Background papers

Evidence base for the Curriculum Refresh

The Ministry of Education commissioned and considered a range of papers by experts to inform the approach to the refresh of The New Zealand Curriculum.

These resources are being used by writing and working groups to ensure the refresh reflects current best evidence and practices in education.

New Zealand Curriculum Refresh: Progressions Approach

This paper explores the design of a progressions framework within the context of a bicultural curriculum.

Determining How Learning is Progressing – Options for Calibrating Teacher Judgements

This paper discusses ways to support teacher, ākonga, and whānau decision-making about how learning is progressing, and explores how to build bridges between the intentions expressed by a bicultural progression-focused curriculum, assessment, and classroom practice.

An Examination of the Curriculum-Levelling Construct

The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) examined the curriculum-levelling construct that sits at the heart of The New Zealand Curriculum to investigate, whether the construct helps or hinders teachers and school leaders as they plan learning programmes and make judgements of student progress and achievement.

An initial exploration of curriculum levels in science and mathematics and statistics

This paper was commissioned to explore curriculum levelling in the science and mathematics and statistics learning areas of The New Zealand Curriculum to support decisions about the need for greater curriculum clarity, especially around progression.

Enduring competencies for designing science learning pathways

The framework outlined in this paper was collaboratively developed by a group of science curriculum experts. It informs current thinking about science learning, curriculum, and assessment, and builds a conceptual foundation that will help both the curriculum and Subject Expert Group teams keep their work aligned and coherent as their different work streams unfold and evolve.

Feedback reports on te ao tangata | social sciences learning area

In developing this learning area, we incorporated feedback from the education sector, ākonga, whānau, iwi and communities. The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) report ‘Social Sciences learning area: Feedback on components of The New Zealand Curriculum Refresh’ provides analysis of feedback on the draft refreshed Social Sciences learning area received from public consultation. 'Te Ao Tangata | Social Sciences: What you told us and how we're responding' shows how we responded to the feedback.