There are reciprocal relationships between the learning areas and the key competencies. When these relationships are purposefully exploited both the learning areas and the key competencies are strengthened. Opportunities to develop key competencies can play out as opportunities to develop learning areas and vice versa.
The key competencies development helps schools audit their progress with integrating the five NZC key competencies into all learning programmes. It allows schools to explore questions such as:
How well are the key competencies integrated into each of the different learning areas?
What opportunities are provided by each learning area to strengthen key competencies?
What impact is the integration between key competencies and the learning areas having on students’ overall development? How do we know?
What aspects of key competency development might we need to do more work on?
This Ministry of Education funded tool was developed by researchers from NZCER and the University of Waikato. Many teachers contributed examples, which represent a selection across year levels, learning areas, and individual key competencies. Interesting themes have been shaped into sets of discussion questions at the end of each example.
