Musical Futures (MF) is an internationally recognised approach to music teaching aimed at developing high levels of student engagement through practical music making. Set up in the UK in 2003 "Musical Futures" is typical of approaches to education aimed at increasing levels of student autonomy through a strong emphasis on student-led…

Children's inquiry is an approach where tamariki explore and research their own questions and curiosities over sustained periods of time with the support of their kaiako. This article explores findings from research examining how this approach has been interpreted and enacted by early childhood kaiako in Aotearoa New Zealand. The article examines…

This study explores learner engagement with Advanced Computational Thinking (ACT) in the New Zealand digital curriculum. "Advanced" in ACT refers to an expansive, transdisciplinary, and future-looking understanding of computational thinking (CT). ACT promotes CT beyond narrow modes of problem-solving (abstraction, algorithmic thinking,…

This case study explores child, parent, teacher, and school-leader perspectives of a play-based learning (Pb-L) approach in one new-entrant classroom. Data were gathered through focus groups, interviews and an online survey. Findings indicate that children valued the opportunity for self-initiated, handson, interest-based exploration and social…

This article considers the "creative education" of influential Aotearoa/New Zealand art educator Elwyn Richardson, which is based on what he calls the "discovery method": the "concentrated study of material from [students'] own surroundings." Through a game that his students play with tyres, we explore the role that…

The Centre of Innovation Research at Greerton Early Childhood Centre was characterised as a dispositional milieu where working theories were explored through a narrative research methodology. As the research progressed, the teachers at Greerton strengthened the way we were listening to, and watching out for young children's questions to enable…

"Big Fish, Little Fish: Teaching and Learning in the Middle Years" provides pre-service and early career teachers with a pathway to understanding the needs of students as they make the important transition from primary to secondary schooling. The book explores contemporary challenges for teaching and learning in the middle years, with a…

An elementary school teacher in New Zealand describes the fruits of a nondirective learning environment in his classroom. (BB)

Describes how a group of gifted primary-school children in New Zealand explored the Internet in a workshop project organized around solving the mystery of what happened to the Titanic. Insets include the student "contract," a listing of Web sites, and the evaluation instrument. (DB)

Provides instructional materials, tasks, and activities to supplement a unit on map reading. Presents a two-page color topographical map of Arthur's Pass (New Zealand). Includes learning activities covering reading grid references, estimating distances, cross-sections, and sketch mapping. Briefly discusses and illustrates digital terrain models.…