This research is investigating the use of different measures to represent the qualities of students' individual NCEA awards. Such measures need to reflect the original intent of NCEA (to go beyond traditional markers of academic success) while at the same time signalling likely access to post-school learning pathways. This project primarily involves statistical analysis of existing data sets, including NZQA's data-base of standards achieved. Relevant data from the Competent Learners project is being used to check modelling assumptions against actual student profiles and pathways.
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 NCEA qualifications regime
Drawing on secondary teachers’ experience of standards-based assessment for NCEA, this short article discusses moderation challenges that will face primary teachers as they make overall professional judgments of each student's progress against the new National Standards. Moderation potentially offers rich professional learning possibilities—but only if teachers feel safe to learn, have the time needed, and are given access to robust examples to inform their debates.
Findings from the NZCER National Survey of Secondary Schools 2009
This report draws on data from the three-yearly NZCER National Survey of Secondary Schools, with a particular focus on new data gathered in the 2009 survey round. We asked principals, teachers, trustees, and parents to respond to a set of statements about the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). The findings show support for the qualification has consolidated since 2006.
This report explores ways in which recent changes in the teaching of home economics and geography may be related to the introduction of the National Certificate in Educational Achievement at Year 11 (NCEA Level 1) and at Year 12 (NCEA Level 2). The research describes the nature and extent of the changes that were identified, and explores how these changes seem to be related to teachers’ personal teaching priorities and to professional development initiatives in their schools, as well as to the NCEA.
This research reports on the impact of Level 1 NCEA on the teaching of mathematics and science. It provides an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of change in the study teachers’ mathematics and science classrooms in response to the NCEA implementation. A range of aspects of classroom practice were identified where one way of working or set of emphases could be balanced against another way of working/set of emphases. Findings with respect to shifts in the balances of the alternatives outlined for these aspects of classroom practices are presented.
In the course of standard statistical analyses in the third and final phase of the Learning Curves project, questions were raised about the nature of students’ subject choices. We thought that if well-described patterns of subject choice could be found using our data, then we might also question the relationship of these patterns to available student demographics.
Rosemary Hipkins and Karen Vaughan, with Fiona Beals, Hilary Ferral, and Ben Gardiner
2005
NZCER
Research report
The Learning Curves project has documented changes in the subject and assessment choices offered to senior students in six medium-sized New Zealand secondary schools between 2002 and 2004 as the National Qualifications Framework and National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) reforms were progressively implemented. It has also investigated how students perceive and make their subject choices within the context of each school’s curriculum policies and practices.
This paper explores ways school subjects could change to meet students' learning needs for meaningful participation in the "knowledge society".
Drawing on selected findings of the second year of the NZCER Learning Curves research project, it describes three different "types" of senior secondary school subjects currently being offered in the NQF/NCEA qualifications regime and discusses how these might evolve in the future.
Rosemary Hipkins, Karen Vaughan, Fiona Beals, and Hilary Ferral
2004
NZCER
Research report
This report documents findings from 2003 - the second year of a three-year research project. NZCER is investigating changes in senior secondary school subjects, and the factors that influenced students’ subject choices, as New Zealand’s National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) reforms are being progressively implemented.
The introduction of the National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA), as the key school-based components of New Zealand’s National Qualifications Framework (NQF) has been accompanied by controversy around a range of issues.
It seems that much of the debate has centred on surface level symptoms, and has not probed the deep underlying causes of the tensions.
Secondary schools' ability to meet senior students' needs related to subject choice, is influenced by a number of factors. Six case study schools were studied at the beginnings of a longitudinal study. This should provide a rich context as the schools change with the introduction of NCEA.
Paper presented at the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) conference, Palmerston North, 5-8 December 2002.
For three consecutive years NZCER is exploring the manner in which student subject choice at Year 11 changes in response to the implementation of the NCEA reforms. (The NCEA is a new senior secondary school qualifications regime, the National Certificates of Educational Achievement, first introduced in 2000.)
Below is an excerpt from a short report summarising the initial findings of this longitudinal project:
With the advent of New Zealand’s NCEA reforms, subject choice is becoming more complex.
In this paper we suggest that the notion that traditional subjects will be important ‘just because’ is no longer an adequate basis for sound subject choice decision-making.
