set 1979 : no. 1

When the nations of the world, after the shattering experience of the first world war established the League of Nations they attempted also to establish standards nations would pledge to live by, to help build a truly peaceful and happy world. On the 26th of September 1924, the Assembly of the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child. In 1939, however, the second world war began, the League became powerless and its declarations 'mere scraps of paper… Read more

FOSSIC (For Observing Study Skills In Children) has been devised to help the classroom teacher assess how well a child is studying - in school, and at home.

If we wish to understand the feelings of people and to involve them in organisations such as the PTA, and get them along to our schools it is helpful to think of these situations as being similar to parties. A party has hosts. It also has guests. Both hosts and guests have feelings about each other. Moreover, guests can turn down invitations to the party. If the party turns out to be a bit dull or boring, or socially stressful, the guests can leave. They can leave physically or they can… Read more

'The more TV that children watch, the worse they will do at school, particularly when it comes to reading.' That is one popular belief. Another is that, for children who have difficulty with reading, watching television keeps them away from their books, and therefore it is a counterproductive activity. These beliefs rest on the 'commonsense' view that television requires very little in the way of reading, (even less than comics) and it is likely to supplant reading more and… Read more

There is a considerable difference in attitude to secondary school assessment both within and between various groups in the community. In recent years the community has become increasingly critical of the traditional school practices which culminate in the external examination at the end of Form V. The critics tend to fall into three distinct groups: Those who want to see efforts concentrated on improving the existing external examination system, those who see an externally produced… Read more

The renewed interest in bilingual education which began in other countries in the mid 1960s has developed only slowly in New Zealand. In 1976 the Marshall Committee expressed the view that the time was already overdue for the setting up, in carefully selected schools, of bilingual Maori-English programmes from the primary stages. Such a beginning has now been made at Ruatoki and other programmes are being planned. To assist with public discussion of such developments the NZCER was happy to… Read more

Neville Bennett's controversial research into primary teaching styles unearthed one informal teacher who obtained higher learning gains for her children then any other teacher in the sample. E.C. Wragg has been watching how she handles more than a thousand individual contacts a day.
This reprint, from the Times Educational Supplement, is introduced by Peter Jackson, NZCER.

In 1973 Robert Havighurst, an eminent American anthropologist and educator who had worked in New Zealand previously, spent a few months talking to New Zealand educators and visiting secondary schools in Northland. He had just completed a major study of the education of North American Indians, and suggested that it would be worthwhile comparing the opinions of themselves held by Maori and Pakeha secondary school students. He suggested it should be on a similar basis to a survey which he had… Read more

Youth Unemployment: A review of the situation in New Zealand.

One Hundred Early School Leavers: An in-depth longitudinal study of 100 early school leavers, 1974 to 1977 by Carol Cameron and Ian Livingstone.

Job Scarcity in the Bay of Plenty: An extract from a recently completed survey of school leavers made by the Department of Education.

Coping When You Leave: A teaching programme for secondary school pupils who were likely to have difficulty finding jobs - and… Read more

A school which wishes to do more than make an intelligent guess at how well it is preparing its pupils for their working lives, and the transition to work, may find many of the questions Carol Cameron asked a good basis for a postal questionnaire, or even Social Studies field work. These questions were all prepared for school leavers who got jobs, not for those going on to further education, nor for the unemployed. Questions should be recast, new questions invented, especially questions… Read more