This article reports on a study of primary-aged students’ perceptions of what makes a good teacher for them. In 2012, as a result of a government directive, the three schools in this study merged into one but still operated across the three school sites. The focus of the study was ...

School pastoral leaders have halved the use of suspension and exclusion from New Zealand schools in the last decade. This article offers community re-authoring of young people’s identity stories as a further support for reducing suspensions and exclusions. It demonstrates how developing new stories of “who I am and what ...

Pastoral care structures in New Zealand schools often include a role of dean. The dean’s responsibilities are often defined by schools to satisfy growing expectations of schools’ responsibilities for student wellbeing and achievement. This study explored the role of year-level deans within one state co-educational secondary school. Senior managers, deans ...

Shared learning underpins learning communities and partnerships. This article draws on case study data generated from shared perceptions of the use of inquiry pedagogy, Mantle of the Expert, applied to a drama-devising process at NCEA Level 2. Students, teacher, and researcher were positioned together as members of THEATRON, a fictional ...

This article draws on an empirical study that suggests useful practical strategies for representing progression in history, especially regarding historical empathy. It also demonstrates how teachers can both guide and involve students in working with these representations, thereby encouraging students to make sense of, and gauge, their own progress. In ...

It has become increasingly common for students in New Zealand schools to sit tests using a computer. Sometimes a computer-administered test and a paper-and-pencil version of the same test are used interchangeably, depending on which administrative mode is most convenient. Does this matter? Can we just replace a paper-and-pencil test ...

Education in New Zealand (and indeed the world) is currently facing the greatest period of rapid change it has ever experienced. Challenges such as how to address chronic underachievement, what to do with ultra-fast broadband or mobile devices, the implementation of modern learning environments, developing inquiry or project-based learning, or ...

The New Zealand Curriculum [NZC] identifies an understanding of science that supports informed citizenship as a major goal for the Science learning area. The Nature of Science strand, which explores how science itself works, is the overarching and compulsory strand in Science for Years 1–10. New Zealand primary ...

This article draws on a recent New Zealand study of how young people learn to think critically about the past when they conduct internally assessed course work. The research demonstrated that, although students can develop advanced understandings of historical thinking when they conduct research projects, this development is largely dependent ...