This project was part of a wider longitudinal study of the relationship between 'connectedness' and 'well-being' in a group of about 2200 young people.
This project aims to examine opportunities and dilemmas associated with future focussed issues in New Zealand education, building on a body of work that NZCER has already undertaken in areas relevant to the “future focus” principle in the New Zealand Curriculum.
Christensen, Sandy, Reschly, Amy and Wylie, Cathy (Eds)
2012
Springer
Book
NZCER chief researcher Cathy Wylie co-edited this book, and chief researcher Rosemary Hipkins and senior researcher Charles Darr contributed chapters. Drawiing on research from a range of disciplines, the book explores the indicators of student engagement, the link to motivation, and the impact of family, peers, and teachers on engagement at different levels of schooling. Findings on the effectiveness of classroom interventions are discussed in detail.
NZCER’s Families and Communities Engagement (FACE) project is investigating ideas and practices involved in bringing together teachers, families, local communities and students to contribute to collective conversations and decisions about education.
Jenny Whatman, Sandie Schagen, Karen Vaughan and Josie Lander
2010
Department of Labour
Research report
The purpose of this literature review is to contribute to the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) research project Engagement of Youth in Literacy, Language and Numeracy (LLN) Skills Development. As specified by the Department of Labour (the Department), the objective of the whole project is “to enhance the knowledge base on the engagement, recruitment, retention and support of youth in literacy, language, and numeracy (LLN) skills development”.
Assessment in schools is often concerned with generating student-achievement information in specific learning areas. However, we can use assessment techniques to collect a wider range of information that might reveal important prerequisites for learning or educational outcomes that are important in their own right.
Karen Vaughan, Hazel Phillips, Paul Dalziel and Jane Higgins
2009
AERU Research Unit, Lincoln University
Research report
This report is the third in the Education Employment Linkages (EEL) Research Report series. It attempts to “map” or document some of the important dimensions of the various systems involved in young people’s transition from school.
Dr. Keren Brooking and Ben Gardiner, with Dr. Sarah Calvert
2009
Ministry of Education
Research report
This report documents the stories of a group of “at risk” young people who have been expelled from mainstream schools and who attend alternative education facilities. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the research carried out in mid-2008.
The report is based on one-to-one interviews with 41 young people in five alternative education centres. Another 9 students were consulted on the research design, questions and analysis.
The students’ stories capture four main aspects of their lives and educational experiences:
How we use contexts and the part we expect them to play in conceptual learning and in engagement with learning may need to be rethought, Rosemary Hipkins explained at the Science Education Research Symposium (SERS) in November 2009.
The New Zealand Curriculum highlights the importance of learning to learn. This presents practical challenges to schools,in relation to shifts in teaching and learning practices. This article summarises a research synthesis on longer learning periods and considers whether they lead to improved student learning.
Reports from research done in late 2002 to late 2003, in which the participants in the longitudinal research study were now aged 14. Reports on the continuing effects of pre-school education; the impact of transition to secondary school and the qualities of the home and leisure experiences. Considers the importance of the students engagement in school and learning and the relationships to patterns of performance and achievement.
Rachel Bolstad, with Jane Gilbert, Karen Vaughan, Charles Darr, and Garrick Cooper
2006
NZCER
Research report
The Zooming in on Learning in the Digital Age (ZILDA) research programme aims to 'zoom in' - or dig down deeper - into issues surrounding 'digital age learning'.
The goal of the first phase of the ZILDA research was to zoom in on the views and experiences of 'digital age learners'. We wanted to know:
The New Zealand population as a whole is highly mobile. This can bring benefits to a community, but can also have adverse effects, particularly where there is loss of infrastructure and where people are moving for negative reasons. This report documents the findings of the first phase of a project designed to investigate the educational issues arising in four New Zealand communities affected by residential mobility.
What is self regulated learning (SRL)? Where did the idea come from? How do I know it when I see it? What does in mean for my teaching, Do I really have to think about it?
Youth transition has been targeted by the New Zealand government as an area for increased policy and programme development and budget support.
The budget and transition package attempts to bring together transition policy and programmes under the rubric of a ‘pathways’ approach to young people moving beyond school.
Average literacy and numeracy performance among children from low-income homes is lower than others. But some children perform as well as their peers from more advantaged homes.
This paper uses material from the longitudinal Competent Children research project, following children from rising 5 to age 12, to look at the factors which seem to make a difference for these children, against a background discussing the international literature on risk and resilience.
Based on a recent evaluation of environmental education in New Zealand schools, this article explores possibilities and challenges for involving secondary school students.
A recent NZCER research project focused on computer use in the home and school or ECE centre by children with special needs. It provided information about how the use of computers can benefit children with special needs, the role of the family in the learning process, the importance of professional development, and the conditions which can assist these children to obtain maximum benefit from their use of computers.
This paper explores the potential for using narrative pedagogy to help students develop a sense of connectedness to the conceptual science they are learning, and through that to develop an ethic of caring, both for the natural environment, and for their own learning.
The full journal article published in: School Science Review, 86 (315), 53-58.
