interest are open until 12 May, followed by a shortlisting
process. Shortlisted projects need to have a full proposal in by 27 August.
Included on the TLRI website are two new articles intended
to give ideas and guidance to potential applicants. Professor Jeff Smith from
Otago University looks at the research questions arising from NEMP data, while
Ministry of Education senior manager research, Lynne Whitney, does the same for
international studies such as PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS.
1 March
2010
The Margaret M Blackwell travel fellowship for 2009 has gone to Deborah
Wansbrough of Wellington. Deborah will use the travel grant to study leadership
development programmes for early childhood education teachers overseas. Her
plans include a visit the Pen Green Centre in United Kingdom and interviews with
those behind a graduate certificate in early childhood leadership in
Adelaide.
NZCER administers the Margaret M Blackwell Travel fellowship on behalf of the
trustees. Applications open in May for the 2010 grant.
1 March
2010
Latest e-ResearchEd newsletter:
e-ResearchEd No. 1,
February 2010 [HTML]
Our latest newsletter is out, featuring news on the forthcoming Marking
Service workshops, research outcomes taking Shifting thinking to America,
student self-assessment, new appointments to the NZCER Board, key competencies
web pages, a further update on the New Zealand Theses Database, three recent
publications from NZCER Press, and NZCER's first steps on twitter.
23
February 2010
NZ$26.67 ex GST
The latest release from NZCER Press is the proceedings from the Engaging Young People in Learning: Why Does
It Matter and What Can We Do? conference. In this book, United States
researchers contribute their insights to New Zealand thinking on the important
topic of student engagement. Professor Jeremy Finn describes what drives student
disengagement and the key components of tackling it. Sandra Christenson focuses
on Check & Connect, a practical programme targeting the most at-risk
students and aimed at reducing school dropout rates. From New Zealand, Russell
Bishop explains the Te Kotahitanga effective teaching profile and its
implications for Mäori achievement, while Charles Darr has the inside story on
NZCER’s student engagement survey, Me and My School. If you missed the
conference, this is your chance to explore the research.
29 January
2010.
To assist website users to easily access NZCER publications that relate to
the Key Competencies in the NZ curriculum, we have collected these together on a
new webpage. Follow this link to see the full collection of NZCER articles,
reports, digital presentations and resources that include commentary about the
Key Competencies. To assist users to search for items, they are grouped together
in five themes:
19 January 2010
Web Page: NZCER's Key
Competencies work
This investigation was an exploration of a small group of teachers’
interpretations of self-assessment, both in theory and in practice. Teachers
talked about their beliefs about self-assessment, the extent to which they
supported the use of self-assessment strategies in their classrooms, and ways
they went about this. They identified conditions that were enabling for student
self-assessment, as well as barriers and challenges they faced. The research is
therefore framed from the teachers’ perspectives, although comparisons are drawn
to findings from other research.
12 January 2010
Research report: Self-assessment: What Teachers
Think | 
News
