Effective strategic planning is an integral part of a principal's role, but this is a skill for which many principals are largely unprepared. The Springboard Trust's Strategic Leadership for Principals Programme (SLPP) is a 10-month leadership development programme for principals in New Zealand. Participants must have 2 years of experience as a…

Ten Auckland schools piloted a school carbon calculator between June and November 2021. The pilot aimed to build knowledge about: (1) how schools can use a School Carbon Footprint calculator to understand their school's carbon emissions, build knowledge about climate change mitigation, and take steps to reduce their school's carbon footprint; and…

This report outlines findings from a survey of teachers and school leaders in a sample of English-medium secondary schools. The survey, carried out between June and August 2020, provides insights into school-wide approaches to sustainability and climate change, teaching and learning opportunities in the classroom, and the impacts of COVID-19 on…

In 2019, the authors had the opportunity to ask a few questions about climate and sustainability in the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) national survey of primary and intermediate schools. NZCER began regular surveys of primary schools in 1989 and has run a national survey of English-medium schools every 3 years since then,…

New Zealand Council for Educational Research's (NZCER's) research project "Educational policy and practice for a changing climate" explores what kinds of changes or adaptations the education systems may need to make in the immediate and short-to-medium-term future in response to climate change. This report outlines findings from one…

This report discusses the potential of games to support learning, and what innovative game-based (or "gameful") learning and teaching practices can look like in a range of New Zealand school settings. Over 2 years, we undertook fieldwork in 14 schools, interviewed 21 teachers and more than 100 students ranging from Year 3 to Year 13. We…

This report provides a snapshot of information from the 2016 New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) national survey regarding the role and impact of digital technologies for learning in New Zealand primary and intermediate schools. We asked teachers and principals how students were using digital technology in the classroom, and how…

This report evaluates a game coding workshop offered to young people and adults in seven public libraries round New Zealand. Participants were taken step by step through the process of creating their own simple 2D videogame, learning the basics of coding, computational thinking, and digital game design. The workshops were free and drew 426 people…

The phrase "Education 3.0" is used to signal a complex and still-evolving paradigm shift from the traditional schooling models of the 19th and 20th centuries (Education 1.0), via an intensified focus on teachers' and school leaders' accountabilities in relation to students' learning (Education 2.0), towards a more holistic model of…

This working paper describes some of the ideas underpinning NZCER's Future-Focused Issues (FFI) project. There is a variety of ways to interpret what it means to take a "future focus" in education. This paper explains why the FFI project has focused primarily on concepts specifically mentioned in relation to "future focus" in…

This working paper describes a series of recent "student voice" projects undertaken by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER). Although these projects varied in terms of their specific contexts and processes, each sought to elicit young people's perspectives (about learning, education and/or other aspects of their…

The New Zealand Council for Educational Research's (NZCER's) Families and Communities Engagement (FACE) project is investigating ideas and practices involved in bringing together teachers, families, local communities and students to contribute to collective conversations and decisions about education. This report concerns a sub-project of FACE…