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
Dr Michael Johnston talks to Dr Claudia Rozas Gomez, who is a lecturer in Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland. In this episode, they discuss issues and criticisms around university-based teacher education. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston and Ben Macintyre talk about the impact of classroom streaming in NZ, which is the subject of their new research report. It is a topic of debate in NZ, with calls for the practice to be banned by 2030. Read more
Classroom streaming – the separation of students into classes based on their prior attainment – is currently a topic of debate in New Zealand. Some commentators have called for the practice to be banned. Read more
Wellington (Monday, 20 November 2023) – There have been calls to ban streaming in New Zealand schools. Streaming is the practice of separating students into different classes based on their prior learning. Read more
When it comes to the annual NCEA exam round, no news is good news. News about exams almost always signals that something has gone wrong. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston talks to Glenn Fahey, who is the Director of the Education program at The Centre for Independent Studies based in Australia. They discuss the problems of Teacher Education in both NZ and Australia and the differing solutions they both came up with, which highlights the differences in both countries' systems. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
Every NCEA Level 1 assessment unit – the achievement standards – will be replaced from next year. The new standards were published last month. Read more
Dr Michael Johnson talks to Dr Christine Braid, of Massey University, and Linda Kimpton, a literacy advocate. They discuss what structured literacy is and how an incoming Minister might approach getting structured literacy embedded. Read more
The Wellington City Council is juggling a few financial priorities at the moment. The top priority is to clear as many curb-side parking places as possible, to make way for bike lanes. Read more
This week we have a special guest, Lord Jonathan Sumption, in this combined Free Kiwis and The New Zealand Initiative podcast episode. Lord Sumption talks to us about his advocacy on free speech and is in NZ as a guest of the Free Speech Union. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston talks to Michael Laws on The Platform about the recent challenges facing New Zealand's education system. You can find a snippet of their conversation below. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston and Stephanie Martin talk to Dr Ursula Edgington about the effects of technology education, what teachers are taught vs. the realities of the classroom, and how the addictive nature of technology impacts students. Read more
In a week from now, when the special votes have finally been counted, coalition negotiations will begin in earnest. National, ACT and, probably, New Zealand First will get into horse-trading over policy and Ministerial posts. Read more
New Zealand’s teachers are operating under a lot of pressure. Our schools face an acute shortage of teaching staff, especially in specialist areas like secondary mathematics and science. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston talks to Paul Brennan on Reality Check Radio about the shocking results of the new NCEA maths and writing tests. Listen here. Read more