Principales políticas contables

Achievement in health and physical education

Generally Year 4 and Year 8 Māori students achieved at a lower level than NZ European students. However, many features of Māori student achievement followed similar patterns to the national samples.

The average achievement in Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education was lower for Māori

students from low decile schools but similar for Māori boys and girls, and for Māori students attending different types of schools. This was similar to the finding for the All Students group.

Māori students made similar progress between Year 4 and Year 8 as All Students.

The majority of Māori and NZ European students described well-being categorised as mental/emotional (taha hinengaro), social (taha whānau) and physical (taha tinana) dimensions of well-being. Understanding of well-being increased from Year 4 to Year 8 with the greatest differences being for the mental/emotional and social dimensions for Māori students. At both year levels very few students mentioned the spiritual spiritual (taha wairua) dimension of well-being.

Māori students’ movement skills developed considerably from Year 4 to Year 8 showing a similar increase

for All Students. At each year level, slightly more boys performed higher than girls on movement skills,

and strategic action skills, but there were no gender differences on the movement sequences task. Achievement against curriculum levels

Students’ peformance on the Critical Thinking for Health and Physical Education measure was aligned to

the curriculum levels in health and physical education. Ninety-four percent of Year 4 Māori students were

achieving at Level 2 or above. This was similar to All Students and exceeds the expectations expressed in

the NZC for health and physical education for Year 4 students. Forty-one percent of the Year 8 Māori

students were achieving at Level 4 or above. This was lower than the proportion of All Students at Year 8 achieving at that level. Overall Year 8 students were achieving below curriculum expectations.

Physical activities outside of school

Approximately half of Māori students engaged in physical activities outside of school at Year 4 and Year 8 almost every day with Year 8 Māori students being engaged in physical activities more frequently than

Year 4 students. A similar pattern was observed for NZ European students. About half of Year 4 Māori

students and slightly more (about 60 percent) of Year 8 Māori students would like to do more physical activities outside of school.

Benchmarking Māori success

The national averages at Year 4 and Year 8 were used as the benchmarks for the respective year levels. Approximately 40 percent of Māori students scored above the benchmark on the Critical Thinking in

Health and Physical Education measure at Year 4 and Year 8. The characteristics of Māori students at each

year level who scored above the benchmark for their year level were explored and contrasted with a similarly sized group of students who scored below the benchmark.

Māori students in the above benchmark group at Year 4 reported having more frequent opportunities to take action to improve their health after learning something in class, and at Year 8 students reported more frequent opportunities to learn something in health that was important to them. In general there was little difference in the pattern of responses for students above the benchmark compared with those below the benchmark with respect to opportunities to learn physical education.

The interaction between decile and ethnicity

At each year level, a greater proportion of Māori students at high decile schools achieved above the

benchmark than Māori students from mid and low decile schools. A study of how decile and ethnicity related to achievement in Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education indicated that decile is strongly associated with achievement on this scale. Average health and physical education scores increased with decile. In addition, there was an effect due to ethnicity which remained after accounting for the decile effect.

1.

Year 4 Māori student achievement in health and physical education

Table 5.1 shows how Māori students in Year 4 performed on the NMSSA Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education scale. It provides the average scale score along with standard deviation and sample size.

Table 5.1 Year 4 Māori student overall achievement in Critical Thinking in

Health and PE

Critical Thinking in Health and PE

Average (scale score units) 83

SD (scale score units) 20

N 162

At Year 4 the average score for Māori students on the health and physical education measure was 83 scale score units. This was lower than that for All Students (89 scale score units) with the same amount of variation. Refer to Chapter 2 for details of the health and physical education descriptions that identify what Year 4 Māori students know and can do at this level.

A curriculum alignment exercise was undertaken to link performance ranges on the NMSSA health and physical education to the NZC(Appendix 3). Creating this link allowed scale scores for this measure to be reported in terms of curriculum expectations. It should be noted that the scale assesses a subset of the learning objectives covered by the health and physical education learning area. A number of other aspects of the learning area, e.g. understanding of well-being and movement skills were assessed and reported on separately. Table 5.2 sets out the percentage of Year 4 Māori students who scored in each curriculum level for health and physical education. Ninety-four percent of Year 4 Māori students achieved at Level 2 or above as did All Students. This represents the expected level of performance for Year 4 students at the end of the year and indicates that almost all students are exceeding the curriculum expectations in the domains assessed.

Table 5.2 Percentage of Year 4 Māori students and All Students achieving at the NZC

health and PE level 2

Critical Thinking in Health and PE

Māori students (%) All Students (%)

Level 2 or above 94 97

Not yet Level 2 6 3

2. Year 8 Māori student achievement in health and physical education

Table 5.3 shows how Māori students in Year 8 performed on the Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education scale. The table provides the average scale score, standard deviation and sample size.

Table 5.3 Year 8 Māori student overall achievement in Critical Thinking in Health and PE

Critical Thinking in Health and PE

Average (scale score units) 108

SD (scale score units) 17

The average achievement for Year 8 Māori students on the Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education measure was 108 scale score units. This was lower than that for All Students (111 scale score units) with slightly less variation in the scores. Refer to Chapter 2 for details of the health and physical education descriptions that identify what Year 8 Māori students know and can do at this level.

Table 5.4 shows how Year 8 Māori students performed against the NZC levels on the Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education measure. Just over 41 percent of Māori students achieved at Level 4 and above compared to just over half of All Students. The Level 4 and above band represents the performance expectation for Year 8 students. Generally, Year 8 students were achieving below the curriculum expectations.

Table 5.4 Percentage of Year 8 Māori students and All Students achieving at the NZC health

and PE level 4

Critical Thinking in Health and PE

Māori students (%) All Students (%)

Level 4 or above 41 51

Not yet Level 4 59 49

3. Comparison of Year 4 and Year 8 Māori student achievement

Figure 5.1 shows the distribution of Year 4 and Year 8 Māori students on the Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education scale. As expected, Year 8 Māori students achieved, on average, higher scores than Year 4 students. As with All Students, there was a wide variation in scores at each year level, and some overlap in the achievement of Year 4 and Year 8 Māori students.

Figure 5.1 Māori student achievement for Critical Thinking in Health and PE by year level

Figures 5.2 and 5.3 illustrate the spread of achievement across the NZC levels for Year 4 and Year 8 Māori students on the Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education measure. The blurred lines around the cut-off scores dividing the curriculum levels reflect the fact that these boundaries may not be precise. The figures show that most Year 4 Māori students were achieving at least in the Level 2 performance range or higher and that most of Year 8 Māori students were achieving at Level 3 or above. The proportion of Year 8 Māori students achieving at this level was lower than the proportion of All Students at Year 8 achieving it.

Figure 5.2 Distribution of Year 4 Māori student achievement on Critical Thinking in Health and PE against levels of the NZC health and PE

Figure 5.3 Distribution of Year 8 Māori student achievement on Critical Thinking in Health and PE against levels of the NZC health and PE

Table 5.5 shows the differences in average scores between Year 4 and Year 8 Māori students expressed in scale score units and effect sizes, and the average, standard deviation and sample size for each year level for the Critical Thinking in Health and Physical Education scale.

The Māori student average scores were lower than those of All Students at both year levels (See Chapter 3). However, the scale score unit difference (ssud) between the Year 4 and Year 8 average for Māori students was 25 and for All Students it was 23. The respective annual average effect sizes were 0.34 and 0.28. Indicating that Māori students were making at least a similar level of progress as All Students.

Table 5.5 Overall measure of Māori student achievement in Critical Thinking in Health and PE and difference of achievement by year level

_{Critical Thinking in Health and PE}

Year 4 Year 8

Average (scale score units) 83 108

SD (scale score units) 20 17

N 162 188

Year 4/Year 8 difference* 25

Effect size 1.35

Annual average effect size 0.34

*Difference = Year 8 – Year 4

Effect sizes in bold are statistically significant (p<.05)