Although New Zealand students typically achieve well in OECD surveys, disparities in student achievement are amongst the greatest in the OECD. Of particular concern is the extent of underachievement, and special consideration was given to this problem. Two further contextual conditions were also given specific attention: New Zealand’s selfgoverning administrative structures and the education community’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.
Considerable effort has been directed to understanding the ‘black box’ between acts of teaching and associated student outcomes, and other syntheses in the Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme seek to address this issue. In this synthesis we have attempted to unpack a second black box, situated between particular professional learning opportunities and their impact on teaching practice. Little is known about how teachers interpret the available understandings and utilise the particular skills offered during professional learning opportunities, or the consequent impact of these on teaching practice and student outcomes. What is known is that the relationship is far from simple. This synthesis begins to unpack the contents of that black box.
In response to requests from the teacher unions, free hard copies for New Zealand schools, teacher educators and researchers will be available in 2008 (see order form link above). Work and consultation is in progress to develop an evidence-informed strategy for wider dissemination and use of this BES in New Zealand.