The 2007 New Zealand curriculum introduced the idea of a “social inquiry” in the social studies curriculum. However, it appears that the nature and purpose of a social inquiry is still unclear to many teachers. The purpose of this article is to clarify what a social inquiry is, to ...

Young people have an important contribution to make in helping adults understand what their lives are like and how they learn best. Youth–adult partnerships can provide opportunities for adults and young people to engage in conversations about teaching and learning, and can assist students to share their voices and ...

Learning mathematics for children in Māori medium is about fulfilling their potential as Māori and as mathematicians. While there has been a strong focus on numeracy in many New Zealand schools in recent years, teachers in Māori-medium settings are trying to provide a mathematics programme for their learners that ...

Inclusive practice in schools for children with special-education needs is an explicit government priority. How children are transitioned from early childhood services can help or hinder a child’s inclusion into school. This research was designed to explore the transitions to school of children who mostly had high and very ...

Once we’ve shaped an inquiry into our own teaching, should we share our question with the students in the class?

There are many reasons why teachers might hesitate to share their inquiry questions with their students, from concerns about sharing the needs of specific learners to a desire ...

The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) has published a new literacy assessment—PAT: Punctuation and Grammar. PAT: Punctuation and Grammar has seven tests, aimed at Year 4 to Year 10 students. The tests assess student ability to recognise and use the grammatical conventions of standard New Zealand English, including ...

Outdoor education is often perceived as a series of activities involving novel physical challenges in remote settings or at specialist residential camps. Unfortunately, such experiences can be somewhat distant from the everyday lives of students and expensive to conduct. This research investigates teachers’ perspectives on conducting local outdoor education ...

Student-centred approaches to learning are gaining increasing national and international attention. For many teachers, more democratic teaching  designs require a shift in thinking and practice. This article looks at how teachers unfamiliar with these approaches might transition from a position of power to empowerment by exploring small, manageable changes ...