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This paper provides an overview of assessment policy and practice in mathematics for early years classrooms in New Zealand between 1993 and the present day. It describes the introduction of school entry assessment for children starting school at age five. A numeracy initiative, the Numeracy Development Projects (NDP), for students in Years 1-10 was developed a decade ago out of a pilot project with Count Me In Too. Most recently, a consultation process was undertaken as part of introducing national standards in mathematics for students in Years 1-8. The paper also presents some data from assessments by teachers as part of the NDP initiative, showing the complex relationships between number knowledge and strategy for students in Years 1-4. The paper concludes by asking that individual diagnostic interviews to enable the provision of quality teaching continue to be supported as part of the introduction of national standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papers presented at earlier Delta conferences reported on the use of collaborative tutorials and peer-tutors in undergraduate mathematics courses at The University of Auckland. This paper reports on significant developments within the Department's programmes, including the extension of the collaborative small-class tutorials to cover all first-year undergraduate courses in the department. It provides evidence of the effectiveness of the tutorial programme, as gauged from a survey of students' perceptions. Many of the students enrolled in the Tutoring in Mathematics course that initially trains and provides the peer-group tutors continue on as tutors in other mathematics courses within the Department. Some subsequently enrol in the University's Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary). The effects of the tutoring course on tutors continuing to tutor at higher levels, and their performances as novice teachers in the Diploma course are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a third study in a series aimed at investigating the issues surrounding the learning of mathematics at The University of Auckland by students who have English as an Additional Language (EAL students). As well as summarizing the earlier studies, it presents some new data showing that the problems experienced by EAL students are not experienced by first language English students (LI students). The consequences of these studies for undergraduate mathematics at The University of Auckland are explored using English language proficiency data for the whole of the 2005 undergraduate mathematics cohort. This data shows that the consequences of having large numbers of EAL students in an undergraduate mathematics cohort are likely to be much more important than expected, and that recent initiatives to raise literacy entrance levels are having some effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand is investing in two international studies that assess the achievement of students in science--the International Mathematics and Science Study and the Programme for International Student Assessment. While the studies have very different purposes, they both provide extensive data on student achievement in science and about factors that impact on this achievement. Currently the international and national study reports describe general findings but there has been no systematic secondary analysis or commentary by the New Zealand science education community. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of these international studies including some of the major findings so as to highlight their potential for further interrogation by science educators both nationally and internationally to inform policy, practice and further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Aotearoa New Zealand stark social class inequities persist between Māori (Indigenous) and Pacific people and the Pākehā (New Zealand European) majority. These inequities are apparent in domains including education, income, health, and incarceration. The article explores the relationship between streaming (tracking) and historically rooted ethnic inequalities in one diverse urban setting. Drawing survey, assessment, and administrative data from 450 eighth-grade students across three multicultural secondary schools, we ask how school mathematics reinforces or disrupts social-class divisions between majority Pākehā and minoritized Māori and Pacific students. Students entering secondary school imagined their future careers in ways that were already strongly differentiated by race, class, and gender. Tracking students into racially stratified mathematics classes reinforced such inequalities through a self-reinforcing interaction between aspirations and mathematics achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by an amalgam of notions drawn from constructivist, socio-cultural, metacognitive and self-regulation theory, the discourse created to describe assessment to enhance learning has gone through a number of iterations or discursive shifts. As a result, the current discourse is both ambitious and complex with the roles and responsibilities assigned to teachers and learners in learning and assessment radically transformed. Sponsored by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) seeks to develop teachers' research capability and to build knowledge about teaching and learning with the intention of improving outcomes for learners. Using a range of qualitative data generation strategies this TLRI research project investigated secondary school teachers' and students' conceptions of assessment and feedback. This paper reports on the professional learning that accrued for these teachers using the data gained from the four mathematics teachers in the project. It also details changes in these teachers' thinking about the roles and responsibilities of teachers and learners in the assessment process and documents reported changes to their professional practice resulting from these changed views. Whilst it is argued that involvement in the project became a valuable form of professional learning whereby these teachers, to varying degrees, achieved accessibility to, and greater understanding of, the current discourse of formative assessment, the mediating influence of teachers' efficacy beliefs is also acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several abstracts related to international early childhood resources are presented which includes mothers' employment and social behavior of children, children's early school literacy and analyzing young children's mathematical thinking in New Zealand.

There is a problematic but widespread perception that we do mathematics with our minds, and sport and Physical Education (PE) with our bodies. Strong identification with sport and PE could therefore pose a barrier to mathematics learning. I explore this troubling possibility using data from a mixed-methods study of 450 Year Nine students (age 13–14) in three New Zealand schools. The most socially privileged students often described mathematical and sporting success as entirely compatible, although most described mathematics as valuable for their working futures and sport as enjoyable but inconsequential. In contrast, working-class and ethnic minority boys often identified strongly with 'physical' masculinity and viewed physical strength and sporting prowess as pathways to paid work. Such students tended not to identify as mathematically capable. This mechanism for exclusion from mathematical success is particularly concerning in nations such as New Zealand where sport is so dominant in school-age boys' imagined futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the student-centered approach of the University of Otago in group theory. Understanding theorem development; Discovery and proof of Lagrange's theorem by students; Student reactions; Change in mathematics teaching.

Increasingly, teachers are considered accountable for continuous improvement in student achievement. They are expected to integrate and analyse data from multiple sources in order to make decisions aimed at positively influencing student outcomes. Given the growing recognition of the importance of data-informed decision making in teaching, it is important to understand how teachers can best be supported in this. Currently, there is little research into how teachers can facilitate data literacy development for their in-school colleagues. This study employed an interpretive qualitative methodology to focus on the experiences of mathematics lead teachers (MLTs) in leading change to support the development of their colleagues. MLTs were found to use a range of tailored strategies, providing 'on the job' and 'just in time' support, and demonstrating evaluative and adaptive capabilities. They were found to provide leadership in the development of data-informed decision making through their collaborative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many years, it has been a common practice to recognize students with high potential by according them targeted privileges and opportunities. This includes the practice of allowing students to accelerate their high school programme and, in the case of New Zealand students, to take university courses during their final school years. This work assesses the wisdom of this practice of acceleration in mathematics both for the student and the tertiary institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]