Key Competencies

The introduction this year of the draft key competencies (paralleling the five strands of Te Whāriki) brings an exciting new development to the early childhood as well as the primary and secondary sectors. This article discusses learning dispositions and their relation to the key competencies, and suggests three ways in which a new continuity might be forged between early childhood and primary school curricula when the proposed key competencies are put into place.

This article explores what a group of Years 11 and 13 students think about history, how they talk about it and what they are interested in studying. It suggests that being aware of student interests and considering how the key competencies relate to history as a subject could open the way for professional conversations about different ways to approach teaching history in high school.

In a recent “Assessment News” we wrote about an impending new series of standardised science tests for Years 7–10. The tests, Science: Thinking with Evidence, have now been published and were launched earlier this year with a series of information afternoons around the country.