The Cognition Institute is dedicated to improving teaching and learning in New Zealand schools.
Our mission is to inform and influence discussion, discourse and policy in education.
We strive to connect educational practice, policy and research to improve educational outcomes in New Zealand and internationally.
The Cognition Institute is an organisation that encourages new ideas and champions proven approaches to education and schooling.
We believe all children and young people are entitled to very best of educational opportunities.
We believe that professional educators and New Zealand communities at large share this belief. We want to harness this long-term goodwill to help shape an education system that positions society for the challenges that we face.
Risks and opportunities facing New Zealand in this next decade are moving too fast for our education system. This impacts on what educators can do. People expect schools to set students up with whatever they need for their long term futures.
The Cognition Institute distils issues simmering in our system. We focus on the intersection of opinions, expert views and research. We help de-mystify some of the confusion felt about developments in schooling and help people make sense of these shifts.
The best role for us to play is as an honest professional broker of discourse. We engage New Zealanders to investigate ideas about schooling, reconcile differences and make sense of a conversation that is the size of society.
- We convene intelligent discourse so that opinions, research and expert views about schooling can be explored and made sense of; for individuals, for schools and their communities, and for New Zealand society.
- We spend time identifying the actual challenges, problems and questions that must be addressed to achieve the goal of greater achievement for our learners, not simply those that appear to be popular at any particular time.
- We create the space where networks of educators, parents and wh?nau, students, iwi, policy makers, community and business organisations can raise the big questions waiting to confront our education system just over the horizon.
Unlike other agencies, we have the independence, freedom and resources to pursue these questions for as long as it takes to come to constructive solutions.
Proudly based in Aotearoa New Zealand, we are generating and implementing new ideas about learning, now and in the future, locally and globally.
History of the Cognition Institute
The Cognition Institute was established by the Cognition Education Trust in October 2009 and is funded through the proceeds of Cognition Education Limited, one of New Zealand’s leading independent education services and consultancy provider.
The Cognition Institute grew out of what was previously known as the Cognition Education Research Trust (CERT) from 2003 – 2009. By shifting its philanthropy from an agency that commissioned and sponsored research in education, to an Institute that seeks to inform and influence discussion, policy and practice in education based on high quality research and evidence, the Cognition Education Trust believes it can provide more support to its beneficiaries, New Zealand schools.
