NMSSA 2021: Learning Languages - Key Findings Publications
Publication Details
The National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) is a national sampling study designed to assess student achievement across the New Zealand Curriculum at Year 4 and Year 8 in English-medium state and state integrated schools. The study is organised in five-year cycles. The first cycle ran from 2012 to 2016. The 2021 study represents the culmination of Cycle 2. As part of the 2021 study, NMSSA used questionnaires for students, teachers and principals to monitor the learning languages learning area of the curriculum. The study also included a short assessment of achievement in te reo Māori. The last NMSSA study involving learning languages was in 2016.
This report is designed to provide a succinct overview of key findings related to learning languages from the 2021 study. The report is supplemented by a report focused on curriculum insights for teachers, a technical report and an online interactive statistical application. All reports and the interactive application can be found on the NMSSA website.
Author(s): Educational Assessment Research Unit, University of Otago, and New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Date Published: November 2022
Executive Summary
Interruption to the 2021 study
The 2021 NMSSA assessment programme was interrupted by a nationwide lockdown associated with COVID-19, which occurred midway through data collection in Term 3. This resulted in the entire programme being suspended for two and a half weeks. When the lockdown was over, NMSSA implemented a shortened programme in the schools that had not yet been visited and that were still able to be involved. This did not include schools in Auckland, where the lockdown continued. The interruption to the programme meant that the national sample for 2021 was made up of fewer students from a smaller number of schools than was originally intended. In total, about 1,100 students were involved in the study at each year level. The students represented 61 schools at Year 4 and 64 schools at Year 8. This compares with the original intention to sample about 2,200 students from 100 schools at Year 4 and 100 schools at Year 8. The interruption to the programme means that care should be taken when interpreting results, especially for smaller groups in the sample.
General impact of COVID-19
It is also important to consider the more general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic when interpreting the results from the 2022 NMSSA study. In the 18 months leading up to the study, schools, students and whānau had to cope with a considerable amount of disruption, including extended periods of remote learning. Over this time, schools had to prioritise how they used any contact time with students. This included putting time into maintaining student wellbeing and providing pastoral care. Although NMSSA cannot directly quantify any learning losses associated with the disruptions caused by COVID-19, it is likely that they have had at least some impact on students’ achievement and opportunities to learn.
Key findings
Achievement in te reo Māori in 2021
Achievement in te reo Māori was assessed using a computer adaptive test that built on the assessment used in the 2016 learning languages study. The assessment was called the Te Reo Māori (TRM) assessment and focused on students’ knowledge and understanding of words and phrases in te reo Māori. Results from the TRM assessment were converted to scale scores (the TRM scale). The TRM scale was used at both Year 4 and Year 8. The scale was also linked to the scale used in 2016, allowing results from 2021 and 2016 to be compared.
The results of the TRM assessment indicated that, in 2021, students in Year 4 scored higher, on average, compared with Year 4 students in 2016 (by about 2 scale score units). At Year 8, any difference in the average score for 2016 and 2021 was not statistically significant.
In 2021, the difference between the average scores for Year 4 and Year 8 students was 20 scale score units. This represents an annualised difference of about 5 units and indicates that students ‘progress’ by about 5 units per year between Year 4 and 8. The effect size associated with the annualised difference is about 0.25. This is smaller than the annualised effect sizes associated with some other learning areas assessed by NMSSA, such as English writing (0.34) and mathematics (0.42).
Ākonga Māori scored higher, overall, on the TRM assessment than non-Māori students at both year levels and made greater ‘progress’, on average, between Year 4 and Year 8 (25 units compared with 17 units). On average, girls scored higher than boys by about 7 units at Year 4 and 9 units at Year 8. At Year 8, students attending low-decile schools scored higher, on average, than students who attended mid- and high-decile schools by 10 and 13 units respectively.
The teaching and learning of te reo Māori
About 1,000 students in each of Year 4 and Year 8 responded to a range of survey questions related to learning te reo Māori at school. Most students were positive about learning te reo Māori. About 60 percent of students thought it was ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to learn te reo Māori, with ākonga Māori more likely than non-Māori students to rate it as ‘very important’. These findings are consistent with those that were reported in 2016.
Overall, ākonga Māori indicated greater confidence in te reo Māori than non-Māori students. Similarly, girls, overall, indicated greater confidence than boys. These patterns were also evident in 2016.
Students reported experiencing a variety of opportunities to learn te reo Māori at school. As in 2016, singing waiata was reported as the learning experience that happened most often. Overall, ākonga Māori reported more frequent te reo Māori learning opportunities than non-Māori students. This pattern was also evident in 2016.
Around 100 teachers at each of Year 4 and Year 8 answered survey questions related to teaching te reo Māori. Of these, over 90 percent rated learning te reo at school as ‘very important’ or ‘important’. About 70 percent of teachers rated learning it as ‘very important’. This compared with about 50 percent of teachers in 2016. Compared with 2016, teachers also reported higher levels of confidence as te reo Māori teachers and speakers. The level of confidence reported by teachers varied by school decile, with teachers in lower decile schools reporting higher levels of confidence than teachers in mid- and high-decile schools.
Most teachers (about 75 percent) reported that students spent up to an hour a week learning te reo Māori and that they provided students with a range of learning opportunities. Overall, teachers in 2021 indicated that students were provided with more frequent learning opportunities than was reported in 2016.
About half of teachers reported having experienced externally sourced te reo Māori-focused professional development and learning in the last two years. However, this appeared to be lower than was reported by teachers in 2016. About 80 percent of teachers indicated they had access to professional learning and development opportunities associated with te reo Māori.
Around 50 principals at each year level responded to survey questions related to te reo Māori. Overall, about 90 percent of principals reported that it was ‘important’ or ‘very important’ for students to learn te reo Māori at school. A similar percentage reported that all students in their school had an opportunity to learn te reo Māori at school. Principals’ rating of their schools’ provision of reo Māori learning varied. At Year 4 and Year 8, 56 percent and 64 percent of principals, respectively, rated their schools’ provision of te reo Māori learning opportunities as being either ‘good’ or ‘very good’. Most of the remaining principals rated the provision in their school as fair. Year 8 principals were notably more likely than their Year 4 counterparts to indicate that their schools’ provision of te reo Māori learning opportunities was ‘very good’.
Around 85 percent of principals at both year levels agreed or strongly agreed that teachers at their school had access to professional learning and development associated with te reo Māori.
Learning New Zealand Sign Language
The teacher and principal questionnaires for the 2021 NMSSA study both contained a section related to New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL).
In total, 96 teachers at Year 4 and 91 teachers at Year 8 responded to at least one question in the teacher questionnaire associated with NZSL. Almost 40 percent of Year 4 teachers and close to 20 percent of Year 8 teachers who responded to the teacher questionnaire indicated that they incorporated NZSL into their programme as planned instruction. This contrasts with 2016, when just 20 percent of Year 4 and 8 percent of Year 8 teachers reported incorporating NZSL into their programmes. Overall, in 2021, about a third of teachers at Year 4 who did incorporate NZSL into their programmes either agreed or strongly agreed that they had access to professional learning and development (PLD) opportunities to support their own learning or their teaching of NZSL. This contrasts with almost 50 percent of Year 8 teachers agreeing or strongly agreeing.
About 50 principals at each year level responded to questions related to teaching and learning NZSL at their school. Of these, about 30 percent indicated that they thought it was either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ for students to learn NZSL at school. In contrast, in 2016, only about 20 percent of principals indicated that they thought it was at least ‘important’ for students to have this opportunity. In 2021, around 70 percent of principals at both year levels reported that their schools’ provision of opportunities to learn NZSL was either ‘very poor’ or ‘poor’. They also reported that teachers had limited access to NZSL-focused professional learning opportunities. Very few principals reported that their school employed a specialist teacher of NZSL. Learning additional languages Students in Year 84 were asked a range of survey questions related to learning an additional language. Additional languages were defined as languages other than English, te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language. About 53 percent of the 1,000 students surveyed reported that they had been learning an additional language. This compared with 61 percent of students in 2016. A greater proportion of students at high-decile schools reported they were learning an additional language than students at mid- or low-decile schools (59 percent at high-decile schools compared with 53 and 43 percent at mid and low respectively). A smaller proportion of ākonga Māori than non- Māori students reported they had been learning an additional language at school during 2021.
The three languages that students reported learning most often were Spanish (38 percent), followed by Japanese (32 percent) and French (27 percent). In 2016, the largest proportions of students reported learning French, Spanish and Mandarin, in that order. Nearly 70 percent of Year 8 students who were learning an additional language thought this was ‘important’ or ‘very important’.
Most students reported having positive attitudes to learning an additional language at school and expressed some confidence as a learner.
In total, 40 teachers in Year 8 responded to survey questions about their teaching of an additional language. The teachers generally rated learning an additional language as ‘important’ or ‘very important’. Teachers most often reported teaching Spanish and Japanese, closely followed by French. Sixty-four percent reported their students spent 20 hours or less each year learning an additional language.
In total, 50 percent of the teachers who taught an additional language reported that they ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ that they felt confident teaching that language. Fifty-six percent indicated that they could not hold a simple conversation in the additional language. Many teachers also indicated that learning opportunities for students related to additional languages were limited.
Over half of teachers indicated that they ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ that they had access to PLD opportunities focused on the additional language they teach. About 50 principals responded to survey questions related to teaching and learning additional languages. More than half (60 percent) indicated that all Year 8 students at their school were offered an opportunity to learn an additional language. A further 12 percent indicated some students were offered this opportunity. Principals at lower decile schools were more likely to indicate that no students in their schools had the opportunity to learn an additional language compared with principals from mid- and high-decile schools.
Approximately two-thirds of principals rated learning an additional language at school as ‘important’ or ‘very important’. However, the quality of provision appeared to vary. While 56 percent of principals rated their schools’ provision for learning an additional language as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, 41 percent rated the provision as ‘fair’. Principals reported that Spanish, French, Mandarin and Japanese were the additional languages most often offered as part of learning programmes at their schools. For 70 percent of the principals, having an existing staff member who can teach an additional language was an important determiner of what was offered in learning programmes.
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