From 2005–8 Mangere Bridge Kindergarten carried out a Centre of Innovation research project exploring the transition between early childhood education and school. Three teacher researchers, supported by two university research associates, developed and researched a range of strategies for supporting children’s learning as the children and their families “crossed the ...

This issue brings you a diverse range of articles related to the new curriculum. We began this focus in issue No. 3 in 2007 with a number of commentaries. This time we can provide insights from emerging research on implementation.

This article reports on the effectiveness of a small-scale study that focused on the on-site development and implementation of an observation and feedback cycle that enabled professional change in mathematics teaching.

It has long been known that families can have a significant effect on their children's achievement.  This is supported by a recent NZCER evaluation on the Home–School Partnership: Literacy programme. This article summarises the findings.

The family is one of the sites for literacy learning and that families vary both between themselves and according to culture. This article provides some suggestions with the aim of encouraging a successful sharing of information about literacy in home and school.

Can teachers themselves answer the questions they ask the children in their classrooms as part of instructional literacy programmes? This article explores the results of a Phonological Awareness Test administered to a sample of teachers in order to establish their personal phonological awareness understandings.

This article looks at ways of bridging the discontinuities young children experience between three settings: the home environment, the early childhood setting, and the new entrant classroom. It highlights the empowerment that occurs for children, families, and teachers in early childhood and school settings when children’s experiences at home are ...

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 ...