Competent Children, Competent Learners Publications

Publication Details

This is the home page for the Competent Children, Competent Learners publication series. The Competent Children, Competent Learners project is a longitudinal study undertaken by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) which focuses on a group of about 500 young people from the greater Wellington region.

Seven phases of the project have now been completed - the first when the students were near age 5, the next when they were at age 6 and then at ages 8, 10, 12,14 and 16. A further phase is currently underway collecting data from the sample of young people at age 20.

When the project began in 1993 its aim was to provide New Zealand policy makers and the early childhood education sector with a study which could show the concurrent, short-term, and long-term impact of early childhood education experience. As the project continued, the development of students' competence in mathematics, literacy and logical problem solving, and their competence in social and communication skills, has assumed more prominence, particularly in the project's ability to relate these to the home resources and experiences that students have, to trace the impact of different factors over time, and to compare the cumulative impact of differences in home and schools resources and experiences.

Author(s): Various

Date Published: 2001-2011