New Zealand underwent major curriculum reforms in the early1990s. These reforms were determined by the New Zealand Curriculum Framework (Ministry of Education 1993), which provides an overarching framework for the development of curricula in New Zealand and which defines seven broad essential learning areas. The seven essential learning areas that describe in broad terms the knowledge and understanding that all students need to acquire, are health and well-being, the arts, social sciences, technology, science, mathematics,and language and languages. For example, the essential learning area of science includes the subjects of science, biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences, agriculture, horticulture, and geography, as well as aspects of home economics and environmental studies.