Teaching and Learning in Middle Schooling: A Review of the Literature

Rationale for Investigation

The Ministry’s rationale for commissioning the review was set out as follows:

• New Zealand needs a well educated population to ensure its economic, democratic and social wellbeing.
• Government has a responsibility to develop a school network for the twenty-first century which ensures that the schooling system delivers high quality outcomes for all students.
• Research evidence clearly shows that what teachers know and do is one of the most important influences on what students learn. Effective teaching is identified as a key system lever for high quality outcomes for students in their middle years of schooling.
• While evidence indicates that the structure of a school does not, per se, greatly influence student outcomes, new or changed arrangements can act as a catalyst for changing thinking and teaching practice.
  
• The Ministry is interested in encouraging age-appropriate pedagogies rather than promoting a particular schooling model, because there is strong acceptance that the performance of individual teachers outweighs the effects of other variables such as school size and school structure.