Implementing New Zealand Curriculum

Three key features of technology known as "components of practice" are identified here and, with levelled indicators of progression, can support teachers as they develop long-term technology programmes and report on student achievement for formative and summative purposes.

A national research project investigated environmental education practice in New Zealand schools. This article describes and discusses key characteristics of current practice and the achievements of that practice in environmental education for teachers, students, schools, and the wider school community.

Base 6, an inquiry-based curriculum integration secondary programme, is now in its fifth year at Kuranui College in Greytown. This article summarises the data from the first three years of the programme and discusses curriculum integration with regard to authentic learning, the shift in power relationships in the classroom, and the redevelopment of the New Zealand curriculum framework.

Student-centred curriculum integration is inclusive and future focused, enabling students to develop the competencies, values, knowledge, skills, and understandings espoused in The New Zealand Curriculum. To better align schools with curriculum principles, more innovative, student-centred forms of curriculum design are required.

The water cycle is an important context for school science, but the uncritical use of diagrams to simplify ideas may lead to misconceptions. Incorporating learning about how representations such as water cycle diagrams function, helps students to explore and understand the complexities of such a system.

At the beginning of 2005, Red Beach School staff and community began a re-visioning process. We took the time to ask such questions as “What do we believe our school stands for?” Four years down the track, the staff have more clarity about what we believe our students should leave Red Beach School equipped with. Most importantly, we want to build on early years’ experiences and continue to develop students’ learning capacity as they enter secondary education.

One of the hot topics at a small science education conference I recently attended was the Nature of Science strand of the new curriculum. There was considerable discussion about the kind of support that would assist teachers both to understand what Nature of Science is about and to change their teaching of science to incorporate the intentions of this strand. Teachers may (legitimately) ask: Why would we want to change the way science is taught?

This companion article to “Enabling students to lead the way” explores the rationale for using a whole-school approach to health and wellbeing, and the connection between this approach and the revised curriculum. Some possible changes that could occur to school actions in regard to health and wellbeing are discussed. The article also explores some of the benefits and challenges of whole-school approaches.