Determining How Learning is Progressing – Options for Calibrating Teacher Judgements builds on an earlier paper that outlines the case for a bicultural progression-focused curriculum.

It discusses ways to support teacher, ākonga, and whānau decision-making about how learning is progressing. The paper also explores how to build bridges between the intentions expressed by a bicultural progression-focused curriculum, assessment, and classroom practice.

The paper begins by briefly describing how dependable teacher judgements and good decision making are needed to inform a system that learns. It considers the people who need information from teacher judgements and the implications of important principles related to the New Zealand Curriculum, assessment and aromatawai. Clear purposes and principles are critical when considering how judgements should be made and actions undertaken to support ākonga progress. It goes on to describe elements needed to support decisions about how learning is progressing in a system based on a progression-focused curriculum. The elements include: curriculum purpose statements; waypoints; waypoint elaborations; tools to support decision-making; and opportunities to interact within a community of practice.

This is a collaborative report produced by Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha / University of CanterburyTe Wānanga Toi Tangata / Division of Education at Te Whare Wananga o Waikato / University of Waikato, Ahu Whakamua Ltd, and Rangahau Mātauranga o Aotearoa / NZCER, at the request of the Ministry of Education.