This summary of an extensive literature review highlights the different ways in which peers influence learning, and describes classroom approaches that maximise these peer effects. Learning is enhanced when teachers structure the learning environment to allow students to develop their own knowledge and understandings collectively. The continuum of student interaction ...

Teachers are often asked to work in partnership with others to meet the educational needs of their students. If the partnership is to be successful, it is important that people are clear about why they are in that relationship and what they hope to accomplish together. The authors illustrate their ...

In three separate research projects involving Māori and Pasifika lower SES students in the Auckland region, the dominant theme to emerge is the critical importance of the relationship between teacher and learner. When a positive relationship exists, students are more motivated to learn, they participate more actively in their learning ...

In my editorial for set, Issue No.3, 2001 I wrote, “In the very first bulletin published by NZCER, Educational Research in New Zealand (1935), Dr Beeby, our first director, stated that NZCER needed to feed the curiosity of teachers in a way that acknowledged the demanding environment of the classroom.”

Four small focus groups of adults were observed while they interacted with material related to a science-technology issue. The results shed light on some basic issues in science teaching, such as how teachers can instil the confidence that “significance” can be open to critical scrutiny, and help their students to ...

The main purpose of assessment was once its selection and grading functions. Teachers customarily marked work in order to grade it and to give a position in class. This prompted the question whether assessment was motivating children to learn, and whether the effort put into assessment could have a more ...

This article examines the changes that 12 primary, intermediate and secondary schools made to the way they planned and organised professional development, and evaluates the experience of four of the 12 principals who participated in a professional development group as part of the programme. 

Some of the findings from a research project that aimed to document the role that a visit to one New Zealand science and technology centre played in the educational activities of six visiting primary school groups are reported.
 

The review of Special Education 2000 policy highlighted the fragmentation of responsibilities and provision, which undermined the policy’s intentions to improve educational experiences and outcomes for students with special needs. While New Zealand has now started to develop a more systematic approach, the recent Daniells decision could head New Zealand ...

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Dr C.E. Beeby in 1902. Dr McDonald explores some themes from his life and career and relates his reform of education in New Zealand to aspects of her own life.