The "open classroom" emerged as a reaction against the industrial-era enclosed and authoritarian classroom. Although contemporary school architecture continues to incorporate and express ideas of openness, more research is needed about how teachers adapt to new and different built contexts. Our purpose is to identify teacher reaction to…

Various explanations and solutions have been proposed over the last ten years in relation to the ongoing problem of student lack of engagement with the middle years' curriculum in Australia. Identified contributors to this problem include an irrelevant or trivial curricular focus and ineffectual teaching and learning strategies. In this paper we…