Reading with an adult plays an important role in developing children's oral language skills, phonological awareness and print knowledge. Parental reading aloud is also an indicator of children's later academic success, which suggests that the practice may be further linked to children's development of broader academic skills and behaviour, such as…

Recent research has begun to conceptualise the professional learning of practising teachers who take on leadership roles in schools. In this vein, this article draws on a qualitative interview-based study designed to investigate case writing as a professional learning approach. It focuses on the way in which writing of a published case encouraged…

This article analyses the educational visions put forward by Australian federal politicians in their maiden (first) speeches to Parliament. The theoretical approach was a Habermasian-based analysis of the communication strategies adopted by the politicians, meaning that it was not only the content of the speeches but also the delivery that was the…

Progressive education has been an article of educational faith in Papua New Guinea during the last 50 years but the best available evidence indicates that major reforms to formalistic curriculum and teaching in primary and secondary classrooms have failed during this period despite large-scale professional, administrative and financial support. In…

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…

This study aimed to examine the relationships among prospective teachers' interest in teaching, professional engagement and career development aspirations, and career choice satisfaction. A total of 602 prospective teachers from various primary (for example, primary school teaching) and secondary (for example, English language teaching) teacher…

In Australia, Indigenous children are disproportionately affected by poor health. The combined consequences of illness and social factors in this population have an adverse affect on educational outcomes for Indigenous children, resulting in lower levels of achievement and attainment compared with non-Indigenous children. From early childhood,…

The purpose of this study was to understand how children use meta-cognition in their everyday problem-solving, particularly making monetary decisions. A particular focus was to identify components of meta-cognition, such as regulation of cognition and knowledge of cognition observed in children's monetary decision-making process, the roles of…

An overview of positive and negative potential effects of the setting of compulsory exit-level standards in literacy and numeracy for students completing their final years of schooling is presented. The overview rests on studies completed primarily outside Australia, reflecting the reality of such practices not having been implemented widely in…

Traditional practical classes in many countries are being rationalised to reduce costs. The challenge for university educators is to provide students with the opportunity to reinforce theoretical concepts by running something other than a traditional practical program. One alternative is to replace wet labs with comparable computer simulations.…

One of the most challenging decisions for primary school principals is to decide what class level each of their teachers will teach. It seems there is very little research on the way principals go about making these decisions. Government reforms have had significant impact on the role of the primary school principal in New Zealand, and a trend has…

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…

The complexity associated with reducing inequality in Indigenous education incorporates a multitude of causal factors. Issues associated with education delivery and outcomes in remote Indigenous communities are endemic nationally, yet the communities of the Northern Territory are uniquely disadvantaged due to their geographical and cultural…

This article examines factors influencing English language education, participation and achievement among Karen refugee women in Australia. Data were drawn from ethnographic observations and interviews with 67 participants between 2009 and 2011, collected as part of a larger qualitative study exploring the well-being of Karen refugee women in…

Bullying between students at school can seriously affect students' health and academic outcomes. To date, little is known regarding the extent to which bullying behaviour is clustered within certain schools rather than similarly prevalent across all schools. Additionally, studies of bullying behaviour in schools that do not account for clustering…