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.
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 the main weak area to work on labelling/mapping is that of digital technologies.
Tawa College
- Visual culture = art history
- Drama = theatre?
- Business = Business (megatopic)
- Earth and space science = geology
- Legal studies = law
- Tourism = tourism management, international business,
- Digital technology - wood/metal = design (topic)?
- Digital technology - textiles = ?
- Design and visual communications = computer graphics
- Digital design - information technology = information systems, design (topic)
- Digital computer science and information technology = information systems (topic), computer sciences (topic)
Wellington College
- Calculus = mathematics
- Digital technology media = design (topic),
- Digital technology science = information systems (topic), computer sciences (topic)
Wellington High School
- Moving image culture = film
- Journalism = ?
- Fashion technology = ?
Wellington Girls College
- Modern Mandarin = Chinese
- Digital design technology = computer graphics
- Fashion and textile design =
- Product and spatial design technology =
Wellington East Girls College
Computer studies = ?
St Pats, 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.
Digital technologies standards (NZACDITT pointing to NZQA)
- Relational database
- Digital media
- Computer science
- Computer programme
- Electronic environments
- Electronic and embedded system