Curriculum Insights and Progress Study: Insights for teachers - Building systems thinking: Making connections to see the big picture Publications
Publication Details
This insight is part of a collection developed through the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study (Curriculum Insights). Each insight draws on study data to highlight students’ strengths, identify opportunities for growth, and offer practical classroom strategies.
Author(s): The Educational Assessment Research Unit (EARU) at the University of Otago, and the New Zealand Council for Educational research (NZCER). Report for the Ministry of Education.
Date Published: May 2026
Curriculum context
The Science learning area assessments were administered in Term 3 of 2024. In 2024, the New Zealand Curriculum (2007) remained in place for science. As such, it provided the basis for the Curriculum Insights science learning area study.
Purpose of the Insight
This insight focuses on food webs and the water cycle. These are familiar systems to many teachers. The insight illustrates how students’ existing understandings of these systems can be expanded to help them recognise their place in a system, make more connections to related science concepts, and build a richer understanding of how each system works.
Insight
Students’ responses to some assessment items in the Curriculum Insights study suggested that they need opportunities to practice making connections between science ideas, events and themselves when learning about naturally occurring systems. This kind of thinking is central to what is known as systems thinking.
More information is available on the website of the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study.
Navigation
Related pages
Contact us
Curriculum Insights and Progress Study
If you would like more information about this report, please email the EMA Mailbox
Education data requests
If you have any questions about education data, please email us at Requests Data and Insights