Background: There are growing expectations internationally that schools and systems will use research evidence to inform their improvement efforts. Such developments raise important questions about what it means to use research evidence "well" in education. Purpose: To date, there has been wide-ranging debate about what counts as quality…

This paper reports findings in relation to one aspect of the "I Go to School" research project carried out in South Australia which tracked children attending integrated pre-school/childcare centres as they made their transition to school. Eight centres participated in the study involving 347 children. In order to measure some of the…

In this action research study, we investigated how art teachers demonstrate critical and creative thinking when engaging in collaborative reasoning exchanges about the meaning of contemporary Chinese artworks. The study was conducted in a professional learning program for art teachers in conjunction with a privately owned gallery housing a…

This study explores supervising teachers' judgements about pre-service teachers during a practicum experience. Making judgements is a complex, subjective process with judgements being conscious and intuitive, influenced by individual beliefs, contextual expectations and personal learning biographies. This research draws on Social Judgement Theory…

Inspired by Theodore Schatzki's "societist" approach--in which he advocates a notion of "site ontologies"--in this article, we outline our theory of practice architectures (a theory about what practices are composed of) and ecologies of practices (how practices relate to one another). Drawing on case studies of four Australian…

Researching quality in early childhood settings has been operationalized in many ways, within and across countries. Nevertheless, despite some consensus on what might constitute a universally recognized view of what is considered essential for young children's development, there are strong indicators that locally developed assessment tools are…

Development of child language is tremendously complex, remarkable and wondrous. In a second language acquisition context, a child can acquire his second language in either acquiring both languages at the same time or learning the second language after mastering the first one. This present research is concerned to describe the syntactical…

Neighbourhood Houses are significant sites of community-based adult learning spaces that are empowering, supportive and caring. They embody inclusive community development processes and adult learning practices that facilitate formal, informal, and incidental learning. Practices in these sites of social inclusion support relationships and shared…

Purpose: This paper reports on research into Australian school principals' leadership. It explores an emerging construct -- that of 'readiness to lead' -- and showcases the development of a tentative tool for determining school principals' readiness to lead. Design/methodology/approach: Seven principals from Australian and International Schools…

Site-based education development now constitutes a common approach to preparing learners for particular occupations, enabling them to secure employment and at the same time achieve broader social, economic and personal outcomes. New forms of partnerships, other than traditional vendor-client relations, are necessary to achieve such multi-faceted…

This paper proposes social living labs for informed learning as an innovative approach to interprofessional and community education. It presents a new conceptual model and practice framework suited to rapidly changing, information-intensive work and social environments. The proposed approach is theoretically informed and evidence based. It…

Reflective practice is widely adopted across the field of experience-based learning subjects in higher education, including practicums, work-integrated learning, internships, service learning and community participation. This adoption of reflective practice implies that it supports student learning through experience. When reviewing the evidence…

This paper investigates what postgraduate research students at varying stages of candidature across all disciplines in 15 of Australia's 39 urban and rural universities perceive to be the qualities of an ideal supervisor. Students completed an anonymous survey resulting in the online submission of 698 surveys. This paper focuses on the penultimate…

This article conceptually examines TESOL teacher intercultural identity development in the Australian multicultural context. Using intercultural communication competence theory, the author discusses how TESOL teacher intercultural identity is developed and transformed in action and across languages and cultures. The in-progress formation of TESOL…

The ongoing challenges in equitable research involving Indigenous peoples and their communities and ways to overcome these are discussed in this article. Central to this article is the narrative reflection of a non-Indigenous researcher following research on Indigenous spirituality, well-being and resilience in the Yaegl community of northern New…