Investigating children’s ideas about and experiences of health and physical activity, and Health and Physical Education (HPE), is a valuable step for teachers to take when designing programmes that are responsive to the needs of diverse learners. This article reports on a 2-year research project in HPE that took this step. Understanding their ...

We are, it seems, constantly being told that the main goal of education should be enabling students to build, rather than to “reproduce”, knowledge; and that knowledge building is a collaborative endeavour. Learners must now be able to connect and collaborate with other individuals and other sets of knowledge. Information and communication technology ...

It is estimated that the World Wide Web contains more than 7.8 billion pages. As a consequence, how children understand how to find and use information on the Web is becoming increasingly important. This article details a study that investigated the strategies that a small group of Year 6 children ...

In this article Cathy Wylie, a chief researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, provides an account of New Zealand’s education system from the introduction of self-managing schools under Tomorrow’s Schools through to the present day. Dr Wylie draws on her recent book Vital Connections to critically examine ...

Gifted students benefit from time spent with like-minded peers. This article outlines the value of grouping gifted students together and looks at different ways this can be done. It also describes a research study conducted by Clark, one of the authors of this article. The research explores the academic ...

Successful early or dual-enrolled students demonstrating competence in their university studies have not necessarily demonstrated strong performance in their high school studies. Some students report feeling bored in high school, identifying the importance of curricula meeting perceived academic needs. Following an exploratory study (n=90) which investigated perceptions ...

In this edition of Assessment News we take a close look at the new Supplementary Tests of Achievement in Reading (STAR). In particular, we consider how confident teachers can be in comparing their students’ test scores against the national norms that have been published by the New Zealand Council ...

Printouts of students’ ethnicities can help remind teachers that they are responsible for educating, and responding to the needs of, students with a range of ethnicities. However, such bare-bones information is very unlikely to fully represent students’ identities. This is especially so for students with multiple ethnicities. A simple list ...

There is limited research to support our understanding of values implementation in New Zealand schools. This article draws on findings from a recent Teaching and Learning Research Initiative project into the effect of the values statement in The New Zealand Curriculum on teaching and learning. Key findings explore teaching and assessment strategies ...

Feeling respected is important to students. Classroom respect, crucial for creating effective teacher−student relationships, is essential for maximising achievement. This article discusses findings from our study into the teacher behaviours that Year 12 and 13 mathematics students and teachers consider respectful. Dispositional, pedagogical and professional behaviours were identified as ...