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.

This article engages with current debates in New Zealand over the legitimacy of various young people’s activities within a transition-to-work framework based around the metaphor of ‘pathways’. The article argues for a more complex understanding of the imperatives young people now face in choosing careers within a deregulated, seamless tertiary education system that intensifies particular kinds of consumer choice-making. Drawing on analysis from the frst year of a longitudinal study of ‘navigations’ of pathways from ...

This article appeared in Vocations and Learning, v.3, n.2, July 2010. p. 157-178

Young adults’ early career development is an increasingly important field of inquiry. With the complexity of modern transitions from school and the lifelong learning demands of emerging knowledge societies, governments are concerned to improve learning pathways into, and through, tertiary education and work. Young adults are exploring new learning and work possibilities and understanding these create a challenge for governments trying to ...

This article argues that particular experiences in the workplace are more important than others and can lead to transformational learning. This may enable practitioners to cross ‘vocational thresholds’ to new ways of being.  A notion of ‘vocational thresholds’ is developed, aiming to help build an understanding of the most powerful learning experiences of general practitioners (GPs). Vocational thresholds takes its cue from the idea of ‘threshold concepts’ - concepts that ...

"For days and days, you make out only the fragments of what to do. And then one day you’ve got the thing whole. Conscious learning becomes unconscious knowledge, and you cannot say precisely how". (Atul Gawande in Complications, 2002, p. 21)

This is the submission from NZCER's Research team on the Update of the Education Act. It draws on NZCER's deep expertise, particularly in curriculum and assessment, school leadership and governance, and future-focussed education, to respond to the discussion document. 

This report is the second annual evaluation report for the Teach First NZ pilot programme. The first report focused on the programme’s first year, Cohort 13. This second report focuses on Year 2 for Cohort 13 and Year 1 for Cohort 14.

The full report can be found at: www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/2014-annual-evaluation-report-for-the-teach-first-nz-programme

How do people learn to become general practitioners, carpenters and engineering technicians? This report is based on the Knowing Practice project and explores practice-based learning (apprenticeship or vocational immersion) across three different fields. It is based on observations and interviews with 41 learner-practitioners and their workplace-based mentors, teachers, and advisors:

1. GP registrars in the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners’ (RNZCGP) General Practice Education Programme
2. carpentry apprentices in managed apprenticeships with ...

Part of experiencing success as Māori within schools depends on having opportunities to learn and use te reo Māori and tikanga Māori. But how well do we provide for Māori students in English-medium schools? This report looks at whether provision differs in relation to the level of Māori enrolment in a school, using data from NZCER's National Surveys of primary and intermediate schools in 2013, and secondary schools in 2012. The ...

This report outlines the findings of the evaluation of a pilot initiative known as the Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy. The project paired first year teachers with teacher mentors to help them develop skills and knowledge in digital teaching methods and modern learning environments. The evaluation drew on the perspectives of the different participants, including teachers, mentors and principals.  It described the pilot as successful, with the teachers going on to ...