In national contexts where curriculum policies explicitly advocate for the development of students' higher order thinking capabilities, evidence suggests that achieving this goal can be quite elusive. In this article we explore this challenge by drawing on senior secondary school examples from two national contexts (New Zealand and Israel) that…

The big-picture vision of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) says it is important to foster students' dispositions to learn and to contribute as active members of society. The key competencies directly support this vision. NZC describes them as "capabilities for living and lifelong learning." Key competencies direct attention to students'…

In March 2019 the Ministry of Education (MOE) commissioned NZCER to conduct an exploratory study of curriculum levelling in the Science and Mathematics and Statistics learning areas of "The New Zealand Curriculum" (NZC). The study was prompted in part by a desire to probe possible reasons for patterns of achievement reported by the…

This report explores teachers' practice and thinking about one of the eight principles in the New Zealand Curriculum, learning to learn. It draws on data from teachers' responses to the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's (NZCER's) 2012 National Survey of Secondary Schools. The author discusses the meaning and potential of the phrase…

This is one of two papers developed for an Ministry of Education funded project, Competencies in New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZC). This paper draws on archived policy discussion papers to document the provenance of the key competencies included in the "New Zealand Curriculum" ("NZC"). The second paper analyses…

This is one of two papers developed for a Ministry of Education (MOE)-funded project, Competencies in New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZC). The first paper draws on archived policy discussion papers to document the provenance of the NZC key competencies. This second paper analyses a series of research projects to describe how…

Over the past decade there has been a major move to position "thinking" (however thinking is defined and enacted) as a more explicit outcome within the curriculum of many nations, with implications for teachers' professional development, assessment, and examination requirements. This paper analyses approaches to this challenge taken by…

This report documents views and experiences of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's (NZCER's) 2012 National Survey of Secondary Schools. Responses from teachers (1,266) and principals (177) predominate, but the report also reflects the responses from parents (1,477) and…