New Zealand Current Events
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Approach:  One to one
ACCESS
Level: Year 4 and year 8
Focus: Current events in New Zealand  
Resources:
None
143Kb
Questions/instructions:  

There are lots of very important things happening in New Zealand.

   
 
% responses
2009 ('05)
y4
y8
1. Can you tell me about three important things that are happening in New Zealand at the moment? Think about what is in the newspaper, on the TV or on the radio.    
First important thing:    
Location/Focus:   national 28 (37) 50 (78)
regional or local 19 (17) 19 (7)
international 17 (10) 11 (9)
Timing:  specific current event 51 (49) 55 (84)
ongoing issue/activity 12 (15) 24 (9)
Activity category:      law and order/criminal 14 (8) 12 (5)
natural (e.g. natural disaster, weather) 20 (14) 16 (5)
political/economic (e.g. war, oil price) 6 (20) 21 (67)
sporting 7 (8) 15 (11)
social (e.g. new movie, visitors to New Zealand) 13 (13) 13 (4)
personal (e.g. winning prize, birthday) 4 (2) 3 (2)
Second important thing    
Location/Focus:   national 16 (18) 36 (47)
regional or local 13 (11) 13 (15)
international 9 (6) 6 (9)
Timing:   specific current event 28 (28) 37 (58)
ongoing issue/activity 8 (5) 17 (13)
Activity category:      law and order/criminal 7 (6) 9 (10)
natural (e.g. natural disaster, weather) 9 (6) 8 (8)
political/economic (e.g. war, oil price) 4 (8) 14 (27)
sporting 5 (5) 11 (16)
social (e.g. new movie, visitors to New Zealand) 8 (7) 8 (8)
personal (e.g. winning prize, birthday) 4 (2) 3 (3)
Third important thing    
Location/Focus:   national 6 (13) 22 (27)
regional or local 7 (10) 8 (7)
international 3 (4) 3 (7)
Timing: specific current event 13 (21) 24 (35)
ongoing issue/activity 2 (4) 9 (6)
Activity category: law and order/criminal 2 (5) 9 (6)
natural (e.g. natural disaster, weather) 3 (4) 3 (4)
political/economic (e.g. war, oil price) 1 (5) 9 (13)
sporting 3 (5) 6 (13)
social (e.g. new movie, visitors to New Zealand) 4 (6) 5 (4)
personal (e.g. winning prize, birthday) 1 (0) 2 (1)
2. Choose one of these important things and tell me as much as you know about it.    
Quality of description: clear full description 6 (5) 19 (20)
moderately good description 18 (19) 30 (34)
very limited description 28 (33) 28 (36)
no useful response 48 (43) 23 (10)
Total score:
3
6 (5) 19 (20)
2
18 (19) 30 (34)
1
28 (33) 28 (36)
0 48 (43)
23 (10)
Subgroup Analysis [Click on charts to enlarge] :
Year 4


Year 8


Commentary:
When asked to name an event in the news, in 2005 the national election was the big news item, particularly for year 8 students. In 2009, responses were more diverse. Performance was very similar in 2005 and 2009. Year 4 Pakeha, Mäori and Pasifika students performed similarly.