Knowledge Is Back. But What Happens When Answers Are Everywhere?

For parents of primary-aged children, the changes taking place in New Zealand’s education system can feel both exciting and uncertain. The refreshed curriculum has brought a renewed focus on ensuring students develop strong foundations of knowledge across the learning areas, with clearer expectations around what children should know and understand at different stages of their schooling.

This renewed focus on knowledge comes at an interesting point in time. While schools are strengthening the foundations children need to understand the world, the way we access, create and use information is changing rapidly.

A strong knowledge base has always been central to learning. Children need knowledge to recognise patterns, make connections and develop informed perspectives about the world around them. Research in cognitive science has consistently shown that deeper thinking relies on having meaningful knowledge to draw upon; we cannot evaluate, question or create without something to think about. 

However, as the way we access information changes, it is worth considering how we define successful learning.

For generations, one of the clearest indicators of learning was whether students could demonstrate what they knew. Being able to recall information, explain concepts and demonstrate understanding remains valuable. Children need vocabulary, concepts, facts and ideas that allow them to participate confidently in the world.

But does demonstrating knowledge through an assessment tell us everything we need to know about learning? 

What happens when the situation changes? When the question is unfamiliar? When there is no single correct answer? When a child needs to evaluate information, consider different perspectives or decide how their knowledge can be used?

As education continues to evolve, success needs to include not only what students know, but how they use that knowledge when they encounter new situations. 

This question becomes increasingly important as technologies such as artificial intelligence become part of everyday life.

Schools have played an important role in helping students develop knowledge because information was not always readily available beyond the classroom. Today, children are growing up in a world where information can be accessed almost instantly. Artificial intelligence can explain concepts, summarise texts and generate responses within seconds.

Rather than reducing the importance of learning, this shift places greater emphasis on understanding. When information can be found quickly, students need to be able to interpret it, question it, connect it with what they already know and decide how it should be used. 

A student who can recall information about climate change has developed knowledge. A student who can examine evidence, understand different viewpoints and use that knowledge to consider possible responses is demonstrating a deeper level of understanding.

This ability to apply and transfer knowledge is increasingly important. The OECD has consistently highlighted the importance of learners developing capabilities such as critical thinking, collaboration and the ability to apply knowledge in unfamiliar contexts (OECD, 2019). These capabilities are developed through having opportunities to use knowledge in meaningful ways. 

The learning experiences that stay with us long after we leave school are often not simply the moments where we remembered information. They are the moments where we used what we knew to investigate a question, solve a problem or better understand something that mattered.

Imagine a class investigating the health of a local awa. Students draw on science to understand ecosystems and water quality, mathematics to collect and interpret data, literacy to communicate their findings and social sciences to explore the relationship between communities and their environment.

In Aotearoa, this type of learning also provides opportunities to explore mātauranga Māori perspectives and the deep relationships between people, place and the natural world.

The curriculum knowledge remains central. The difference is that students are using that knowledge to investigate something real and relevant to their lives. 

They are practising the kind of thinking that happens beyond school, where challenges rarely arrive neatly organised into separate subjects and where people need to draw on different areas of understanding to make decisions and solve problems.

Teachers across Aotearoa are already creating these types of learning experiences every day. They are finding thoughtful ways to balance curriculum expectations with opportunities for students to investigate, question and apply their learning.

This does not mean classrooms need to move away from explicit teaching and the delivery of knowledge in its own right. These foundations remain essential, but the opportunity here is to create more moments where students can use what they know in meaningful ways. 

Supporting schools through curriculum change is about providing teachers with the resources, time and opportunities that make this possible.

At Science Alive, our work alongside schools is centred on helping teachers connect curriculum knowledge with authentic science and STEAM experiences. Through resources, professional learning and outreach, we support educators to create opportunities where students can investigate questions, explore their communities and apply their understanding.

As parents, we naturally want our children to succeed at school. We want them to develop strong literacy and numeracy skills, build knowledge and understand the world around them.

We also want them to leave school with curiosity, confidence and the ability to navigate a world that will continue to change.

The refreshed curriculum provides an important opportunity to strengthen what children know and understand. Alongside this, there is an opportunity to consider how students are supported to use that knowledge beyond the classroom.

Strong foundations and the ability to apply them are not competing goals. They are connected and need to be supported. 

In a world where answers are increasingly easy to find, and as we question what success really means in the education of our young people - perhaps the most ‘successful’ learners will not simply be those who hold the most knowledge, but those who know how to use it.  
 
Lauren Pugh 

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Media.

OECD. (2019). OECD Learning Compass 2030: A series of concept notes. OECD Publishing.

Willingham, D. T. (2009). Why don’t students like school? Jossey-Bass.