Some teachers lack confidence in teaching art. With teacher advisory service support for visual art teaching reduced this year, schools need to find new ways to help teachers gain confidence. This article explores the benefits of a collaborative inquiry approach within schools.

What could we be looking for in student work when it comes to summative assessment? This article explores some of the challenges related to assessment in social studies. It then traces some of the recent resource developments in the New Zealand social sciences learning area, with a view to working ...

Pasifika students do not generally achieve as well as other students in school assessments of literacy and there are concerns about their comprehension of text. This article examines the out-of-school literacy experiences of 14 Pasifika students, with a view to enabling teachers to link to and build on them. Church ...

As National Standards come into force around the country, schools are starting to deal with implementing them in practice. This article explores some ideas about the implementation of National Standards in general, using the teaching of technology as an example.

NCEA course choices matter, especially where students or their parents have aspirations to follow an educational pathway beyond school or even just to leave their academic options open. This study, conducted in four mid–low-decile schools in Auckland and Northland, found that reaching academic aspirations requires careful and planned navigation of ...

The aim of any subject-choice process should be to provide better educational outcomes for all students. This study, however, found that many students do not understand the full implications of their NCEA course choices or course allocations. Māori, Pacific and lower decile secondary school students are particularly at risk of ...

Reprinted from Practical Research for Education, 41, 2009
The British Gaining Ground project aimed to develop a fresh approach to engaging young people excluded from mainstream education. Media practitioners introduced media skills to young people in Pupil Referral Units over two school years. Cathy Poole evaluates the project ...

In a recent “Assessment News” we wrote about an impending new series of standardised science tests for Years 7–10. The tests, Science: Thinking with Evidence, have now been published and were launched earlier this year with a series of information afternoons around the country.

One of the features of set: Research Information for Teachers is the broad range of topics it covers. In the last issue we were able to highlight junior primary in a number of articles. This time we go to the other end of the spectrum and focus on senior secondary ...

Drawing on secondary teachers’ experience of standards-based assessment for NCEA, this short article discusses moderation challenges that will face primary teachers as they make overall professional judgments of each student's progress against the new National Standards. Moderation potentially offers rich professional learning possibilities—but only if teachers feel safe to learn ...