Dr Michael Johnston has held academic positions at Victoria University of Wellington for the past ten years. This includes being the Associate Dean (Academic) of the University’s School of Education for the last 3 years.
Prior to his time at Victoria, Dr Johnston was the Senior Statistician at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, a position he held for 6 years. Before that, he held positions at Melbourne and Latrobe universities.
Dr Johnston holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Melbourne.
He lives in Roseneath, Wellington, with his wife and two young children.
Phone: 044990790
For a brief moment last year, it looked as if the Ministry of Education was finally going to embrace methods of teaching literacy and numeracy supported by scientific evidence. They published a new literacy and numeracy strategy that made reference to structured teaching methods. Read more
The National Party wants to see teachers get back to the basics with a bigger focus on reading, writing and maths. The party introduced its policy yesterday, including a standardised assessment of student progress for primary students. Read more
We urgently need a conversation about education. Not the kind of ‘conversation’ the Ministry of Education typically convenes when it consults on new policy ideas. Read more
A recent report revealed that a third of 15-year-olds cannot read at a basic adult standard. Numeracy rates are similarly worrying, with many students battling to comprehend basic mathematics. Read more
There are many pressing problems facing New Zealand, but none more urgent than the decay of our once great education system. For more than two decades, the literacy and numeracy achievement of our young people has been declining. Read more
ast Thursday, most of New Zealand’s teachers were on strike. Teachers’ unions representatives say that the action was necessary to press their claim for better pay and working conditions. Read more
You may recall New Zealand’s sixteen former Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) being merged to form the mega-Polytech, Te Pūkenga. But if you do, it is a false memory. Read more
Last week, documents came to light under the Official Information Act, showing that the Ministry of Education has been putting pressure on NZQA to make new literacy and numeracy requirements for NCEA easier to attain. It's not hard to see why Ministry officials are worried. Read more
New Zealand’s school curriculum has things exactly backwards. Let me explain. Read more
The public service, and the neutrality of its leaders, has become a recent issue. In this episode, Drs Oliver Hartwich and Michael Johnston discuss New Zealand's public service, how it is run, and the importance of public servants being impartial and objective in their work. Read more
The Education Ministry's considering changes to new literacy and numeracy tests like fewer questions, simpler language and letting students use spell-check. Documents obtained by RNZ show the Education Ministry and Qualifications Authority have been at odds about the tests' high failure rates. Read more
The most effective policy ideas are not always the most glamourous. In education, there are so many problems that, even having decided on a policy programme, the challenges faced by a Minister in getting it implemented are daunting. Read more
Roger Openshaw is Emeritus Professor of Education at Massey University. We drew on his rich knowledge of NZ educational history as we discussed the changing relationship between central government and NZ schools over the past century or so; the perils and promises of the new history curriculum; and how solid the evidence is for the common assertion that the NZ education system is racist. Read more
You may have heard the term ‘microaggression’. It means a very small act of aggression. Read more
It’s no secret that New Zealand’s compulsory education system is in disarray. Even worse, it’s hard to know where to begin to enact reform. Read more