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    Motivation and high-stakes certification assessment : secondary school students' perceptions : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Chapman, Jan Erica
    Senior secondary students’ future social and economic well-being is significantly affected by their performance in high-stakes certification assessment. Motivation plays a key role in students’ academic performance. In light of the dearth of literature examining students’ motivation in high-stakes certification assessment, in the domain of English, and from the students’ perspective, this study examined Year 12 students’ motivation to achieve the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 English achievement standards over the period of an academic year. A contemporary person-in-context perspective was adopted in recognition that motivation is influenced by the interplay of personal, social, and contextual variables. A mixed methods research methodology was employed in this longitudinal two-phased study. In the first phase participants completed a series of questionnaires, and in the second phase a subsample of the participants was interviewed. Students’ motivation was examined primarily through the lens of self-determination theory. Self-efficacy, attribution theory, goal theories, and interest were also drawn on to explain facets of students’ motivation. Findings indicate that most students expected to pass a number of NCEA level 2 English achievement standards and they believed it was important to pass these. Most valued English for utility reasons. Students’ interest in English varied markedly across different aspects of the English programme. Gender differences in students’ motivation were not apparent in relation to students’ motivation-related attitudes. External and introjected regulation were the most prevalent types of motivation influencing students’ performance in NCEA English. However, their impact was not as detrimental as theory and research would have predicted. Teachers played a pivotal role in many students’ motivation to achieve, especially in relation to feedback, expectations, and student-teacher relationships. Past performance was also an important influence. Difficulties with or a dislike of aspects of English and academic demands from other school subjects were identified as negatively impacting on students’ motivation to achieve in English. Overall, students’ motivation was found to be complex, dynamic, multidimensional, and situation dependent. Matthew effects were particularly evident for high and low achievers, highlighting the bi-directional relationship between motivation and achievement. Implications for educators and researchers are discussed.
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    Assessing creativity : teachers' perceptions of the effect of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) on teaching and learning in the secondary drama classroom in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education (EdD) at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Brooks, Zoe Jill
    This thesis examines the implications for New Zealand secondary drama educators of the introduction of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) assessment in drama. Traditionally a ―fringe‖ subject with little academic credibility, drama has moved to the mainstream of secondary education with the introduction of NCEA assessment. This has carried with it improvements in terms of the recognition of drama as a secondary subject; however, it has also required a re-evaluation of pedagogical priorities for drama practitioners. The data which formed the basis of this research were collected through interviews with drama educators throughout New Zealand. A hermeneutic approach was employed in the analysis of data in order to understand the extent to which the teachers‘ priorities for teaching and learning were challenged by NCEA. With no pre-existing models of national assessment in drama on which to scaffold the transition to NCEA, the introduction of NCEA assessment has necessitated the formulation of an entirely new system derived from a wide range of existing practices and approaches. In this study sites of tension were identified in the interface between the historic practices of drama education and the requirements of a national assessment system. Drama is an open and creative subject. Assessment systems, on the other hand, are necessarily defined by criteria designed to meet the objectives of national curricula. This thesis explores teachers‘ perceptions of the pedagogical challenges associated with arriving at a synthesis of these competing discourses in drama education. The main findings from this study indicate that the personal ideologies of the interviewees, which had been influenced by the particular nature of the historical development of drama education, had a direct effect on their pedagogical decisions in the classroom. The participants in the study evinced an intrinsic commitment to nurturing student creativity through drama education by utilising a combination of kinaesthetic, interpersonal and linguistic approaches to teaching and learning. Interviewees perceived the existence of sites of tension in the process of assimilating the creative and explorative features of drama education into a prescribed schedule of curriculum and assessment requirements. These included challenges associated with structure and management of the assessment schedule and the workload generated by the implementation of NCEA. The teachers in this study acknowledged that the introduction of NCEA assessment in drama had resulted in a shift from a marginalised position in New Zealand education to one of recognition as a mainstream secondary subject. This change in the status of drama education had generated increased enrolments in the subject; participants in the study, however, discerned a lack of appropriate pre-service teacher education in drama which would ensure its continued success in the future.
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    Mind the gap! : policy change in practice : school qualifications reform in New Zealand, 1980-2002 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2007) Alison, Judie
    'Policy gaps' in education mean that the visions of policy-makers frequently fail to materialise fully, or at all, in teacher practice. This thesis argues that a significant 'policy gap' developed in New Zealand around school qualifications policy during the 1990's, and puts forward some explanations for that. A significant shift in government discourses over that period, from largely social democratic to predominantly neo-liberal discourses, was not matched by a similar shift in the discourses of teachers or the union that represents them. During the same period, teachers and their representative bodies were excluded from policy development, reflecting this shift in government discourses. Government and teachers were 'talking past each other'. As a result, qualifications reforms that might have been expected to be generally welcomed by the profession, as a government response to calls from the profession over many decades, were instead rejected by the majority of teachers. Furthermore, the absence of the teacher voice from policy development meant that the shape of the reforms moved significantly away from the profession's original vision, a further reason for its unacceptability to teachers. Reform was only able to be achieved when teachers and their union were brought back into the policy-making and policy-communicating processes and a version of standards-based assessment closer to the union's original vision was adopted by government. Nevertheless, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement that resulted appears to still be perceived by teachers as externally imposed and its origins in the profession's advocacy for reform over many years have been lost. This indicates that 'policy gaps', while easily opened, are not as easily closed.
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    Teachers' conflicting responses to change: an evaluation of the implementation of senior social studies for the NCEA, 2002-2006 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Education (EdD), Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2008) Taylor, Rowena Margaret
    The thesis provides a socio-historical perspective through which to evaluate the first five years of implementation (2002 to 2006) of social studies within the National Certificate of Educational Achievement [NCEA] in New Zealand secondary schools. The experiences of both lead educators, with responsibilities at a national level, and classroom teachers provide insights into the personal, contextual and institutional factors which have enabled and constrained the implementation process, especially at NCEA level one. The inclusion of social studies as a subject for the new qualifications and assessment system in New Zealand, the NCEA, heralded a significant opportunity for this integrated subject to gain academic status and acquire a unique identity within the senior secondary school curriculum. Paradoxically it set a relatively strongly framed assessment system beside a curriculum that has traditionally been weakly classified and framed (Bernstein, 1971). This paradox has created tensions for teachers who have responded in different ways, from full implementation to a more functional approach. Two groups of teachers were identified in the course of this study. The idealists are passionate advocates for senior social studies and are likely to implement it to all three NCEA levels in their school. The pragmatists, on the other hand, are more likely to offer only level one social studies, typically to their more academically able year 10 (Form 4) students for extension purposes, and also to induct them into the assessment requirements of the NCEA system before they study the traditional social science subjects at levels one, two and three. This pragmatic approach reflects past practices of the pre- NCEA, School Certificate era (1945-2001). It continues to reinforce the low status and unclear identity of senior social studies within the social sciences as well as within an already overcrowded senior school curriculum. At the end of this first five year period of implementation the viability of senior social studies is at a critical juncture, with its on-going success not yet assured.
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    Students' perceptions of the formative potential of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of PhD in Education
    (Massey University, 2007) Rawlins, Peter Leslie Charles
    Research evidence suggests that appropriate use of formative assessment promotes effective learning. Improved learning occurs when assessment is viewed as integral to learning, and when it is supported by coherent assessment systems. Although assessment systems designed primarily around the formative purpose can provide both formative and summative information, a tension exists in practice between the summative and formative purposes of assessment. Using a theoretical framework developed by Sadler (1989), this research project investigated whether New Zealand’s new secondary school Standards-Based Assessment qualification—the National Certificate Educational Achievement (NCEA)—has the potential to satisfy both summative and formative purposes of assessment in mathematics. Theorising from a contemporary sociocultural perspective of learning, this project recognised the situated nature and interpersonal dimension of knowledge, and the impact of the social environment in promoting and directing learning. Theorising from this perspective offered opportunities to examine classroom assessment practices from a new perspective. To date, insufficient attention has been paid to the ‘students’ voice’ concerning educational matters that directly affect them. Given the situated nature of students’ engagement with formative practices a case study approach was used to investigate students’ perceptions of the formative potential of NCEA mathematics assessment tasks. Three Y12 mathematics classes from an urban secondary school formed the case study singularity for this study. Focus group interviews with nine students were conducted across the year, complemented by classroom observations, a focus group interview with the teachers, and a quantitative questionnaire with all students in each of the three Year 12 mathematics classes. An examination of the philosophical and structural design of NCEA revealed a strong potential for it to serve a duality of both formative and summative purpose of assessment. However the formative potential of NCEA was yet to be fully realised in the case study classrooms. Students’ underdeveloped knowledge of assessment criteria effectively reduced the potential for students’ independent use of self assessment strategies. This project also identified that teachers and students held differing views on preferred feedback practices. The teachers perceived that students did not read written feedback, and this perception significantly influenced the amount of written feedback that they offered to students. In contrast, students clearly displayed that they read, valued and used scaffolded written feedback to improve their learning. While the teachers preferred to offer oral feedback, students preferred to engage with their peers to use feedback to develop corrective strategies and deepen learning. The project has made a number of practical and theoretical suggestions to improve students’ understandings of the assessment criteria they are working towards, and to more effectively integrate the collaborative use of formative feedback into students’ learning experiences. In particular, it has suggested two additional perspectives on the development and use of formative assessment in a sociocultural learning environment. Firstly, that students’ knowledge of the role of formative assessment is socially and contextually situated, and develops through the social interactions that occur in the classroom. Secondly, the potential exists for formative assessment practices to stimulate collaborative learning opportunities within communities of practice.