This paper explores the potential for using narrative pedagogy to help students develop a sense of connectedness to the conceptual science they are learning, and through that to develop an ethic of caring, both for the natural environment, and for their own learning.

The full journal article published in:
School Science Review,  86 (315), 53-58.

This article draws on the first two years of a longitudinal study of young people’s pathway and career-related experiences and perspectives. It argues for a richer conceptualisation of young people’s transition to study, training and employment than allowed by simple school-to-labour market models.

We present four clusters of young people’s interview narratives

• the Hopeful Reactors
• the Passion Honers
• the Anxious Seekers and
• the Confident Explorers

and examine the way that each differently ...

This article was included in an information pack  for school principals and curriculum leaders, designed and distributed by the Ministry of Education and intended to support the implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum.

It discusses assessment and the key competencies, framed within wider questions about the purposes and outcomes of schooling and education.

Rose Hipkins is an NZCER Researcher who has been involved in the development of the New Zealand ...

The Assessment Resource Banks (ARBs) in English, mathematics, and science have been designed to reflect current New Zealand curriculum statements and provide schools with an ever-increasing range of valid and reliable assessment material.  They are available on the Internet and are now established as the main source of school-based assessment material for New Zealand schools. 

During their early development phase, national and school-based uses were seen as dual elements, but ...

Our schools are organised to meet the needs of the industrial age.  They are based on two key ideas: the importance of traditional disciplinary knowledge and the necessity to sort people according to their likely employment destination. 

It does matter what students are learning and that the old disciplines are still important. 

However the reasons they are important are now very different from the reasons they were important in the ...

Examines current collaborative relationships in New Zealand’s early childhood education services.

This paper draws from the findings of four recent research projects:

• Evaluation of the initial uses and impact of equity funding;
• Quality in parent/whänau-led Services;
• Evaluation of Pathways to the Future – Ngä Huarahi Arataki: phase 1
• NZCER’s national survey of early childhood education services carried out in late 2003 and early 2004.

The full journal article was ...

What might biology education learn from disciplinary biology? Asks Rosemary Hipkins, NZCER, and keynote speaker at Biolive 2009.

At the 2009 Biolive Conference in Dunedin I suggested that biology educators could look to the cutting edge of biology when searching for ways to manage the complex changes in teaching and learning signalled by the phrase ‘a 21st century education’. This article sets out my argument for those biology teachers who ...

This article argues that the rights of childen should be at the heart of early childhood education policy development.  It describes the free market framework inherited by the current government, highlights inequalities for children in income and participation in early childhood education, and describes policy initiatives.  These are analysed against yardsticks for effective government policy for children. 

The article concludes that there is currently a new valuing of early childhood ...

This paper describes the way in which a major literature review on curriculum, learning and effective pedagogy in science education was undertaken in New Zealand, and introduces the other papers in this issue. 

The review was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Education to investigate how the literature in science education informs our understanding about effective pedagogy on student achievement in science education for a diversity of students in ...

In December 2001, Auckland Metropolitan College (Metro), the only state-funded alternative secondary school in New Zealand, closed after eight highly critical ERO reviews in eight years.  Despite support from its own community, other schools, and the Schools Support Programme, Metro closed amidst long-standing confusion over its status and role in the New Zealand education system. 

This article explores Metro's origins and the tensions between state regulation and innovative schooling within a ...