A number of people back home have asked me questions about how school is organized here in New Zealand. I'm certainly no expert after 5 months, but I do feel like I'm slowly starting to wrap my head around how all the pieces fit together. It's been an eye-opening experience and a perfect reminder that cultural differences aren't just translations from one system to another, they are often based on a completely different way of thinking.
In the case of New Zealand, I think their social science curriculum is based on a few assumptions that are different than the US: first, that depth is more important than breadth, second, that curriculum choices should be made at the school-level, so as to best be relevant to your students, and third, that social science is about growing your ability to critically examine the world, as opposed to knowing specific facts. Oh, and four, standards based grading is just how it's done here-- there's lots of assumptions that go with that.
Some basic terminology
For starters, in NZ, the umbrella term for my content area is "social sciences." Within social science, there is a subject called "social studies" and other subjects including geography, history, economics, legal studies, sociology, travel and tourism, classics, media studies, and probably a few more I'm forgetting. If you say "social studies" here, people assume you're talking about a very specific subject, not the collection of courses.
Only Social Studies is required
Social studies is a required subject all the way through year 10 (our grade 9). In years 11, 12, and 13 students have much more freedom to choose their classes; they can take any social science class, but none of them are required. Social studies, the course, is focused on combining history, economics, politics, and geography to look at and take action on social issues. It's AWESOME and I'm sad it's not something we emphasize in the US.
Each social science course has only 2 benchmarks each year
Another big difference between NZ and the US is that the standards are written very differently. History, geography, social studies, and economics each have two benchmarks for each year. THIS IS THE ENTIRE CURRICULUM. This allows teachers to teach at a deep level and there are no rules about using NZ-specific topics during certain years or covering certain parts of the world. All of that is left completely at the teacher's discretion.
As an example, here are geography benchmarks for year 11:
- 6.1: Understand that natural and cultural environments have particular characteristics and how environments are shaped by processes that create spatial patterns.
- 6.2: Understand how people interact with natural and cultural environments and that this interaction has consequences.
The achievement benchmarks are assessed through a nationwide system of internal and external assessments through the NZ Qualifications Authority. They have turned the curriculum objectives into Assessment Standards, against which all students are assessed. This can be done internally--created by a teacher and done through class or externally-- traditional essay exams given at the end of the school year. The teacher chooses which assessment standards will be built into the curriculum-- they are not required to do all of them.
Below is an example of how the Curriculum Benchmarks are turned into Assessment Standards for one subject area-- Social Studies.
Social Studies Curriculum Benchmarks
- Understand how individuals, groups, and institutions work to promote social justice and human rights.
- Understand how cultures adapt and change and that this has consequences for society.
Social Studies Curriculum Benchmarks
- Understand how communities and nations meet their responsibilities and exercise their rights in local, national, and global contexts.
- Understand how conflicts can arise from different cultural beliefs and ideas and be addressed in different ways with differing outcomes.
Social Studies Curriculum Benchmarks
- Understand how policy changes are influenced by and impact on the rights, roles, and responsibilities of individuals and communities.
- Understand how ideologies shape society and that individuals and groups respond differently to these beliefs.
How does this all fit together?
Let me give you an example of how this works. This year I've seen a lot of Year 11 history, where the two curriculum benchmarks are:
- Understand how the causes and consequences of past events that are of significance to New Zealanders shape the lives of people and society.
- Understand how people's perspectives on past events that are of significance to New Zealanders differ.
For the first unit of the year, my host teacher, Michael, chose to focus on the colonization of Wellington. Again, a teacher can choose ANY topic they wish. Michael is interested in place-conscious, culturally relevant history teaching and this topic is an example of his philosophy in action. He is part of a small group of teachers who received a grant to write curriculum connected with Maori history, so they designed a unit together.
The group designed their first unit to focus on two internal Year 11 History Achievement Standards:
- Interpret sources of an historical event of significance to New Zealanders
- Demonstrate understanding of an historical event, or place, of significance to New Zealanders
The students learned about examples of colonization in Australia, Ireland, and the US, then turned to New Zealand for an in-depth look of who was living in Wellington when the New Zealand Company arrived and "purchased" the land. Students visited sites in the neighborhood that illustrated how lives changed for the people of Te Aro Pa (the Maori living here) and the settlers at Nairn Street Cottage (settlers who came from England). At the end of the unit they had to use all the sources they had collected, plus others, to answer a question about whose life changed more due to colonization-- the people of Te Aro Pa or the people of Nairn Street Cottage?
The teacher used the achievement standards to design the assessment, creating instructions and rubrics that aligned with nationwide expectations about what it means to "interpret sources" and "demonstrate understanding."
Each assessment is marked as:
Not Achieved,
Achieved,
Achievement with Merit, or
Achievement with Excellence.
Not Achieved = 0 credits. Otherwise, the student gets the number of credits stated.
In this sense, New Zealand is all about standards based grading. They don't call it anything special, it's just the way things are done. Students don't get points for homework or anything else... they earn credits and are told how well they've done through the Achieved, Merit, or Excellence label.
All the credits add up to a Level 1, 2, or 3 qualification by the end of year 13 and that's that. There's no grand graduation ceremony, no "you must pass this one course or you won't graduate," just a transcript reflecting how many credits you've earned, in which subjects, and at what achievement level.
Of course, there's a million other details I've left out, but we'll save that for another time, this blog post has probably put some of you to sleep!