Researchers, teachers, and policy makers around the world are grappling with the challenge of ensuring that increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse student populations are provided with equitable learning opportunities and outcomes (UNESCO, 2014). This challenge takes on particular significance in New Zealand where national and…

This report presents the findings from a research project on curriculum integration in New Zealand schools, carried out by NZCER in 2018-19. The purpose of the research was to explore teachers' rationales for curriculum integration; the approaches and practices used to integrate curriculum; and the learning opportunities such approaches provide…

The practice of grouping mathematics students by perceived levels of attainment, commonly referred to by teachers as ability grouping, is a contentious and long-standing topic of debate in education. Responses from a survey of 102 mathematics support teachers affirm the widespread use of ability grouping within New Zealand primary school…

This study examines practicing primary school teacher's perceptions of the teaching of physical education in their schools. There has been some criticism of primary school physical education but until now this criticism has been largely based on a number of small studies involving limited numbers of teachers and schools. This study involved…

This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a study carried out in two English-medium primary (elementary) schools (years 1-6) located in the Otago-Southland regions between 2014 and 2015. The purpose of the study aimed to explore the educational aspirations whanau Maori (i.e., Maori family) want for their children, and to build better…

In many Western countries, there has been an emphasis on ways in which to support teachers to shift practice from traditional mathematics instruction to inquiry-based classrooms. As a form of professional learning and development, lesson study offers the potential for teachers to develop their ability to respond to students' thinking through…

Embarking on and sustaining professional change is often a challenging process for educators. This is particularly so within a broader context of rapid (r)evolution in curriculum, pedagogical and assessment-related developments in the compulsory school sector in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past decade. Teachers' and school leaders' accounts of…

While mentoring programmes have proven to be successful in reducing attrition and improving teaching ability in beginning teachers, there remains a lack of research delineating the key components of effective mentoring programmes in primary education. This integrative research review examines empirical studies conducted since 2000 on the nature…

Boys continue to demonstrate lower average achievement in reading than girls. The influence of teacher gender has been explored among the factors explaining this scenario but with mixed results. Further, although teacher expectations have affected student academic outcomes, and student gender-related stereotypical notions have shaped such…

Despite the availability of an abundant amount of guiding literature, only about 30% of planned educational changes are successful. Clearly there is something essential missing from our understanding of how to successfully lead educational change. A review of the literature provides an awareness that success is far more likely if the leader pays…

The focus on teacher inquiry to enhance student learning is a key feature of "The New Zealand Curriculum" and in New Zealand's approach to teacher professional learning. This article examines how a collaborative inquiry team comprising two teachers (one each from two Auckland primary schools) and a teacher educator used inquiry to…

Play-based learning is of growing interest in many English-medium primary schools throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. I share my insights from researching play as learning, and supporting teachers with curriculum design and pedagogy in play-based contexts. Although play is a slippery concept and its value often underestimated, the evidence of the…

This two-phase study investigated New Zealand primary school teachers' knowledge and perceptions of childhood mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI), and evaluated the effectiveness of a professional development workshop for enhancing teacher knowledge regarding mTBI. In phase one, 19 teachers from schools in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty engaged in…

This article considers the place of proof, as a mathematical process, in the primary classroom. It describes the struggle the author, a primary school educator, went through with defining what proof is, what the educational goals of proof are, how these educational goals feature implicitly in the primary classroom, and what pedagogical…

This article reports on the understandings and practices of primary teachers in implementing the arts curriculum since the 2010 introduction of National Standards in Numeracy and Literacy within the New Zealand Education system. The ever-mounting pressure on schools to perform to these standards has resulted in a reduction of emphasis and time…