Curriculum Insights and Progress Study: Insights for teachers – What do students gain through creating and learning in the arts? 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 a key finding, identify opportunities for growth, and offer practical classroom strategies.
This insight draws on data collected in Term 3, 2025, through the Curriculum Insights school visit programme. In 2025, the programme included the arts as a focus learning area.
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: September 2026
Curriculum context
The learning area assessments were administered in Term 3 of 2025. In 2025, the New Zealand Curriculum (2007) remained in place for the arts. As such, it provided the basis for the arts learning area study.
Insight
Learning in the arts develops artistic knowledge and skills through creating, performing, interpreting, and responding. Principals, teachers, and students consistently identified that the value of this learning extends beyond these knowledge and skills. Learning in the arts can also support self-expression, strengthen identity and cultural connections, and foster confidence, belonging, and wellbeing. These findings suggest that teachers can support these wider gains by providing opportunities for students to make, perform, view, and respond to artworks in ways that connect with their identities, cultures, emotions, and experiences.
More information is available on the website of the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study.
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