Three approaches have been followed to identify where the subject terms commonly used in secondary schools might differ significantly from those we use here at VUW:
- Visit to the websites of Wellington secondary schools identified a number of Yr13 or Level 3 subjects that we may not have an obvious mapping to;
- Obtain a data extract from the Ministry of Education that maps all the NZQA standards to a standardised subject list and these subjects to the curriculum learning areas; and
- Keywords extracted from the main standards and resources listed for the New Zealand Association of Computer and Digital and Information Technology Teachers (NZACDITT).
Based on these three sources I believe that the main area we need to focus on is the digital technologies space. All other areas are reasonably well covered, as in the terms used in school match to terms we use, so long as we offer this subject. As well as the suggested mappings in the following sections I suggest that we map Digital technology(ies) to Computers and technology and to Design
Website survey
Despite most secondary schools having similar subjects it appears that the earlier schools in this list have more mismatches. This is because each mismatched subject has been listed only the first time it was encountered.
Allowing for areas that VUW does not profess to cover teach, the main weak area to work on labelling/mapping is that of digital technologies.
Each school subject is followed by the suggested Victoria subject for a keyword mapping:
Tawa College
- Visual culture = art history
- Photography = ?
- Painting = ?
- Dance = ?
- Drama = theatre?
- Business = Business (megatopic)
- Food and nutrition = ?
- Physical education = ?Art History, Media Studies, Philosophy, Media Design
- Drama = Theatre, Film,
- Business = Economics, Finance, Management,
- Earth and space science = geology Geophysics – Solid Earth, Geophysics – Meteorology, Geology, Geography,
- Legal studies = lawLaw, Commercial Law
- Tourism = tourism Tourism management, international business,
- Digital technology - wood/metal = design (topic)?
- Digital technology - textiles = ?
- Industrial Design
- Design and visual communications = computer graphicsCommunication Design, Media Design
- Digital design - information technology = information systems, design (topic)Interaction Design, Information Systems
- Digital computer science and information technology = information systems (topic), computer sciences (topic)Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electronic and Computer System Engineering, Information Systems
Wellington College
- Calculus = mathematicsMathematics, Physics, Applied Physics,
- Digital technology media = design (topic), Media Design, Communication Design, Media Design
- Digital technology science = information systems (topic), computer sciences (topic)Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electronic and Computer System Engineering, Information Systems
Wellington High School
...
- Moving image culture = filmFilm, Media Studies, Theatre, Media Design
- Journalism = ?
- Fashion technology = ?
- Food technology = ?
Wellington Girls College
- Sports studies = ?Media Studies, Writing (Academic and Professional), Creative Writing, Communication Design
Wellington Girls College
- Modern Mandarin = Chinese, Asian Studies
- Digital design technology = computer graphicsFashion and textile design = Interaction Design, Information Systems
- Product and spatial design technology = Industrial design
Wellington East Girls College
Computer studies = ?Information Studies, Computer Science
St Pats
...
- Outdoor education or leadership = ?
, Onslow College, Newlands College, Samuel Marsden, Scots, St Catherines, and St Marys
Nothing new
Subject and standard mapping
Although the list of all standards is exhaustive (over 45,000 there are only a few areas where the subjects appear to be mismatched to those we offer, mainly in the digital technologies area. This confirms the subjects identified from school websites and provides us with an area to focus our efforts.
From the standards of NZQA
...
Digital technologies standards (NZACDITT pointing to NZQA)
- Relational database = Computers and technology
- Digital media = Design
- Computer science = Computer science
- Computer programme = Computers and technology
- Electronic environments = Digital engineering
- Electronic and embedded system = Digital engineering