set 2006: no. 2

This issue of set comes at an exciting time in education as the draft national curriculum, incorporating the proposed key competencies, has just been released for public discussion.

With the threat of Avian Influenza, a new emphasis is needed on the provision of hand-hygiene facilities and food-safety education in schools. This timely article discusses the results of a survey of 175 randomly selected New Zealand early childhood education centres and primary, intermediate, and secondary schools.

This article offers a new look at students' comprehension of poetry.  Its findings will be of particular interest to English teachers and teachers working with students to extend their understanding of texts that have complex language features and use figurative language.

Seeing a withdrawal programme for gifted students in mathematics from the perspectives of the students, parents, regular class teachers, and the specialist teacher gives insights about the social and academic needs of these students, their interests, and their future aspirations. The authors discuss issues and challenges for teachers, parental roles and concerns, and the strengths and weaknesses of the programme. They also suggest implications for other schools.

How effective is school reporting, particularly for parents of international students? Schools spend considerable time and effort in reporting to parents, but little research has been conducted on reporting, or its ability to raise achievement. This article looks at how one high school reports on student achievement and how those reports are interpreted by students and parents whose first language is not English.

School improvement has been the dominant paradigm informing educational policy and practice for a generation. There is no doubt that it has had a significant impact on almost every aspect of educational life. School improvement represents a powerful hegemony that informs the development of policy at the national, local, and institutional level in many education systems. Much of the prevailing academic orthodoxy informing teaching and research is centred on school improvement. This is… Read more

The introduction this year of the draft key competencies (paralleling the five strands of Te Whāriki) brings an exciting new development to the early childhood as well as the primary and secondary sectors. This article discusses learning dispositions and their relation to the key competencies, and suggests three ways in which a new continuity might be forged between early childhood and primary school curricula when the proposed key competencies are put into place.

This article looks at ways of bridging the discontinuities young children experience between three settings: the home environment, the early childhood setting, and the new entrant classroom. It highlights the empowerment that occurs for children, families, and teachers in early childhood and school settings when children’s experiences at home are known and valued.

Investigating suspected underachievement in literacy in an intermediate school revealed that the levels of achievement in reading and writing were indeed a concern, especially the writing of Years 5–9 students. Teachers from the intermediate, seven primary schools, and one secondary school worked together to strengthen their curriculum understandings of students’ writing and the coherence of their classroom and instructional practice.

The Parker Brothers' 1971 game of "Careers" may be light-hearted but the career decisions faced by young people leaving school today are no game.  Those decisions are considered more serious and seem more complex now.

Karen Vaughan discusses findings from the Prospects and Pathways study of young people moving into tertiary study and employment, and their bearing on career guidance principles.