National School Sampling Study

The following documents comprise the published reports from the National School Sampling Study. The study was a Ministry of Education initiative to investigate how teachers work with the curriculum, collecting data over a period from 2001-2003; undertaken to inform the Curriculum Stocktake. The study was designed to seek feedback from teachers about the effectiveness of the curriculum in practice. It aimed to elicit the views of teachers of a sample of 10 percent of New Zealand schools. Information was collected by means of three rounds of questionnaires over two years. Focus group discussions informed the development of questionnaires to investigate teachers' experiences in teaching from the national curriculum. The three rounds and particular subjects investigated were as follows:

2001: General curriculum, mathematics and technology.
2002: English, languages (Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Samoan), science and social studies.
2003: General curriculum, the arts, and health and physical education.

The questionnaires were designed to allow teachers to self-report their curriculum experiences, particularly in using the documents that form a central part of New Zealand's national curriculum: The New Zealand Curriculum Framework (Ministry of Education, 1993). Teachers were asked about the documents themselves, professional development, assessment, reporting achievement, school curriculum organisation, the impact of various national curriculum policies, support and resources, and curriculum manageability. Teachers were also encouraged to describe effective aspects of their teaching from the documents and to reflect upon student achievement.

The following reports present statistical data, based upon frequencies and ratios, organised according to the school type at which the responding teacher taught. The questionnaires included open-ended questions, and results from these are from a sub sample.

The reports for each of the three main phases of the sampling study can be downloaded in full or as separate documents for each subject area.

Curriculum Stocktake: National School Sampling Study: Teachers' experiences in curriculum implementation: General curriculum, mathematics and technology

This report is part of the National School Sampling Study. It concentrates on the results of the first round of the study (2001):

The Full Report is also available as separate publications:

Curriculum Stocktake: National School Sampling Study: Teachers' experiences in curriculum implementation: English, languages, science and social studies

This report is part of the National School Sampling Study. It concentrates the results of the second round of the study (2002).

The Full Report is also available as separate publications:

Curriculum Stocktake: National School Sampling Study: Teachers' experiences in curriculum implementation: General Curriculum, The Arts, Health and Physical Education

The Full Report is also available as separate publications:

Curriculum Stocktake: National School Sampling Study: Case studies of schools: Implementation of national curriculum.

This report, published in 2004, outlines the findings of 23 case studies. The case studies were carried out to extend and enrich the findings of the Curriculum Stocktake survey studies.