Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum is one of seven curriculum statements covering the essential learning areas of the New Zealand curriculum. Through social studies, students are encouraged to investigate social issues, make decisions, work as part of a group, and understand their identity, history, land and society.
ERO evaluated the quality of teaching of social studies at Year 4 and Year 8 in 153 schools during Term 4, 2005. The findings of this evaluation were reported in The Quality of Teaching for Years 4 and 8: Social Studies, published by ERO in June 2006. The major findings of the report were:
- twenty-one percent of teachers were effective teachers of social studies in relation to all six quality of teaching indicators used in the evaluation;
- a further 63 percent of teachers were effective in some areas but less effective in other areas;
- sixteen percent of the teachers reviewed required significant improvement across all aspects of quality of teaching of social studies;
- about two thirds of teachers were engaging students in learning, and used social studies resources appropriately;
- there were significant areas of development for teaching practice and school-wide practices for high quality social studies programmes to be implemented;
- many teachers were not fully implementing Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum;
- assessment practices in social studies were generally poor, directly influencing how well teachers were able to meet the needs of all students, and report student progress to parents; and
- the integration of information and communications technologies (ICT) into social studies programmes continues to be an area for development for many teachers.
An apparent lack of school-wide support in many schools may have contributed to the overall low quality of social studies teaching. ERO found that many schools were not providing the systems required to support the implementation of high quality social studies programmes.
The aim of producing this good practice report is to help schools review their social studies programmes by providing examples of how a small number of schools are effectively teaching social studies. This report presents examples from three schools that had high quality social studies programmes. The presentation of these examples matches the framework used for the evaluation report, The Quality of Teaching for Years 4 and 8: Social Studies, to enable readers to use both reports together.