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

Different ways of thinking about learning Research publication 2014
Doing research that matters: A success story from statistics education Research publication 2014
Measuring New Zealand students' international capabilities: An exploratory study Research publication 2013
Reflecting on purposes for learning science Research publication 2013
Competencies or capabilities: What’s in a name? Journal article 2013
NCEA one decade on Research publication 2013
The primary school curriculum: Assimilation, adaptation, transformation Research publication 2012
Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching - a New Zealand perspective Research publication 2012
New Zealand students' intentions towards participation in the democratic processes: New Zealand results from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study Research publication 2012
Laying learning foundations to lift success at NCEA level 3 Research publication 2012
Curriculum support in science Research publication 2012
NCEA and Curriculum Innovation Research publication 2012
The complexities of moderating student writing in a community of practice Journal article 2012
Assessment of naturally occurring evidence of literacy Journal article 2012
Learning to be a new school: Building a curriculum for new times Research publication 2011
Exploring connections between engagement and student voice Research publication 2011
The challenges of graph interpretation in science Journal article 2011
Students’ experiences of their first two years at Albany Senior High Research publication 2011
The Work of Accent Advisers Research publication 2011
Curriculum Implementation Exploratory Studies 2: Final report Research publication 2011