The disproportionate focus on classroom teachers and their instruction--teacher effectiveness--in order to confront and address under-achievement and disadvantage appears as a contemporary education policy theme in Australia. Phrases such as "high performing schooling systems","the best teachers", "high performing…

This paper reports on a qualitative study exploring the role and functionality of emotions in feedback. In-depth interview data from students and lecturers at an Australian university are analysed using cognitive appraisal and prototype theory. Results suggest that students experience a range of positive and negative emotions in feedback contexts…

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the mutual relationship between school engagement of cross-border students (CBS) from Malaysia in Singapore and parental involvement in education. Focus-group interviews were conducted with school personnel, CBS and their non-local counterparts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the…

Schools are often the first point of contact for young refugees resettling in Australia and play a significant role in establishing meaningful connections to Australian society and a sense of belonging in Australia (Olliff in "Settling in: How do refugee young people fair within Australia's settlement system?" Centre for Multicultural Youth…

The phenomenon of summer slide or setback has gained a great deal of attention in the USA. It is understood to account for as much as 80% of the difference in achievement for students between low and high socio-economic families over their elementary schooling. In a mixed method longitudinal study of reforms in low socio-economic school…

This study uses data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to gain a better understanding of how academic performance and resources vary across rural-urban school communities in Australia. While it is well known that schools in rural areas have difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers, the degree to which schools in…

Grouping students by academic achievement level has been practised in a wide variety of forms and contexts for over a century. Despite a general consensus in the research that between-class achievement grouping provides no overall benefit for students, the practice has persisted in various guises. Between-class achievement grouping is common in…

School choice in China is a parent-initiated bottom-up movement characterised by the payment of a substantial "choice fee" to the desired school, and parents' positional competition through the use of cultural, social and economic capital, before and during the school choice process. This study demonstrates that Chinese middle class parents'…

The Australian Government's policy to transform higher education by 2020 includes plans to significantly raise the levels of undergraduate enrolment by people of low socio-economic status. In light of this policy direction, this article examines how a group of undergraduate students of low socio-economic status work to maintain their desire for…

In recent years the educational policy environment has emphasised data-driven change. This has increased the expectation for school personnel to use statistical information to inform their programs and to improve teaching practices. Such data include system reports of student achievement tests and socio-economic profiles provided to schools by…

In this project upper primary school students were surveyed about their general liking for school, and reasons for going to school. Their parents were asked to respond on a questionnaire indicating their restrictiveness and also support for their child's autonomy. Data were collected from 92 middle SES two-parent families and analysed using…

Demands for accountability have seen the implementation of large scale testing programs in Australia and internationally. There is, however, a growing body of evidence to show that externally imposed testing programs do not have a sustained impact on student achievement. It has been argued that teacher assessment is more effective in raising…

While externally moderated standards-based assessment has been practised in Queensland senior schooling for more than three decades, there has been no such practice in the middle years. With the introduction of standards at state and national levels in these years, teacher judgement as developed in moderation practices is now vital. This paper…

Non-completion of senior secondary schooling continues to be a matter of concern for policy makers and practitioners in Australia today. Despite the efforts of governments to improve participation and retention rates, 30% of students drop out of school before completing Year 12. Further, some students remain at school, just biding their time until…

This paper addresses two problems which are common amongst university students, namely perfectionism and self-handicapping. Perfectionism deals with setting unreasonably high standards for one's own performance, while self-handicapping behaviours provide a possible excuse for poor performance, for example putting tasks off until the last minute.…