This paper explores ways school subjects could change to meet students' learning needs for meaningful participation in the "knowledge society".

Drawing on selected findings of the second year of the NZCER Learning Curves research project, it describes three different "types" of senior secondary school subjects currently being offered in the NQF/NCEA qualifications regime and discusses how these might evolve in the future.

The paper explores the idea that we need ...

This paper uses the assessment and qualification reforms in the senior secondary school as a case study of change. To provide the context of the paper the first section presents an overview of the New Zealand secondary school sector and the educational reforms of the 1990s. This is followed by a brief outline of the ideas that led to the development of the National Qualifications Framework NQF; a description of ...

Average literacy and numeracy performance among children from low-income homes is lower than others. But some children perform as well as their peers from more advantaged homes.

This paper uses material from the longitudinal Competent Children research project, following children from rising 5 to age 12, to look at the factors which seem to make a difference for these children, against a background discussing the international literature on risk and ...

This conference paper overviews the nature of the ARBs and other standardized tests available within New Zealand for school-based and formative uses.

The levels-based structure of the curriculum and the need for teachers to assess to levels presents a challenge for all school-based assessment, particularly for assessing students' writing. One recent innovation in the English ARBs has been to develop level based scoring guides, and link these to exemplars of ...

Being a “question asker” is an unfamiliar role to many students yet within a 21st century learning framework this is a competency they need to develop. In traditional assessment events students are primed to be “question answerers”, a role that is both familiar and predictable to all concerned. Asking students to develop questions or identify appropriate questions to investigate is unsettling and, for many students, an unpractised skill. These tensions ...

NZCER was asked by the NZ Principals' Federation (NZPF) to provide quality assurance on Murray Neighbour's analysis of the NZPF's national survey of all primary and intermediate schools, undertaken in November 2001.  The aim of this survey was to establish New Zealand figures for student transience levels, in the light of growing sector concern about the relationship between student transience and achievement, and the impact of student transience for schools ...

Aspirations of Whānau in Māori Medium Secondary Schools

The purpose of this small project was to find out how and why some whānau made the decision to continue on from kura kaupapa to wharekura (from Year 8 to Year 9). The research also looked at some of the issues that challenged the commitment of many whānau to follow this pathway. As parents, teachers, and researchers involved in Māori medium education ...

This report provides background material on the key competencies proposed for the New Zealand school curriculum.  These are:

• Thinking
• Using language, symbols, and texts
• Managing self
• Relating to others
• Participating and contributing

Each of the five sections begins with the current definition of the relevant competency, as included in the draft curriculum document, released in 2006.

The discussion that follows outlines links to the essential skills of the current curriculum framework (Ministry of ...

*Ako is a Māori Language term for both teaching and learning

This paper reports findings from the Teachers of Promise (ToP) project currently underway in New Zealand that seeks to understand the development of teachers as learners and contributors to the profession. We explore the learning opportunities of a group of 57 “teachers of promise” from their third year of teaching. These teachers were identified by initial teacher educators and ...

The National Survey of Secondary Schools, carried out in mid-2003, surveyed 95 principals from a range of school types and deciles, 744 teachers who taught a range of curriculum subjects in those schools, 180 school trustees and 503 parents of students in some of the schools

Each group responded to a comprehensive questionnaire, with items in common where relevant.

The survey reports on a wide range of topics related to ...