This year marks the centenary of the birth of Dr C.E. Beeby, NZCER’s first Director and later Director of Education. In paying a tribute to him on the occasion of the celebration of the first Beeby Fellowship award William Renwick, former Director General of Education said “His appointment as its first director was, for him, a leap into the unknown. The initial funding for NZCER was for five years, and the thrill of setting up a new research organisation was thus tempered by the possibility that before long he might himself an unemployed talent in the job market. He put the unmistakable stamp of his personality and thinking on the Council’s policy for educational research during his four years as director . . . . One of his legacies to NZCER has been the highest standards of editing and book production.”
set 2002: no. 2
Contents
Four small focus groups of adults were observed while they interacted with material related to a science-technology issue. The results shed light on some basic issues in science teaching, such as how teachers can instil the confidence that “significance” can be open to critical scrutiny, and help their students to become more discriminating about the validity of “evidence”.
The main purpose of assessment was once its selection and grading functions. Teachers customarily marked work in order to grade it and to give a position in class. This prompted the question whether assessment was motivating children to learn, and whether the effort put into assessment could have a more constructive role to play in learning.
Reprinted from Topic, Issue 26, Autumn 2001
This article examines the changes that 12 primary, intermediate and secondary schools made to the way they planned and organised professional development, and evaluates the experience of four of the 12 principals who participated in a professional development group as part of the programme.
Some of the findings from a research project that aimed to document the role that a visit to one New Zealand science and technology centre played in the educational activities of six visiting primary school groups are reported.
The review of Special Education 2000 policy highlighted the fragmentation of responsibilities and provision, which undermined the policy’s intentions to improve educational experiences and outcomes for students with special needs. While New Zealand has now started to develop a more systematic approach, the recent Daniells decision could head New Zealand provision for students with special needs in the opposite direction.
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Dr C.E. Beeby in 1902. Dr McDonald explores some themes from his life and career and relates his reform of education in New Zealand to aspects of her own life.
This article focuses on the diagnostic interview used as part of the Numeracy Development Project to assess students’ mathematical knowledge and strategies. It looks at changes in the instructions to teachers about the basis on which judgments about each student’s global strategy stage are made, and looks at the process of categorising children’s solution strategies, using different criteria to make the judgments.
Research into children’s understanding of number over the last decade suggests that there are identifiable progressions in how children develop number concepts. The Early Numeracy Project included a diagnostic tool designed to give teachers quality information about the mathematical knowledge and strategies of their students. This article discusses the results.
The evaluation of the Numeracy Exploratory Study at Year 9 in secondary schools in 2001 showed that a programme for assessing, teaching, and reassessing numeracy was both necessary and effective for this older age group. Students had unexpected difficulties with multiplicative concepts in particular. After a carefully graded assessment, related to specific teaching suggestions for meeting students’ needs, teachers took different steps to address these needs.
Cognitively Guided Instruction provides a basis for understanding why a child is able to solve certain problems and not able to solve others. Within a problem-solving environment, interactive processes, involving students’ explanations and justifications of their thinking, support mathematical sense-making and meaning construction. Decisions about what to teach and when to teach it are based on teachers’ knowledge of their students’ understandings.
In-class modelling of teaching practices in mathematics enables the facilitator to take an active role when working with teachers. By situating aspects of this professional development in classrooms, teachers are able to see how they can incorporate the new practices into their existing teaching approaches.
A well-established research resource for teachers.
Recent research in early childhood education.
Discussion, commentary and information about curriculum.
"Pushing" the thinking in assessment in education research, policy and practice.