Maori

: 2003 (English)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Project directors acknowledge the vital support and contributions of many people to this report, including:

• the very dedicated staff of the Educational Assessment Research Unit
• Lisa Rodgers and other staff members of the Ministry of Education
• members of the Project’s National Advisory Committee
• members of the Project’s Mäori Immersion Education Advisory Committee and Mäori Reference Group
• members of the Project’s Science Advisory Panel and Arts Advisory Panel
• He Kupenga Hae i te Reo Inc.
• principals and children of the schools where tasks were trialled
• principals, staff and Board of Trustee members of the 252 schools included in the 2003 sample
• the 2936 children who participated in the assessments and their parents
• the 100 teachers who administered the assessments to the children
• the 45 senior tertiary students who assisted with the marking process
• the 170 teachers who assisted with the marking of tasks early in 2004.

The following Summary is presented in English; for the Mäori translation
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THE PROJECT

New Zealand’s National Education Monitoring Project commenced in 1993, with the task of assessing and reporting on the achievement of New Zealand primary school children in all areas of the school curriculum. Children are assessed at two class levels: year 4 (halfway through primary education) and year 8 (at the end of primary education). Different curriculum areas and skills are assessed each year, over a four-year cycle. In 2003, the areas covered were science, visual arts, and the use of graphs, tables and maps.

The main goal of national monitoring is to provide detailed information about what children can do so that patterns of performance can be recognised, successes celebrated, and desirable changes to educational practices and resources identified and implemented.

Each year, small random samples of children are selected nationally, then assessed in their own schools by teachers specially seconded and trained for this work. Task instructions are given orally by teachers, through video presentations, on laptop computers, or in writing. Many of the assessment tasks involve the children in the use of equipment and supplies. Their responses are presented orally, by demonstration, in writing, in computer files, or through submission of other physical products. Many of the responses are recorded on videotape for subsequent analysis.

Te Tiritiria o te Purapura
— Spreading Seeds

THIS REPORT

This report focuses solely on year 8 students learning in Mäori immersion education programmes. In 2003, 60 percent of these Mäori immersion students were learning in immersion schools (mainly Kura Kaupapa Mäori), while the other 40 percent were learning in immersion classes (located in mainstream schools, but having 80 to 100 percent of instruction conducted in Mäori). For this special sample of students learning predominantly in Mäori, the assessment tasks and task materials were developed in Mäori or translated into Mäori, and were administered by teachers experienced in Mäori immersion settings.

1 : KEY FEATURES

Chapter 1 explains key features of the National Education Monitoring Project that are relevant to this report.

2 : ISSUES

Te Aonui o Tama-nui-te-Rä
— Our Solar System

Chapter 2 explains some concerns about the interpretation of the 2003 assessments in Mäori immersion education settings. The most serious concern related to the selection of schools in the Mäori immersion education sample. For various reasons, four of the twelve schools in the original random sample withdrew. Because of the limited number of Mäori immersion schools and their relatively small enrolments (an average of less than 10 year 8 students per school), three of these schools needed to be replaced from other regions, raising serious doubts about how nationally representative the final sample remained. It is possible that the students from the originally sampled Mäori immersion schools would have performed quite differently than the students from the replacements schools.

3 : SCIENCE

Chapter 3 presents the results of the assessments of students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in science. Science education focuses on students having inquiring minds and making sense of the actions and interactions of the biological and physical features of their environment. The 35 assessment tasks addressed the four main content strands of the science curriculum (the living world, physical world, material world, and planet Earth and beyond).

Most students displayed good knowledge and good observation skills on some of the science tasks, but very limited knowledge on some other tasks. Some tasks asked students to attempt to explain scientific phenomena. On most task components of this type, a majority of the students did not manage to provide appropriate explanations.

4 : VISUAL ART

Chapter 4 presents the results of the assessments of students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in the visual arts. There are two major domains in visual arts education: making art and responding to art. The former offers opportunities for developing abilities of personal and social expression through a range of visual media, forms and techniques. The latter is concerned with developing an appreciation and understanding of the art of others, and the ways art works are looked at, thought about and valued.
The results show that in both art-making and art-responding tasks, most students’ responses were rated towards the lower end of the marking scales. While many students could identify surface visual features of art- works, they were generally less confident in discussing and explaining ideas and processes.

Te Mahere a Pähau Pango
— Blackbeard’s Map

5 : GRAPHS, TABLES AND MAPS

Chapter 5 presents the results of the assessments of students’ skills in the use of graphs, tables and maps. Understanding and using information presented in the form of graphs, tables or maps is an important part of everyday life in our community. The tasks cover two aspects of the use of graphs, tables and maps: extracting and interpreting information, and organising and presenting information.
Student performance on the tasks was quite variable, with some tasks handled well by most students and others producing mainly low scores. Even on tasks where many students did well, there usually was a substantial percentage of students scoring very low. Task components requiring multiple steps, comparisons of information, or multiple valid answers were handled less well than those that involved finding single pieces of information.

6 : SURVEYS

Chapter 6 reports the results of surveys of students about their curriculum preferences and perceptions of their achievement and potential in science and the visual arts.
Students liked more active and visual science activities, rather than being told about science, reading about it, or talking about it. While “doing things like experiments” was the most popular first choice activity, “going on field trips” and “being shown about science” were more often chosen among the three preferred activities. About a quarter of the students were very enthusiastic about science at school and most of the rest liked it moderately well. Field trips, visits and experiments occurred often for one third or fewer of the students, in their view. Group work and projects were the most common science activities.

The most popular visual art activity in students’ own time was painting, closely followed by drawing and then printmaking. More than half of the students were very enthusiastic about doing art at school, although 40 percent were not happy about the frequency of “really good” art activities. Drawing, group activities, printmaking and computer graphics were reported to be the most common art activities in school. Looking at art and talking about it in class were reported to be infrequent activities for about three quarters of the students.

He Taonga Toi — Art Objects