This article focuses on the diagnostic interview used as part of the Numeracy Development Project to assess students’ mathematical knowledge and strategies. It looks at changes in the instructions to teachers about the basis on which judgments about each student’s global strategy stage are made, and looks at the process ...

Research into children’s understanding of number over the last decade suggests that there are identifiable progressions in how children develop number concepts. The Early Numeracy Project included a diagnostic tool designed to give teachers quality information about the mathematical knowledge and strategies of their students. This article discusses the results.

The evaluation of the Numeracy Exploratory Study at Year 9 in secondary schools in 2001 showed that a programme for assessing, teaching, and reassessing numeracy was both necessary and effective for this older age group. Students had unexpected difficulties with multiplicative concepts in particular. After a carefully graded assessment, related ...

Cognitively Guided Instruction provides a basis for understanding why a child is able to solve certain problems and not able to solve others. Within a problem-solving environment, interactive processes, involving students’ explanations and justifications of their thinking, support mathematical sense-making and meaning construction. Decisions about what to teach and when ...

In-class modelling of teaching practices in mathematics enables the facilitator to take an active role when working with teachers. By situating aspects of this professional development in classrooms, teachers are able to see how they can incorporate the new practices into their existing teaching approaches. 

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Dr C.E. Beeby, NZCER’s first Director and later Director of Education. In paying a tribute to him on the occasion of the celebration of the first Beeby Fellowship award William Renwick, former Director General of Education said “His appointment as its ...

A substantial number of teachers working in Auckland’s poor urban primary schools are highly successful in their practice. They have an expertise that takes children to their academic and personal potential, and they achieve success in a way that does not alienate children from their diverse home contexts. Case study ...

Over the past 6 years, the National Education Monitoring Project has monitored the educational achievement and attitudes of Year 4 and 8 students in New Zealand schools, covering 15 curriculum areas. This article presents accumulated evidence from these assessments on the relationship between school size and student achievement at these ...

Supportive friendships and relationships at school contribute to children’s quality of life as well as their learning. There are some concerns that students with disabilities may be isolated, lonely and have few friends at school, even when they have always been taught in the mainstream. This article explores a range ...

To identify the specific needs of students with respect to literacy in the content areas, 21 students from Years 9-13 were interviewed about their views of themselves as readers and writers, and how their skills affected their learning. While a number of students identified themselves as competent, many felt that ...