75 years – and looking ahead - NZCER news

75 years – and looking ahead

NZCER was established in 1934 so we’re celebrating our 75th birthday this year. One of our aims is to lead debate about important education issues, and we are doing this through a series of conferences throughout the year. Information about our 75th year events is on our website at www.nzcer.org.nz/75th and you can click on the RSS icon to get regular updates.

We’re kicking off with a conference series in four centres which will showcase and explore some of the most interesting curriculum implementation work going on in schools. An information flyer is being sent to schools this week, and information is available at www.nzcer.org.nz/75th Our second conference series will be held in Wellington and Auckland in September and will focus on student engagement. Again, details for that will be posted our website and flyers sent to schools.

The third event is planned for November. This conference will explore the educational ideas that were current during the 1937 conference, look at which ones have been taken up, and explore what ideas will carry us forward in the 21st century.

PAT for parents Many schools are busy running PAT tests at the moment. We’ve developed an information sheet for parents and caregivers giving general information about the tests and how they are scored, and schools are welcome to make it available to their school community. It can be downloaded from our website www.nzcer.org.nz or email our communications manager for a pdf of the information sheet. Contact: sarah.boyd@nzcer.org.nz

More from the Marking Service It’s not too late for schools to sign up to have NZCER’s marking service (www.nzcermarking.org.nz) score and analyse students’ PAT and STAR tests. Available on a subscription basis, the service can be used to machine mark answer sheets, or schools can choose to enter student data themselves. Once the data is online, schools are provided with a range of reports and analysis. New features being developed for 2009 include an improved version of the PAT:Mathematics individual report, a new class report, and the ability for schools to administer PAT:Reading Vocabulary tests online. We’ve also developed a new report aimed at parents, which may be useful when schools want to share their PAT results with the school community. To find out more, email marking@nzcer.org.nz or visit www.nzcermarking.org.nz

Schools doing science Science in school has been getting a bit of bad press recently. Both our NEMP and TIMSS results have shown some worrying downward trends. At NZCER we are interested in supporting teachers in this area. One of the bonuses of the New Zealand curriculum is its open nature, encouraging schools to develop a curriculum that suits their students and local community. That freedom, however, causes problems for us when we are developing resources. What science "topics" are now most commonly taught in primary schools?

How you can help We don't need to know all the details, but it would be very helpful to get examples of schools' long-term science plans, or even a list of the topics you intend to cover. We would use these to get a picture of contexts commonly taught in primary schools. This would provide useful information when we plan resources to support your science. If you would like to help us out, please email Chris Joyce at chris.joyce@nzcer.org.nz

Beeby fellow focuses on sustainability Otago Polytechnic Associate Professor Samuel Mann has been awarded the Beeby fellowship for 2009. He will use it to write a book on sustainable practitioners. The polytechnic has a policy of preparing all its graduates, whatever their discipline, to think and act as sustainable practitioners. Dr Mann will document the process the polytechnic has gone through, including case studies. He says it’s targeted at people in the tertiary sector interested in introducing education for sustainability. You can find out more about the Beeby fellowship at: www.nzcer.org.nz/default.php?cPath=21_142

NZCER Press direct You can now go directly to NZCER Press using our new url: www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress Bookmark it now and it will be quicker and easier to check out our new books and journals. We’re also offering an RSS feed from the NZCER Press homepage, so you can be updated as soon as we have new publications. Go to www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress and click the RSS icon on the left-hand side.

Hot off the press Our latest title is a must for every school. Making Classroom Assessment Work is a collaboration between wellknown Canadian author Anne Davies and New Zealand’s Mary Hill, who has adapted the material for New Zealand schools. It is packed full of ideas on how get students involved in self-assessment, how to collect evidence of learning and provide feedback, and how to share learning achievements with parents. To order, go to www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress

Accessing the New Zealand educational theses database This database is funded by the Ministry of Education, through the Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) programme, and maintained by our Information Services Team. The database now has over 7500 records of theses that come from 111 different institutions (New Zealand and overseas). 222 theses were awarded at overseas institutions. So far, 538 theses have a link to electronic full text. Try it out, our researchers find it useful and our library uses it all the time to identify research. Go to: www.nzcer.org.nz/nzetbasic.php

Teaching and learning fund seeks applications The Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) is a research fund established by the government in 2003, and co-ordinated on behalf of the government by NZCER. It seeks to build knowledge about teaching and learning, and to forge better links between research and practice. Expressions of interests have just opened for the 2009 funding round. Go to the website for details: www.tlri.org.nz

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