New Zealand Tourist Pamphlet

The assessments included four tasks investigating students’ knowledge, understandings and processes in the areas of social studies called resources and economic activities. This area focuses on people’s allocation and management of resources, and their participation in economic activities. It was not included in the 1997 assessments, so no trend information can be reported here.

Three of the tasks were identical for both year 4 and year 8 students, while the fourth was administered to both levels but simplified for year 4 students. Two are released tasks (fully described with data for 2001 only), and two are link tasks (to be used again in 2005, so only partially described here). Released tasks are presented first, then link tasks.

Averaged across 18 task components administered to both year 4 and year 8 students, 11 percent more year 8 than year 4 students succeeded with these components. Year 8 students performed better on 17 of the 18 components.

Most students could identify ways in which rivers formed a useful resource for people, most notably themselves or other children. They were less successful in seeing the attractions of New Zealand from the perspectives of overseas tourists, often highlighting buildings or entertainment activities that are not particularly special for overseas visitors, but more likely to be of interest to New Zealand children touring within the country.