Review of Margaret MacDonald (2016), Elwyn Richardson and the Early World of Creative Education in New Zealand, NZCER Press.

Teachers have so many assessment tools at their disposal today it can be overwhelming at times. In this article I will take you on a journey through the new-look Assessment Resource Banks website and show you some of the highlights I’ve discovered in the last few weeks back at NZCER ...

Set interviews computer scientist Professor Tim Bell to figure out how computational thinking differs from digital literacy, and why both might be important for today’s society. Tim explains his mission to introduce teachers and students to computational thinking, even without a computer in sight. His work with schools—from junior primary to ...

Policy, research, and literature provide insights into pedagogies effective for Māori students. He Kākano, a professional learning and development project, aimed to empower Māori students to achieve educational success as Māori. This article focuses on the contribution of curriculum leaders to ensuring effective pedagogies for these students in their schools. It presents results from lesson ...

I am passionate about continually looking for ways to improve outcomes for students. I believe in the importance of being a connected educator, and in the responsibility we have to share our stories and learnings with one another. My involvement in the Sport in Education project has meant that I have been extremely fortunate ...

Despite policies recommending schools collaborate with whānau and Māori communities, and research that indicates why these connections are important, what remains less obvious is how these partnerships might be best achieved and sustained. This article discusses a professional development resource that challenges and supports school leadership teams to listen to their Māori communities in order ...

English-medium schools’ inclusion of whānau Māori aspirations for their children has been identified as a critical factor in the wellbeing of Māori students. What can teachers and school leaders in English-medium schools do to include whānau aspirations and strengthen whānau engagement in Māori students’ learning and wellbeing? A group of professional learning and development project ...

This article considers home learning for students whose schools have moved to digital learning environments. In this study we sought to gather perspectives about what sorts of home-learning activities might support school learning given that students have individual digital devices and access to the internet and class websites. Interviews with parents, students, and teachers at ...

In this edition of Assessment News education advisor Cathie Johnson encourages schools to consider how they can reflect and report on dimensions of engagement and learning that cannot be captured by academic achievement data. She poses a number of questions for readers to ponder and outlines some of the research findings that underpin the ...