Complex Instruction (CI) is a cooperative learning approach, which aims at improving the equal status interaction among students working in groups who may be at different academic and social levels. Based on an ethnographic research, the article examines how a group of Italian primary school teachers understand the status problem and how the…

International definitions of early childhood locate the field with the care and education of children between birth and six years. In Ireland, this definition applies to both pre-school and the infant classes of primary school. While primary school teachers in Ireland must hold a Bachelor of Education degree, there is no minimum training…

Scottish educational policy advocates the benefits of collaborative learning as a way of developing critical life skills, across the primary curriculum. In this paper, the rationale for collaborative learning, and specifically the Critical Skills (CS) approach, is considered along with an account of the perspectives of primary teachers…

In a democratic education system, it is important to provide equal opportunity to every child. Both educators and researchers acknowledge a gap between students who attend school ready to learn and those who do not. School readiness prepares students for this learning. The purpose of the study was to ascertain Turkish classroom teachers'…

This study investigates Hong Kong primary science teachers' understandings of inquiry learning, perceived difficulties in implementing inquiry learning, as well as their current practices of and resistance to using online resources, in order to identify their needs and propose suggestions to address these needs. An online survey has been used…

This research examines the perceptions of education practitioners to the proposed changes to the school sport partnership (SSP) programme in England and in particular its implications for primary school physical education. It aims to explore insights into the dismantling of this partnership programme. The SSP system developed club links, increased…

In this article, I examine which organisational conditions can promote or limit the professional development of teachers in the Cypriot primary school. The discussion builds on findings from a study I conducted about Cypriot primary school teachers' reflective practices (Loizou 2011). The study was qualitative and used semi-structured…

This study examined the predictive power of teachers' perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), behavioural intention (BI) to use personal response system (PRS) and computer experience (CE) on teachers' acceptance and attitude towards using PRS in improving communicative competence in the classroom where English is taught…

This article reports on the findings of a recent qualitative grounded theory research study in a metropolitan area in the south-east of Canada examining one junior/senior kindergarten classroom's engagement with nature. It focuses on the role of the learners, the children and the teacher, in co-constructing two very different learning…

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of co-operative games and circle time activities in fostering positive peer relations in two French Primary classrooms (N = 40). It presents French teachers' and pupils' perceptions of a set of co-operative games and circle time activities implemented within a year long study on personal,…

Research indicates that as students move through the school system, many begin to experience difficulties with reading. With this mind, this study explored current practices and perceptions about reading programmes for 11-13-year-old students in New Zealand schools. The study employed an online survey designed to investigate current reading…

Character education has always played a role in the purpose of schools. Most US states have a statement about character education as a part of the mission of the schools. This research studied how character education was perceived by participants in regards to school mission statements/philosophies, school atmosphere and curriculum in a Catholic…

The English Geography National Curriculum encourages primary teachers to focus on similarities and differences when teaching distant places. The issues this raises are particularly acute when teaching geography in the context of the Global South. In this article I argue that comparisons based on object-based thinking can lead to views of the…

Subject knowledge is an important component of primary teachers' repertoire, though it has not been studied widely beyond their understandings of aspects of science and mathematics. Evaluations of the quality of teachers' geographical knowledge for teaching primary geography indicate a disparity between high quality teachers and less…

A revision of the Northern Ireland Primary Curriculum took place in 2007. It promotes strongly a cross-curricular or thematic approach to planning and teaching and has an "Area of Learning" structure which includes geography alongside history and science and technology in an area called "The World Around Us". Responses from…