A trend of increasing regional disadvantage is suggested in the pattern of rising rates of deferral of university places amongst rural school-completers in Australia. Cost-related factors and financial barriers are prominent in the reasons given by these young people for deferring a place at university. These trends formed the impetus for a study…

Perceptual motor programs continue to be used in Australian schools despite evidence showing they do not influence academic learning. Brain Gym[R] is one perceptual motor program that is used in schools in Australia and overseas. There is little evidence to support the claims made about the benefits of Brain Gym[R]; its theoretical underpinning…

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…

Mandatory numeracy tests have become commonplace in many countries, heralding a new era in school assessment. New forms of accountability and an increased emphasis on national and international standards (and benchmarks) have the potential to reshape mathematics curricula. It is noteworthy that the mathematics items used in these tests are rich in…

Many young Indigenous Australian students continue to underachieve in Western mathematics. National test results indicate that they are two years behind their peers. Success in mathematics is important to Indigenous students as it leads to employment opportunities and can assist in identifying power differences among socio-economic classes…

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…

This qualitative multiple-site case study explores the experiences of imported and overseas-qualified teachers appointed to fill "difficult-to-staff" Western Australian rural schools. In a climate of global teacher shortages, investigation of the strategies adopted to solve this problem requires empirical examination. The study of six imported and…

The recently completed review of visual education, "First" we see, makes recommendations that contrast sharply with most traditional forms of art teaching in Australian schools. Although the review implicitly stands against a narrow conception of a visual education founded on artistic and aesthetic concerns, I argue that the concept of "visuacy"…

There has recently been a shift towards private expenditure in the tertiary education sector accompanied by a shift of public subsidies to students themselves. Implicit in this shift is the message that tertiary education is a private rather than public good, belonging to individual students rather than society. This paper explores the research on…

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.…

This study examined the interrelationships between coping styles, emotional wellbeing, and school connectedness using path analysis. A total of 536 Year 8 students (241 boys and 295 girls) responded to an in-class survey and the "Adolescent Coping Scale" (Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993a) as part of a larger study. Productive coping style was positively…

This study was conducted with 15 pre-service teachers enrolled in the Reflective Practice Seminar in primary/junior division at a Canadian university. Data were gathered through interviews, informal classroom conversations and reflections over an eight-month period. This article considers the issue of how constructing a professional portfolio…

For some time, special education has been plagued by shortages of qualified teaching staff and by high turnover rates for these staff. While several factors--external, employment and personal--are largely responsible for this situation, the research demonstrates that the initial professional experiences of early career teachers are closely…

Research conducted among student teachers during three academic years (2010-2011; 2011-2012; 2012-2013) at Israel's Levinsky College of Education sought to ascertain (a) the extent of implementation of repeated picture-book reading (RPBR) with preschool groups each academic year; (b) how does the implementation of RPBR progress throughout the…

It is now well accepted that graduating teachers need the capacity to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in ways which harness their learning affordances and develop students' digital literacies. However, effective ICT integration in the classroom is challenging because it requires complex application of…