This article has been published in the journal Teachers and Teaching, Theory and Practice. It reports on the factors that continued to sustain the initial commitment of a group of 57 primary and secondary teachers who had been identified early in their careers as individuals showing “promise” and who were predicted to make a significant contribution to teaching.

By the end of their ninth year of teaching, the quality of ...

The key competencies are a potentially transformative feature of the New Zealand Curriculum. However, the way in which they have been understood and implemented in schools points to tensions and challenges that may prevent them from acting as agents of curriculum change. One recent researcher /practitioner partnership developed materials that show how a close interweaving of key competencies and traditional subject learning might transform the taught curriculum. Analysis of the ...

This recent working paper focuses on how Pākehā have become involved in Māori-determined and controlled educational research, and what issues inhibit and facilitate their work. You can find out more by watching the video clip, in which researcher Alex Hotere-Barnes talks to Sarah Boyd about  the project. 

The research offers critical insights that aim to counter 'Pākehā paralysis' by strengthening present and future research with Māori communities. For Māori ...

This paper analyses responses to questions about National Standards in NZCER's 2013 National Survey of Primary and Intermediate Schools. NZCER Chief Researcher Cathy Wylie presented the findings to the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) conference in Dunedin on Thursday 28 November 2013.

The paper discusses the intentions of the National Standards policy and then looks at the responses of principals, teachers, members of boards of trustees ...

NZCER has conducted national surveys of schools since 1989, drawing on the views of school principals, teachers, trustees and parents. Sampling methodology is used to draw a random sample of schools for the survey. Using the recent 2013 Primary and Intermediate School National Survey as an example, this paper gives details and some discussion around the methodology used. It explores the strengths and weaknesses of the methods used, as well as ...

This paper makes the case for deep and radical change to New Zealand's approach to science education. It discusses the implications of recent science education research and policy work, and argues New Zealand still has a long way to go to developing a future-oriented science education system.  It explores what needs to change and contains suggestions for some first steps. 

“Developing science education that is a better fit for the ...

This is the first report from a 3-year (2012–2015) kaupapa Māori research project that investigates how best to support the continuity of reo Māori development of whānau as they transition between kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa primary, wharekura, secondary and beyond. It aims to provide useful information about the reo Māori education options that are most likely to help whānau achieve their reo Māori aspirations.

The project is being run by Te ...

This report is one in a series written for the Ministry of Education in the Curriculum support for science strand of a wider project called Science in the Curriculum. It describes two case studies in which teachers were asked to think about their purposes for teaching science and the outcomes they hoped their students would achieve. The case study teachers in two secondary schools worked with a visiting researcher. As ...

This report is one in a series written for the Ministry of Education as part of the e-Learning in science strand of the Science in the Curriculum project. It  brings together findings from earlier phases of the research, as well as parallel research on school engagement with the science community. The third phase of the project  focused on developing a conceptual tool for exploring the potential of digital technologies to ...

In September 2012 NZCER and Te Wānanga o Raukawa held the second Kei Tua o Te Pae hui, Changing Worlds, Changing Tikanga—Educating History and the Future, held at Te Wānanga o Raukawa in Ōtaki. The aim was to explore the impact that colonisation has had on tikanga Māori, to think about how tikanga has been shaped by history and to consider what we take with us into the future. The ...