Discusses the history of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research and the functions and research projects of its Early Childhood Unit. Discusses the relationship between research and practice in early child development and education within the context of the council's early childhood work. (RJC)

Describes development of New Zealand's national early childhood curriculum guidelines, called by the Maori phrase for "woven mat." Examines the government's changing role in early childhood education, the curriculum development process, and sources and principles of the curriculum. Details the curriculum's specific aims for children.…

During 1988 and 1989, a university education lecturer in New Zealand organized and directed a 2-year professional development program (the School Leaders Project) for 67 secondary school principals and assistants. Although the program's organization, content, and delivery initially facilitated participants' professional development, the…

A participatory research process with inner-city unemployed people in New Zealand demonstrated that (1) consumers of social services should have greater input in policymaking and (2) consumers can work actively and collectively to effect change without blind commitment to a particular ideology. (SK)

Discusses the themes of "Good Will Hunting" and "Titanic" and their messages to educators. The need for gifted children to have an array of people in their lives to nurture their abilities and the need for the development of a New Zealand national policy for gifted children is emphasized. (CR)

Assessed long-term predictive validity of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Sentences (CDI:WS) for children's expressive and receptive vocabulary development. Sixty-one New Zealand children were assessed with a New Zealand version of the CDI, and with the Expressive Vocabulary Test and Peabody Picture Vocabulary…

This article is a recollection of events as the author began her teaching career. Her first experience was an "alternative route" she claims, since it involved her joining the Peace Corps and accepting a teaching position in Uganda. In the article, she discusses that although the breadth and depth of induction programs vary widely both…

This project came about after discussions with the general manager of the Wellington Region Free Kindergarten Association and Jeanette Clarkin-Phillips (University of Waikato) about setting up a research partnership to support the teachers at Taitoko Kindergarten in Levin. The teachers were establishing an integrated community centre (the whanau…

This paper addresses the question: how can e-learning be embedded in traditional universities so that it contributes to the transformation of the university? The paper examines e-learning strategies in higher education, locating the institutional context within the broader framework of national and international policy drivers which link…

This document is the result of two regional workshops (attended by representatives of 16 Asian countries) on the preparation of vocational and technical education teachers in Asia. Chapter 1 lists the objectives for the workshops, countries representated at each, and the officers for each. Chapter 2 gives an overall review of the present status of…

In this article, we explore the challenges--and benefits--of conducting collaborative research on an international scale. The authors--from Australia, Canada, and New Zealand--draw upon their experiences in designing and conducting a three-country study. The growing pressures on scholars to work in collaborative research teams are described, and…

The research literature on how to retain students until they graduate in post-compulsory education is voluminous and long-standing. However, a unified theory of retention remains elusive. Instead a variety of explanations and approaches has been developed. This article uses one theoretical construct to make sense of the findings of a survey of…

Many of the current policy debates in Europe focus on what kind of "knowledge economy" or "knowledge society" would be best in the future if it is to combine both economic competitiveness and social cohesion. Should European economies move increasingly towards the so-called Anglo-Saxon model of flexible labour markets and high…

The contribution of higher education institutions to regional development is a theme that has attracted growing attention in recent years. Knowledge institutions are increasingly expected not only to conduct education and research, but also to play an active role in the economic, social and cultural development of their regions. The extent to…

The first section of this article examines a range of definitions of biotechnology. This analysis demonstrates that teachers' choices will determine their view of biotechnology, as positioned along a traditional-modern, axis, and provides examples of the tensions that these differing positions create. A further section argues that in order for…