{"id":5209,"date":"2018-12-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/insights-from-aotearoa-new-zealand-key-competencies\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T13:07:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:07:01","slug":"insights-from-aotearoa-new-zealand-key-competencies","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/insights-from-aotearoa-new-zealand-key-competencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand: Key Competencies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is the tenth article in the series\u00a0Baskets of Knowledge from Aotearoa New Zealand<\/strong>, which\u00a0highlights insights from a totally different education system about what is possible in transforming our education system. Read the first article\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aotearoa New Zealand offers so many insights and inspirations in our work to forge a personalized, competency-based system. I\u2019m going to highlight three examples: key competencies; a transparent system of cross-sector performance levels; and the National Certificate of Educational Achievement. <\/span><\/p>\n

These examples are not going to be easily or directly translated to the U.S. context. Certainly, it\u2019s best to draw from NZ for ideas for state policy. Imagining its approach as a model for our federal government makes my brain hurt because of our multiple levels of governance as compared to their Tomorrow\u2019s School policy granting school autonomy. It\u2019s also important to remember, too, that the Kiwis are in a process of moving toward modern schools with modern pedagogy and modern learning environments. With 2,500 autonomous schools, there are plenty of very traditional schools that just want to keep doing what they are doing. Similar to the U.S., there are also schools that have sunk into the swamp of dysfunction and are awaiting the combination of community and national public will that is required to intervene.<\/span><\/p>\n

The national policy infrastructure has been designed around the research on how children learn. In other words, the policies are designed around the assumption that to maximize learning, students are supported as active learners to become lifelong learners, with schools offering responsive approaches to teaching. <\/span><\/p>\n

Key Competencies and Outcome Indicators<\/b><\/p>\n

The <\/span>NZ National Curriculum<\/span><\/a> developed by the Ministry of Education includes five key competencies. They are short-handed as: <\/span><\/p>\n