Feedback on draft NZ Curriculum from the Royal Society of New Zealand

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Question 1 - Institution
The Royal Society of New Zealand is an independent, national academy of sciences, and a federation of scientific and technological societies. It is the only body in New Zealand with a statutory role to advance and promote science and technology within New Zealand, and to support and promote science and technology education.

The Royal Society represents a membership of XXXXXXXXX to be completed

Question 2 - Contributors
This submission was prepared by the RSNZ Science and Technology Education Committee and the RSNZ Social Sciences Committee and is submitted by the Council of the Royal Society.

Question 3 - Intent and direction of the draft NZ Curriculum.
The Curriculum statement has the potential, if used by schools, to guide and inform the educational direction that NZ schools take, and reinforce or reaffirm the educational direction that some are taking. Used correctly it has the flexibility to allow schools to design the school curriculum for its student body. While it generally sets the direction for learning, we believe there to be insufficient emphasis on education for sustainability. This is of real concern given the global recognition of the challenges facing our youngsters as they reach adulthood. We are also concerned that, while there is a link to the MÄori medium curriculum, there needs to be a strong commitment to biculturalism throughout the curriculum statement to allow all New Zealand children to be fully aware of the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi. The NZ Curriculum must explicitly reflect the bicultural and multicultural dimensions of the NZ people. The importance of indigenous knowledge is being recognized world wide and New Zealand has the opportunity to lead in curriculum design as it has in the past in setting up social welfare in the 40s, asserting the status of women in the 70s and in exerting our foreign policy independence in the 80s. By being absolutely explicit about recognition of our bicultural heritage we have the opportunity once again to take the lead. We need a 5 -10 year goal to reduce disparities in education, health and employment between MÄori and Pakeha and we need a whole school culture which reflects the importance of building relationships.


Question 4 - Overall clarity
How easy or difficult did you find the document to read?
The document is generally quite easy to follow and understand. It lacks detail in all areas and at all levels; this must be provided in the promised second tier support documents with exemplars and also with suitable professional development. We trust that the final New Zealand Curriculum document will have links to the wide range of documents that support the statement, and that all documents will be available digitally. Given the inevitable linkages between the Curriculum and assessment, the linkages will be particularly significant for classroom teachers.

Question 5 - Likely impact
What impact do you think the NZ Curriculum will have on schools?
Many schools will respond by saying that they are already engaged to a large extent in the principles set out in the document. Others will reject it for being too flexible. Its adoption will depend on the quality of the support materials produced and the in-school professional development provided, the ability of teachers to work in teams, the determination of the school leadership to support and encourage innovation, and the inclusion of parents and whanau in the developments.

Some concern has been expressed at the effect of variability in school curricula on transient students. Highly mobile students risk missing vital elements of curricula unless there is coherence and coordination between individual school curricula.

 Question 6 - Implementation issues
Do you believe that schools will face challenges as they design and implement a curriculum in line with the direction set out in this document?
Schools face a number of challenges in designing and implementing a curriculum; these differ according to the level of schooling. The main challenges will be in translating the prescribed curriculum into the delivered curriculum, truly incorporating community expectations into the school curriculum, and changing many teachers’  teaching patterns to provide the appropriate pedagogies and future thinking focus required school curriculum for the twenty-first century.

This document will support schools which attempt to design and implement curriculum but considerable effort will be required to interpret and convert the range of aspirations into quality learning experiences.


Question 7 - Clarity of each part
Structurally, we suggest that the Curriculum Document needs re-ordering to bring matters such as curriculum design and pedagogy further forward. Essentially, the current pages 13-23 should follow the material of pages 24-33. Material on pages 24-33 is high level and generic, relating to the design of curriculum; essence statements belong with material on the achievement objectives.

Vision
This is broad, relevant and directive. The visual presentation is good, especially the use of the planet image. However some might find it difficult too identify all the ethnic groups that make up New Zealand society. The emphasis on individual attributes in the Confident and Life long learners subtexts of the graphic is strong and well defined. In the Connected and Actively involved subtexts the descriptors are fewer and weaker. The individual outcomes must be balanced with stronger collective outcomes. In addition, Earth itself is a part of a wider system; this too should be represented in the graphic.

The statement over-emphasizes "growth" in the importance of the contribution education can make primarily to our future. It is remarkable that cultural and environmental futures are not written into a vision statement, and they appear only as sub-text in the diagram. We suggest removing and contribute to the growth of its economy but prefer to see the expansion to œsecuring its economic, environmental and cultural future. Growth should be removed as an explicit part of the Vision.  

The initial statement should emphasise more the need for sustainability and the health and well-being of people and the environment rather than the current focus on economic growth. Further development of the confident section to include problem solving approaches and the connected section to cover emotional and physical wellbeing and developing relationship skills would strengthen the vision. Connected to their environment is an essential statement that needs to be included. Not everyone will infer that students standing on the planet implies that they should understand their connectedness to and dependence on it.  There are no other planets available for them.

Principles
We believe that te Tiriti o Waitangi and sustainability must have specific mention as one of the guiding principles for New Zealand. All students should have the opportunity to experience a curriculum that reflects and values te ao MÄori. Our curriculum relates to this place, now and in the future. In our view there is real value in making this explicit in our curriculum statement.

Including excellence as a principle and as a value generates some confusion.

Sustainability needs to be included in the principles, with an explanatory sentence such as:  All students experience a curriculum with sustainable future contexts and learning experiences that enable them to see their learning as positive and leading to a preferred sustainable future.

Values
The values expressed in the document are more attributes and aspirations rather than values. They fall far short of identifying the common values which are significant to us as a people. It is entirely appropriate to “encourage young New Zealanders to value the aspirations stated but entirely unsatisfactory not to state the values by which we expect them to live. Values such as trust, honesty and truthfulness, ethics, compassion, responsibility and reliability, respect, consideration and concern for others, integrity etc are required. Many of these attitudes and values have emerged over the years in publications such as Human Development and Relationships in the School Curriculum (1973);Towards Partnership (1976); Growing Sharing Learning (1977); Curriculum 80s Education and Working Life  (1981) Karmel and Renwick.

The current values largely focus on people; they need to be more holistically inclusive eg respect for themselves, for others, for human rights and for all living things and their environment; care for the environment should be more than currently stated, perhaps Sustaining the environment for the benefit of future generations. As it stands in the draft, this is a very weak statement.

The time has come to have the courage to state our expectations of young people through their schooling so they will understand what it is makes us all uniquely citizens of this country.  This means setting out the commonly held values of our people.

Young people will never develop their ability to express their own values and those of others, or make ethical decisions if they do not learn and live by accepted, common values in the first place. Our society depends on it in the 21st century just as we expect to live in a multicultural society with bicultural origins.


Key competencies
The gap here is in the Relating to others section where explicit reference to relationship skills is missing. This is a serious omission if our intention is to initiate young people into "learning for life"

Again there is limited reference to sustainability and the competencies are anthropocentric; competencies are capabilities that people need in order to live in a healthy and sustainable world. The concept of systems thinking is crucial to this and requires more emphasis within the competencies, as does creativity.

The necessity of moving to the international terminology will require some adjustments in derived documents and plans. Given that the key competencies operate across the curriculum, and in all learning areas, we suggest an alternative to "Mathematics" used in the paragraph dealing with using language, symbols and text.

At present these sections fall short of providing flexible direction to schools and parents in the areas described.


Effective pedagogy
This section would be better placed before the Learning Areas.

The term would benefit from an explanatory statement that noted the inclusive (teaching and learning) and focused (teaching for learning) nature of the activity. Learner-centred processes start to appear in this statement, and we commend this expression, and hope the de-centering of the teacher "voice" will be supported by this statement. Community involvement in teaching-learning is also endorsed.

The principle elements are outlined although there is a reluctance to acknowledge the significance of the cultural dimension of MÄori in New Zealand in relation to education. The pedagogy must reflect the bicultural and multicultural dimensions of the NZ people and this section must be explicit in setting this out.

The value of experiential learning is understated and requires more explicit mention in this section.



Designing a curriculum
This is the most provocative statement in the draft curriculum. We support the increased opportunities for the development of school based curriculum, and accept that the themes used on page 26 are exemplary only, but we are conscious that the transformation implied will have a profound effect on school time and effort when initially undertaken. We can not emphasise enough the importance of including a statement at the outset that flags the time and resources that the design of a whole school curriculum will require. We suggest:

The process of designing and implementing school-based curricula should be consultative and carefully staged. Schools are encouraged to identify and commit the necessary resources at the outset of the design project

The criteria to be applied to the design is whether or not it answers the questions of coverage of the areas of knowledge, is coherent in its presentation and will deliver a balanced experience at least during the years of compulsory schooling. Very careful planning will be required to meet these criteria. What is missing in the design is reference to the integral, fundamental importance of our ecological environment and how eco-literacy and knowledge of our interconnectedness and dependence on a healthy environment that will contribute to a sustainable future for all New Zealanders.  

The focus on outcomes and key competencies is good but also needs to be an emphasis on integrated multidisciplinary learning.  This is a particularly important aspect of secondary schooling which is mostly ignored at present. The section on managing self needs greater emphasis as does the section on relating to others. It is much more than sharing ideas and negotiating with other people, it encompasses a raft of skills development such as conflict resolution skills, personal development and life skills, overcoming insecurity, knowledge of norms of behaviour and the rationale for them, decision making skills.    

It is disappointing that a critical literacy such as financial literacy is the only example given under critical literacies.  ECO-LITERACY would be of equal or greater value as a significant theme, as it would enable consideration of other critical literacies as part of understanding a complex system.

This section would be better placed before the Learning Areas. Greater direction and support for integrated, cross-curricular learning and teaching is needed, especially at secondary level . Currently it is too easily perceived as optional;,. It also needs to provide stronger and clearer direction on how to implement the five main themes.

Question 8 - Usefulness of each part
How useful will each of the following parts of the document be to your school (or to New Zealand schools) when designing a curriculum?

Vision
A vision statement is always useful as a guiding statement.

Principles
It would be useful to include lifelong learning in the "Learning to learn" or "Coherence" principle; this should also make more explicit mention of study and career pathways.

Sustainability should also be included in the principles, with an explanatory sentence such as:
All students experience a curriculum with sustainable future contexts and learning experiences that enable them to see their learning as positive and leading to a preferred sustainable future.

Values
It is always useful to specify the values that are held important in education.

Designing a curriculum
This could be one of the most useful sections of the document, providing that adequate support material is provided for implementation. Support material on each of the themes of sustainability, citizenship, enterprise, globalisation and critical literacies and on integrated planning and teaching is essential.

The graphic used to illustrate the overlap between years 1-13 and Levels 1 to 8 requires clear explanation in supporting text; this is currently not present and many find the relationship and meaning to be difficult to understand.


Question 9 - Learning Area Descriptions

Mathematics and Statistics
The progressions appear to be inline with current Mathematical thinking and the design of the foldout so all levels can be seen at the same time is a positive.  Also the graphics at the top of the page to ascertain the topic importance is also a bonus.
 Of concern however is the level of logic and communication required at low levels in the Statistics area.  When it is compared to what a student is supposed to be able to do in English there appears to be a mismatch.  Has any work been done to compare levels between subjects in this new curriculum?  If not then it needs to be done.

Science
Participating in science activity often requires the student to make decisions about their engagement and participation. These decisions are influenced by their attitudes towards science and they can affect the extent to which the student further engages in science active and learning.  An over arching value of the NZ curriculum is the development of and the enhancing of the natural curiosity the NZ children bring to exploring and understanding the natural world. These natural enquiry attitudes need to be enhanced whilst being engaged in scientific activity.  The essence statement would be strengthened the affective domain was more explicit.

English and other languages
The wisdom of identifying "English and learning languages" as separate entities is questioned. It interferes with the balance of the statement. It would be preferable to refer to language as an inclusive area of knowledge and to develop a coherent statement which covers language development including other languages.

General comment
The Area of Knowledge which is ignored in this statement is that of the Pastoral Curriculum. It is a legitimate learning area which encompasses the social and interpersonal skills referred to above, independence, entrepreneurship and decision-making learning, careers and transition education and home and relationship skills. It is a serious omission and one which ought to be included if balance coherence and coverage are to be achieved in the curriculum.  These important considerations cannot be left to chance through integration into other areas of knowledge.  Indeed they are omitted from the Health and PE area of knowledge.

With respect to the outlines of objectives it is of real concern that
*   Health and PE does not include aspects of the thinking above.
*   There is no real emphasis on the nature of the environment and sustainability in Social Sciences and Science
*   There is scant reference to geology in the curriculum of a country with such a diverse and interesting range of land forms.
*   New Zealand is a marine nation and it will be important to reflect this in the document.

It would be helpful if, in addition to the outlines provided, references are made to resources which may assist in interpretation of the objectives for each of the eight achievement levels. The development of the promised support material for each Learning Area is critical and will determine the adoption of the NZ Curriculum. These materials must explicitly include all important components of New Zealand’s setting in the world such as its nature as a maritime nation and our reliance on our marine environment as well as our terrestrial environment.

Question 10 - Statements of outcomes
Mathematics and Statistics
With the reduction of the number of outcomes compared to the old curriculum this appears to have lumped whole topics together.  This leads to some unclear statements as to exactly what the outcome actually means and what is supposed to be covered at each level.  This is most apparent in the Statistics section.  Second tier material is vital so that teachers will know what the definitions mean and what the students actually have to be taught.  Without this exemplar material, there will not be any form of consistency across the country. A large amount of Professional Development for teachers will also be necessary to bring them up to speed in what this new curriculum means.

Science
The reduction in outcomes and clarification of the Nature of Science strand is welcomed. There are concerns at the language and construction of some of the Achievement Objectives and the flow from level to level, but these could be clarified in the support documents.

As previously mentioned, there is real concern at the lack of geology in the draft. This too could be partly rectified in the support materials, but it does need to be more overt and explicit in the NZ Curriculum.

Social Sciences
There is still some capacity to improve the "essence" statement.

What are the social sciences about?  In our view, the simple verb 'is' in the first sentence leads to a flat and descriptive rather than an active and engaged sense of what the Social Sciences are. Almost any verb that implies action rather than existence would be superior. Suggestions include "explores how people " - or "leads to an understanding of how people"

In Why study the social sciences? We endorse the use of the word critical in the first sentence; this is an important feature of the learning area, and it should be repeated in the generic Social inquiry panel in the Achievement objectives. Reflexive learning is an important component of Thinking in the Key Competencies descriptors on page 11, and is nowhere better delivered than in the Social Sciences.

In How is the learning area structured? The distinctive heritage (History, Economics, Geography) of the learning area is exposed in the four conceptual strands. Pragmatically, we accept that for Years 11-13 the achievement objectives will be addressed by teachers with appropriate disciplinary training in these disciplines, but the strength of integrated social sciences programmes are not well served by this organisation of the learning area, and we expect curriculum integration may come through evolving Achievement standards. In the Curriculum statement, the redeeming value lies in the paragraph beginning By integrating achievement objectives with the social inquiry process.  Our suggestion is that the integrative nature of the inquiry should be more emphatic, and this statement should precede the strand statements on page 22. Again, we endorse the inclusion of the word "critical" in this paragraph; it is a pointer to the particular contribution the Social Sciences can make. It should be followed by the paragraph At levels 6-8. This would make the learning progression clearer in our view.   

We accept the more integrative structure in the 1997 Social Studies Curriculum needed to be adapted in the broadened Social Sciences approach. We support the option to have the four strands, rather than five, operate consistently across all eight levels, and anticipate that this will improve the progression in learning outlined in the curriculum.  

While we endorse the inclusion of the process-based Social Inquiry section at all eight levels of the Social Sciences achievement objectives, efforts to isolate this paragraph from the strand objectives should remain: the colour banding is the minimum requirement. We would also suggest that the word "critical" could be included to apply at all levels develop understandings about issues and the ways people reflect critically on understandings, make decisions and participate in social action.    

The key competencies panel included in each Level of descriptors should be removed. They are important, of course, but they distract from the curriculum detail.