Rosemary Hipkins

Kaihautū Rangahau Tāoki | Emeritus Chief Researcher

Rosemary (Rose) began her working life as a science and biology teacher, followed by several years working in teacher education. Rose joined NZCER in 2001 and over the following years she led, and supported, a wide range of research projects. Most of her work has broadly related to curriculum and/or assessment innovation in New Zealand.

Projects Rose has led or co-led include: exploring the implications of decolonising our research practice; adopting a "knowledge systems" approach to bringing mātauranga Māori and science learning together; teaching for complex systems thinking; and co-editing an edition of Assessment Matters, with all papers written by members of NZARE’s Science Education Special Interest Group. She has also supported work on NZCER’s National Surveys of schools; background research to support Refreshing The New Zealand Curriculum; and background research to support equity in NCEA assessment practices.    

Rose has served on the editorial boards of several journals and particularly enjoys helping teacher-researchers shape their experiences and insights for formal publication. She supported a number of TLIF (Teacher Led Innovation Fund) projects over the years of this fund’s existence. In 2019 Rose was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to science education. In 2022 she was awarded Life Membership of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE). In 2025, Rose retired from NZCER with the title Emeritus Chief Researcher.

Publications

An initial exploration of curriculum levels in Science and Mathematics and Statistics Research publication 2019
Subject choice for the future of work: Insights from focus groups Research publication 2019
Subject choice for the future of work: Insights from research literature Research publication 2019
Thinking critically about PISA Journal article 2019
Curriculum integration: What is happening in New Zealand schools? Research publication 2019
Challenges for initial teacher education in the context of 'twenty-first century' learning imperatives Research publication 2018
2 How the key competencies evolved over time: Insights from the research Research publication 2018
1 How the key competencies were developed: The evidence base Research publication 2018
Trends in assessment: An overview of themes in the literature Research publication 2018
Nurturing citizenship: road safety as a rich context for learning Research publication 2017
Exploring the impact of the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) Research publication 2017
Weaving a coherent curriculum: How the idea of 'capabilities' can help Research publication 2017
An innovative approach to assessing more complex outcomes of learning Journal article 2017
Exploring new metrics for Education 3.0 Research publication 2016
Capabilities are curriculum weaving tools Research publication 2016
Science capabilities for a functional understanding of the nature of science Journal article 2015
Year 2 Evaluation - Getting Runs on the Board Research publication 2015
Science Engagement Survey: A new tool for primary science Journal article 2015
Environmental education in New Zealand schools: Research update 2015 Research publication 2015
Evaluation of the Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy Research publication 2015