Effectiveness of the New Zealand Curriculum: A Detailed Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of the New Zealand curriculum, focusing on its core pedagogies. It explores how the curriculum emphasizes quality education for all students, regardless of their background or needs, advocating for unbiased teaching and equal treatment. The essay delves into the key themes of the curriculum, including the role of teachers in promoting student learning, the importance of planning, and the concept of teaching as inquiry. It also examines the dimensions of teaching, Rangatiranga and Kotahitanga, and the significance of differentiation and adaptation in meeting diverse student needs. The essay highlights the importance of flexible teaching methods, individualized support, and the creation of a safe and inclusive learning environment. It also emphasizes the need for teachers to be adaptive experts who can cater to the unique requirements of each student, ensuring that all students can achieve their learning outcomes.

Running Head: EFFECTIVENESS OF A CURRICULUM
Effectiveness of a Curriculum
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1EFFECTIVENESS OF A CURRICULUM
The New Zealand curriculum is designed in a manner that will help the all the students
learn and grow as better human beings. They believe in the idea that all students whether they are
good in studies or are below average, the students that are from different ethnic backgrounds,
heritages and have a different culture from the other people at the class must be absorbed into the
class and they also should be able learn the things as any other students in the class
(nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz., 2019). Students who have special needs and the students that need
more help than the others should be given an equal treatment by the teacher who is teaching the
class. The teacher should be unbiased and the quality of their teaching should not change because
of the background of the student. The student needs to receive the best possible education and
care from the teacher. The students deserve everything that is to be expected from their
standpoint. The New Zealand curriculum holds a strong position against on this, that there should
not be any differential treatments. They are a strict believer in the fact that anything that comes
in the path of education should be eliminated and the only focus should be on desirable growth
of the student and all other things do not matter. In order to achieve this aim of theirs they
believe in the quality education is the only way this can be achieved. This essay will talk about
the effectiveness of the pedagogies of the New Zealand curriculum and the four arts music,
visual art, dance and drama and how these subjects can be taught in an effective way.
The New Zealand curriculum pedagogies as mentioned above believe that all students
should receive quality education (Fastier, 2013). The theme that the pedagogy addresses is that
the actions of the teachers help promote the learning of the students. According to this idea, the
teacher’s action will directly reflect on the performance of the student (Dowden, . The teacher
should be open to all kind of ideas; there should be varied range of ways with the help of which
the teacher can teach because one method might not of teaching might not be effective for all the

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students in the class. Some student might be able to grasp the concepts but the others might be
struggling with it. In order for the student to effectively understand all concepts the teacher needs
to keep adapting herself according to the needs of the student. The students should not have to
try hard to understand, it is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that their teaching methods
are good enough so that all the students understand what is being taught to them. The teacher
should have a lot of methods of teaching that they can use otherwise all the students might not be
able to grasp the concepts as the others.
The second theme of the pedagogy is that the teacher needs to understand that planning is
essential to teaching (Priestley et al., 2015). A single teacher as to teach a lot many subjects and
a lot of students hence proper planning is required so that they know beforehand what will be
taught to the class, the lessons needs to be planned according to the needs of the student. Some
students can take in a lot of teachings in a single day, while others might find it hard to
understand a lot of new concepts in a single hence the teacher needs to prepare the lesson is
proper manner, they should have an effective plan that will cater to the needs of all the students
(Syahruddin et al., 2013). The proper planning of the lesson is an important step in the New
Zealand curriculum pedagogies. In order to effectively teach all the students the teacher needs to
have a prior lesson plan.
The third pedagogical theme of the New Zealand curriculum is the idea that teaching is
an inquiry (nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz., 2019). The teacher needs to understand the teaching-
learning relationship (Lau et al., 2015). The teacher needs to understand the ways in which the
students will understand the subject. There has to some teaching methods that needs to
developed so that the students have no problems in understanding a particular subject. There are
certain strategies that have to be adopted by the teacher so that the student can have a deeper

3EFFECTIVENESS OF A CURRICULUM
understanding of the subject. The teacher has to focus on three things, the first that what
strategies that she/he can adopt that will help the student have a better understanding of the
subject. There are strategies like PowerPoint presentations; video lectures among others that
might help the student get a better grasp of the subject. The second that teacher needs to loot out
for is that, what effect did the strategy have on the student. The learning outcome has to be
evaluated by the teacher (Wood & Hedges, 2016). The teacher needs to look into the fact that
whether every student has equally understood the concept, if not then the teacher again needs to
redo the lesson and ensure that all the students have understood the topic, before the lesson is
clear all the students that teacher cannot move on to the next subject. The third thing that teacher
needs to look at is what part of the lesson needed to emphasized more and the part of the lesson
that students could grasp at one go (Farquhar & White, 2014). The part that was difficult for the
student, the teacher needs to enquire why was it difficult what can be done to improve on that
area. These three consists of the inquiry of the teacher into the teaching-learning triad (Dowden,
2014).
According to the New Zealand teaching pedagogies there are two dimensions of teaching
‘Rangatiranga’ which stands for the effectiveness of the teacher, that is how effective is the
teacher in understanding all the students equally without compromising on the quality of
teaching (nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz., 2019). The second dimension of teaching is that
‘Kotahitanga’ which stand for the ethic of bonding (nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz., 2019). The kind of
atmosphere that the classroom has falls under this dimension, whether the students find the
teacher intimidating or friendly. The classroom should be friendly environment as the student
should have the freedom to express all that they are feeling is difficult and teacher should be
friendly enough to clarify all the doubts that they have.

4EFFECTIVENESS OF A CURRICULUM
The fourth dimension of the pedagogy of the curriculum design of New Zealand is
differentiation and adaption (Farquhar, S., & White, 2014). It is the responsibility of the teacher
to plan, develop and then assess the curriculum of the classroom. In order to make this
curriculum accessible to the students the teacher needs to think a little outside the box and then
develop something (Fraser, 2013). The teacher should be prepared to do everything in a different
manner and then be prepared for all the overtime. The teacher should be ready to whatever it
takes so that student can understand everything in details, the knowledge that they have should
not be shallow as on the basis of this their future will depend. The teacher is not required to be a
routine expert, they needs to be an adaptive expert. The teacher should be flexible and should be
willing to adapt to newer things, the teacher should be open to all the questions that are posed by
the teacher. The teacher should be able to understand the thing and the problems that the student
is facing. An effective method of teaching involves the teacher to think in a flexible manner, it is
the responsibility of the teacher to organize the teaching method and the make sure that the
students are able learn from their classroom. It can be the case that in a single classroom, there
are different students who are working for a different projects and different learning outcomes; in
that case the teacher needs to be more flexible and guide each student according to their need.
The class environment should be flexible enough for the students to express what they are doing
and how they want to do it. The students should be able judge the level of education that they
want to receive and then the teacher the will review the decision of the student. If the teacher is
flexible enough then the students will be able express the concerns that they have and all the
learning outcome of the student will be met (Le Fevre, Timperley & Ell, 2015). When the access
to the curriculum is given, then the teacher needs to realize that in order to go about that
curriculum, every student might not have the same level of competency. Every student might

5EFFECTIVENESS OF A CURRICULUM
require something extra to fulfill the needs of the curriculum. The teacher should first identify
the students that need special support and then work on those students so that they do not lag
behind in their class. The teacher should be willing to put in the extra effort that is needed by
them so that the students who do not have the capability to grasp everything is an easy manner,
for these students the teacher should develop some methods that will help these students (Shanks
& Dowden, 2013). The teacher needs to make sure that each individual student is being able to
meet the learning outcomes that they were supposed to meet. The curriculum should be designed
in a manner that it covers the needs of not only the students who understand everything at one go
but also should cover the needs of the people who does not understand everything in a clear
manner (Mutch, 2013). The curriculum should match the levels of all the students. The students
that need more attention should be given; they also might need separate classes and extra hours
so that they can understand the subject and the concepts. The teacher should be willing to
provide this and whatever else is required by the student to fulfill the learning outcomes.
Two approaches that can be taken by the teacher are differentiating and adapting (Bishop,
Ladwig & Berryman, 2014). The teacher should be able to recognize the unit that can be easily
modified in the class itself so that the teacher can cater to the diverse needs of the people. A wide
range of methods and approaches have to be kept in mind and this will help the teacher adapt to
the setting of the class and teach in an effective manner (Priestley & Sinnema, 2014). The
teacher has to acknowledge the fact that some students might need multiple attempts to
understand a single a topic, the teacher should also give them as many opportunities as needed
for them to understand the concept. The teacher should be adept in multiple teaching areas, the
knowledge of the teacher should be vast so that any query that the teacher has to be solved by the
teacher. The queries might be similar for multiple students or might be different for each student,

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the teacher has to solve both, and whatever is needed by the student has to be catered by the
student. A teacher’s goal should be to provide the students the safe environment so that the
students are able to participate in the discussions of the class (Guthrie, 2015). In order facilitate
the participate the effective participation of all the students in the class the teacher needs plan the
curriculum in a flexible manner. They should make proper decision of the content, the level of
education that is received by the student. The teacher’s focus should not only to be make the
students learn but to create an opportunity for the students to learn.
The teachers who wish be more creatively inclined with the subject that they have, in that
case they can be teaching something like the visual arts. These subjects like dance, drama, dance
and visual arts require a little more creativity than any other subjects. The teacher has to a lot
flexible when teaching these subjects. The students who opt for these subjects are generally more
inclined to study in an open manner and the classroom always does not suffice for these types of
courses (Priestley, M., & Biesta, 2013). The students have to be given proper lessons through
videos, films, documentaries among others. These have to be shown to the students because a
subject like visual arts needs to addressed in a different manner. The classroom has to transfer,
the student might need a lot more field visit and watching a lot things hence conventional ways
of teaching does will not be able to satisfy the students, neither will the subjects be justified if
taught in a regular manner, hence the teacher needs to bend the rule (Dyson, 2014). The teacher
has to first teach the students the basic meaning of arts, what comprises the scope of the subjects.
There will be lot more assignment that the student has to do when compared to normal subjects,
the student needs to do scaffolding assignments, the books will be replaced by art books, colors
and clip boards (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013). The theoretical part of it will be to help the student
understand the basics of visual arts, what elements fall, under it. The main artists or filmmakers

7EFFECTIVENESS OF A CURRICULUM
or animators that have to be studied, their backgrounds should be given in the books. There has
to be lot of screenings that the teacher has to conduct so that they students can understand that
visual arts is not about the books it is about doing things firsthand. The teacher can conduct an
art of the week of the slide show, where in every week the teacher will introduce to the students a
new artist every week. The artists will be given a lot of importance as that is the subject and the
study is about. They need to learn about the artists of the world. The art should not be limited to
the country of New Zealand; it has to about the whole world, all across the world the students’
needs to know the life of the artist. In order to be more creative, the teacher needs to think out of
the box and teach the course.
This essay concludes that teaching is a job that involves a lot of responsibility. The
teacher should not be thinking about quick work, they should focus on working as much as
required to meet the learning outcomes of the student. Every student has a special need and it I s
the responsibility of the teacher to work according to that. The teacher should be flexible enough
so that the students can be free to express the doubts and the opinions that they have. The teacher
should not bias, they should teach all the students equally without hampering the quality of
education that is imparted to the student. The environment of the classroom should be free and
friendly so that the students can work on the things that are required for them to complete the
learning outcome. While teaching a creative course like visual arts, the teacher have to think out
of the box and then only the subject will be done justice to.

8EFFECTIVENESS OF A CURRICULUM
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