Recent world events such as the threat of terrorism and the global economic crises have rekindled an interest in ethics and values education. This study, conducted in Singapore, combines a Kohlbergian approach to the assessment of moral judgement with a framework based on the self-determination theory to assess the motivational regulations of…

Social goals have also been proposed as important additions to mastery and performance goals in educational contexts, particularly in non-Western cultures but no study has yet tested the possibility that such goals can also combine with mastery and performance goals leading to superior learning outcomes. Longitudinal studies are also rare in this…

Big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) research has demonstrated that academic self-concept is negatively affected by attending high-ability schools. This article examines data from large, representative samples of 15-year-olds from each Australian state, based on the three Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) databases that focus on…

Many studies of immigrant students in education focus on a single point in time. As a result, explanations of the performance of immigrant and minority students tend to be static, emphasising enduring socioeconomic, school or cultural factors. This article examines the dynamics of the differences in educational outcomes between immigrant and…

The extent to which students feel connected to their school is a powerful predictor of many health, social and academic outcomes. These outcomes are also influenced by other factors including characteristics of the school such as its size, policies and practices, but how do these characteristics modify the relationship between a student and his or…

It is only relatively recently that empirical research has begun to emerge that has sought to further understand the factors that may contribute to the educational inequities between Indigenous Australian and non-Indigenous Australian students. Although it has been argued that research has typically employed small, unrepresentative case studies…

For over three decades, government subsidies have been a major source of funds for private schools in Australia. Private schools now enrol more than one-third of all students. Analysing administrative and participation data, we find that Australian private schools have used government subsidies to increase the quality of their services (that is,…

Through the voices of students and teachers at an elite coeducational private school and a school situated in a low socio-economic area, this paper explores the potential consequences for students of school alignment or misalignment with the structural imperatives of the broader Queensland senior secondary education system. Although the schools…

This article is drawn from a study of curriculum policy thinking and agendas in Australia over the past four decades, and sets out to describe and discuss some particular emphases and agendas in South Australia at that over-arching curriculum policy level. It argues that, although significant changes are apparent over that time, in South Australia…

Various explanations and solutions have been proposed over the last decade in relation to the implications of students' apparent lack of engagement with middle years schooling in Australia. This article reports on responses to a questionnaire by 333 Year 8 students (aged about 13, in the second year of high school) on perceptions of factors…

Previous research has found differences between adults' and students' perceptions of adolescents' aggressive behaviour. This study examines teachers' perceptions of physical aggression among New Zealand secondary school students. A survey assessed teachers' perceptions of problematic behaviour, and physical aggression by students towards teachers.…

At a time when teacher training is being moved to school-based programmes it is important to engage in a research-informed dialogue about creating more distinctive, and cost-effective 21st century models of teacher training. Three years ago I began feasibility field testing the Lesson Observation On-line (Evidence Portfolio) Platform [LOOP]…

Opinion surrounding Western Australia's provision of compulsory education via an outcomes-based education (OBE) paradigm is severely divided. At the centre of debate is an attempt by authorities to extend OBE into the final years of secondary schooling, Years 11 and 12. In this paper an examination is made of OBE as a curriculum paradigm.…

Australia's system of school funding is notoriously complex and difficult to understand. This article shines some light on this issue by describing clearly the processes of school funding that currently exist in Australia. It describes the steps taken by federal and state governments to provide over $30 billion each year to government and…

The present study investigates the roles of Maori cultural identity and socio-economic status in educational outcomes in a New Zealand birth cohort studied from birth to the age of 25. There were statistically significant (all p values less than 0.01) associations between cultural identity and educational outcomes, with those of Maori ethnic…