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
For most of the 2010s, if schools wanted funding for new classrooms, the Ministry of Education insisted that they build Modern Learning Environments (MLEs). These are large, open-plan classrooms, sometimes housing more than a hundred children and their teachers. Read more
New Zealand has produced some impressive scientists during its short history. Ernest Rutherford, dubbed ‘the father of nuclear physics’, must surely be foremost among them. Read more
The right to freedom of expression is enshrined in most constitutions and is deemed to be an essential human right under international law. Yet people in many countries face restrictions on their freedom of speech and on other civil liberties. Read more
Welcome to the New Zealand Initiative podcast! In this week’s episode, Drs Michael Johnston and James Kierstead discuss the challenges faced by universities in New Zealand, focusing on issues such as declining enrolments, the impact of international student numbers, and the need for universities to foster open and civil debate on controversial topics. Read more
New Zealand’s universities are in crisis. AUT announced 170 academic redundancies last year. Read more
Wellington (Monday, 19 June 2023) – The New Zealand Initiative has revealed that Victoria and Otago Universities employ more non-academic than academic staff, a situation prevalent in all New Zealand universities for the past decade. The findings, prepared by Drs. Read more
New Zealand’s universities are in crisis. Their most immediate problem is financial. Read more
State education has been in a void in New Zealand for a number of years. After spending some time as a world leader, the education field has been ploughed with incompetence. Read more
Welcome to the New Zealand Initiative podcast! This week's episode presents a dialogue between Dr Michael Johnston and the renowned Professor Gary Hawke. Read more
It is two decades since NCEA became New Zealand’s qualification system for secondary school students. It replaced a very traditional, exam-based system – School Certificate and University Entrance-Bursary. Read more
Welcome to the New Zealand Initiative podcast! In this episode, Michael Johnston has a fascinating conversation with Bali Haque, an experienced educator who has held various roles in the education sector. Read more
New Zealand’s much-publicised truancy problem is not easy to get a handle on. Should we go for the carrot or the stick? Read more
The parlous state of new Zealand’s school education system is common knowledge, in part thanks to the Herald’s recent Making the Grade series. Our poor results in literacy featured prominently. Read more
Learning is a central pursuit of the education system. It is essential that educators understand key elements of the science of human learning and how to apply them in the classroom. Read more