Assessment in schools is often concerned with generating student-achievement information in specific learning areas. However, we can use assessment techniques to collect a wider range of information that might reveal important prerequisites for learning or educational outcomes that are important in their own right.

Virtual classrooms are ICT immersion environments where teachers use technology to teach students from different physical locations—which might mean that they use the opportunities of ICT to enable collaborative Web 2.0 learning. This article looks at how virtual classes operate in reality, and what we can learn about how to ...

Few studies have ever shown the improved results of an intervention project continuing after that programme has finished. Is it possible to achieve sustainability and what factors would contribute to it? This article looks at one programme that sustained gains and how it was done.

There are many children who have interpersonal difficulties at school which affect their enjoyment of and achievement in learning. The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) recognises the critical role that schools have to play in supporting the development of students’ competency in relating to others. This article discusses ...

There is a rich variety of topics in this issue of set: Research Information for Teachers, with research reported from junior primary to senior secondary, and with themes intersecting these sectors: the use of ICT, literacy learning, and student engagement. These themes are particularly topical in the current educational environment.

Key messages:

• The need to identify students’ language, phonic and alphabet knowledge early on, and to systematically teach those skills in the early years.
• Schools need more support from reading specialists, and access to it needs to be easier.
• Prereading skills should be taught at preschool.

The skills of oral narrative and phonological awareness are seen as precursors and predictors of reading development. In this study of bilingual Māori primary school students, Fleur Harris found that current methods of assessing these skills are based on the English language and Western modes of storytelling, and cast these ...

Schools and teachers are expected to respond appropriately when they encounter children acting sexually. This article describes the literature on child sexual development and behaviour and the responses of Waikato primary school principals to a questionnaire. Specific issues for New Zealand primary schools and teachers are investigated, with suggestions for ...

Several years ago I was awestruck by the bold vision of Wellington’s Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. Their strategic plan has a 500-year time frame. This is, of course, entirely appropriate when you’re seeking to restore a landlocked “island” to its natural state. Setting an inspirational vision—and in time achieving it—requires a ...

When a teacher let her Years 4 and 5 class chose their own science topic to study, they settled on—what else?—farting. This article shows how letting students pursue their own interests led them to real science learning.