Summary

This report is part of the New Zealand Ministry of Education research project Curriculum Stocktake: National School Sampling Study. The major content of this report is the administration and results of three questionnaires designed to investigate teachers' experiences in teaching from the New Zealand national curriculum documents; the drawing up of a 10% sample of New Zealand primary and secondary schools; and the summarisation of the results from the responses. The three questionnaires were first, a general questionnaire about curriculum; second, one on the mathematics curriculum documents; and third, one on the technology curriculum documents.

The response rates to the questionnaires were high. Schools drawn in the national sample agreed to participate at a high level. Within schools all teachers were invited to complete one questionnaire, and again the response rate was high for this kind of research.

Questionnaire results are detailed in separate chapters. Overall, they provide a broad sweep of information about teachers' experiences, and the general impression is that most teachers are reasonably positive about teaching from the curriculum documents. However, there are variations between teachers in different kinds of schools and within school types, and especially between primary and secondary teachers which need to be considered by policy makers.

This report also outlines how a different approach was used to collect data in kura (Māori immersion schools) and Māori immersion classrooms in mainstream schools. The focus was on teachers' experiences in implementing the Māori medium curriculum documents generally, and Pāngarau (mathematics) and te Reo Māori in particular.

Finally, this report briefly outlines the development of a website for future online discussions about curriculum by interested teachers, and describes how school case studies might be undertaken to supplement the broad-sweep questionnaire data with more specific information.