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Learning curves: Meeting student needs in an evolving qualifications regime

Research theme: 

The National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) has changed assessment practice in the senior secondary school in ways that potentially impact on schools' ability to provide flexibility in subject choices for students with different learning needs. This longitudinal study sought to establish whether and how the programmes of learning offered in the senior secondary school changed in response to the new qualifications regime.

Working with six case study secondary schools, the research documented the variety of ways in which students' subject choices and within-subject options changed in each school.

Interviews were carried out each year for three consecutive years with the Principal and HODs of five selected subjects.

  • Year 11 students in each school were surveyed in 2002, and follow-up interviews were carried out with a smaller sub-sample.
  • In 2003 both Year 11 and Year 12 students were surveyed. 
  • In 2004, Year 11, 12 and 13 students were surveyed, and some were interviewed in focus groups.  Their views of influences on their subject choices, their feelings about NCEA, and aspects of the impact of NCEA on their motivation are reported.

Funded by the Purchase Agreement with the Ministry of Education

Learning curves: Meeting student needs in an evolving qualifications regime project outputs:

Year published Title Author(s) publication type
2005 Clustering students by their subject choices in the Learning Curves Project Hilary Ferral Research report
2005 Shaping our futures: Meeting secondary students' learning needs in a time of evolving qualifications: final report of the Learning Curves project Rosemary Hipkins and Karen Vaughan, with Fiona Beals, Hilary Ferral, and Ben Gardiner Research report
2004 Changing school subjects for changing times Rosemary Hipkins Conference paper
2004 Learning curves: Meeting student learning needs in an evolving qualifications regime: Shared pathways and multiple tracks: A second report Rosemary Hipkins, Karen Vaughan, Fiona Beals, and Hilary Ferral Research report
2002 Learning curves: Meeting student needs in an evolving qualification regime - key findings from the first stage of a longitudinal study Karen Vaughan and Rosemary Hipkins Conference paper
2002 Learning curves: Meeting student needs in an evolving qualifications regime: From cabbages to kings: A first report Rosemary Hipkins and Karen Vaughan Research report