The school cell phone ban will be good for girls
Social media use is ubiquitous. Young people, especially, are relying on it for social interaction, sometimes to the near exclusion of offline friendships. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston is a Senior Fellow at the New Zealand Initiative. He leads the workstream on education.
Prior to his time at the Initiative, Dr Johnston held academic positions at Victoria University of Wellington from 2011-2022. From 2020 until 2022 he was the Associate Dean (Academic) in the University’s Faculty of Education.
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 was a lecturer in psychology at the University Melbourne and a Research Fellow at Latrobe University.
Dr Johnston holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Melbourne.
Phone: 044990790
Social media use is ubiquitous. Young people, especially, are relying on it for social interaction, sometimes to the near exclusion of offline friendships. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston talks to Michael Laws on The Platform about recent declining NCEA results in New Zealand and a University of Auckland report showing single-sex schools outperform co-ed schools. Dr Johnston argues the Ministry of Education ignores empirical research due to ideological commitments and fails to address the growing gender gap in academic achievement, with girls significantly outperforming boys. Read more
The Education and Training Act enshrines academic freedom in law. It distinguishes aspects of academic freedom over which the university itself has jurisdiction, from aspects that protect its students and academic staff from institutional interference. Read more
In this episode, Oliver Hartwich interviews Dr Michael Johnston about the free speech event at Victoria University that was postponed due to backlash within the university. They discuss the importance of free speech in liberal democracies, the changing perception of free speech as a partisan issue, and the concerning trend of young people trying to shut down events featuring disagreeable viewpoints. Read more
Shortly after the turn of the millennium, the gurus of progressive education coined the term twenty-first century learning. After all, what is the point of a new millennium if we don’t take the opportunity to try something new? Read more
Oliver and Michael talk about Germany's dual education system with Rachel Simpson, Manager for Education, Skills and Immigration at Business NZ. Recently, Michael and Rachel were on a business delegation to Germany to find out about their dual education system first-hand. Read more
In this episode, Michael talks to Holly Gooch and Izzy Bremner, from The Hyphen Project, about what it might be like for people who are perhaps not considered the "norm" in our large school system. They talk about The Hyphen Project, which is a talent incubator for 16-19 year olds who are talented, neurodivergent and have not gotten on well with the mainstream education system. Read more
It has been reported that the Minister is considering public-private partnerships to build schools. In fact, though, all school builds are effectively public-private partnerships. Read more
New Zealanders and Germans have a lot in common. They share a socially liberal ethos, a liking for beer and the MMP electoral system. Read more
In a column that appeared in The Post on 23 February, Victoria University of Wellington Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith criticizes the coalition's commitment to have universities adopt a free speech policy. Smith notes that ACT Party leader david seymour ‘has previously criticised universities for declining to host certain speakers and argued the institutions should lose funding if they don't “protect free speech.”' The vice-chancellor then states that ‘one inference of all this is that anyone who wants to speak on campus should be able to do so.' But it wouldn't actually be valid to infer from Seymour's criticisms of recent deplatformings at New Zealand universities that he thinks that ‘anyone who wants to speak on campus should be able to do so.' You can, of course, think that Vice-Chancellor Jan Thomas was wrong to prevent Don Brash from speaking to a student politics club in August 2018 (for example) and at the same time recognize that random people can't simply turn up at a university without an invitation and expect to get a hearing. Read more
According to Stats NZ, the 2023 average gender pay gap across the entire New Zealand workforce was 8.6 per cent. The gap has not shifted much in recent years. Read more
New research reveals the start of excessive non-academic staffing in New Zealand Universities Wellington (Wednesday, 28 February 2024) - This new research note, When the Bloat Began: Non-Academic Staffing at New Zealand Universities over the Long Run, 1961-1997, reveals the year in which non-academic employees started to outnumber academics at our universities. Building on the findings of our earlier research report, Blessing or Bloat? Read more
This new research note, When the Bloat Began: Non-Academic Staffing at New Zealand Universities over the Long Run, 1961-1997, reveals the year in which non-academic employees started to outnumber academics at our universities. Building on the findings of our earlier research report, Blessing or Bloat? Read more
The Ardern Government was New Zealand’s most censorious in living memory. Following Brenton Tarrant’s murderous rampage through two Christchurch mosques in March 2019, Ardern set out on an anti-free speech path. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston about the new NCEA certificate requirements and NZ students' low pass rates on RNZ. Listen below. Read more