As outlined by Benjamin Bloom, students working within a mastery learning framework must demonstrate mastery of the core prerequisite material before learning any subsequent material. Since many learning systems in use today adhere to these principles, an important component of such systems is the set of rules or algorithms that determine when a…

The greening of the United States teacher workforce puts a premium on districts and schools hiring effective and persistent beginning teachers. Given the limitations of characteristics currently available at the time of hiring (e.g., academic ability measures, preparation type), we built off previous research in economics and psychology to…

This paper describes Singapore and Australian Grade 6 students' (n=1,187) performance on a symmetry task in a recently developed Mathematics Processing Instrument (MPI). The MPI comprised tasks sourced from Australia and Singapore's national assessments, NAPLAN and PSLE. Only half of the cohort solved the item successfully. It is possible that…

Declining participation rates in advanced mathematics courses and STEM-related occupations has been an issue in Australia for some time, particularly for females. As students continue to disengage with mathematics and complain about its usefulness, it is important to explore what we can do to stem the tide of departing students. One area worthy of…

This paper presents a critical analysis of literature relating to why males choose to become primary school teachers. Discussion within the paper concentrates on identifying and exploring connections between what is currently known about being a male primary school teacher and what motivates these men as they both pursue and practice within the…

It is not uncommon for very young children to start music instruction on string instruments. Previous studies have examined the relationship between starting age of formal music instruction and years of study (Duke, Flowers & Wolfe, 1997; Hartley, 1996; Hartley & Porter, 2009). Duke et al. (1997) found that students who took more years of…

This study considered ways of improving mathematical outcomes for urban Indigenous students. It focused on three primary schools in Western Australia and identified factors that were perceived to be having an impact on student learning. These included expectations for students, attendance rates, parent involvement, student literacy levels, student…