The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has created an open-access classroom observation tool based on research conducted for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) Teacher Development Multi-Year Study Series, which studied teaching practices in Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and Lao PDR (see…

This paper discusses the challenges and lessons learned from conducting observations to measure the quality of classroom practice for a large-scale study of elementary teachers' mathematics instruction. Specifically, this paper shares our process for obtaining valid data for quality of elementary mathematics instruction; what we learned can inform…

Few studies have examined teachers' natural use of praise and reprimand in the absence of training, possibly due to the challenges of live data collection. This study sought to determine the feasibility of using technology to examine teachers' use of praise and reprimand during class-wide and small group instruction in four elementary classrooms.…

Increasingly, learning in science and mathematics is considered in terms of induction into the multimodal language practices of the disciplinary community. A strong strand of research in this tradition has involved students being challenged to invent multimodal language forms, and their ideas refined through structured guidance. Often, however,…

Several geospatial approaches have been used to characterize physical activity during recess using global positioning system (GPS) data. GPS and accelerometer data from 23 children collected during recess were analyzed using four previously used approaches: (1) dot map, (2) fishnet grid, (3) hot spot analysis, which determines clusters of high/low…

Schools are increasingly pivoting to the use of digital technologies to support both teaching and learning. In this study, the educational use of 360-degree video in the primary school classroom is investigated, focusing on a platform that was developed by an Australian university, which incorporates a chat function as well as an analytics tool.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate children's self- and social perceptions of success to identify how success could be promoted in a classroom context. Using a participatory approach, this study explored children's subjective experiences with success in 41 learning situations selected by researchers (Phase 1: self-perceptions) and 48…

This article chronicles the development of a video-based ethnography project documenting daily life in a Kansas elementary and a secondary classroom. The project, which took nearly two years of planning, allows a direct link to two classrooms approximately 250 miles away to provide a virtual field experience for undergraduates and a wide array of…

Criticisms have been levelled at e-research that limited knowledge has been produced helpful for guiding educators in using digital tools more effectively for teaching and learning. This issue has become more acute with the emergence of mobile devices that enable learners to transition across different learning spaces and times. Traditional data…

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been promoted as an inspiring way of learning science by engaging pupils in designing and conducting their own scientific investigations. For primary school teachers, the open nature of IBSE poses challenges as they often lack experience in supporting their pupils during the different phases of an open…

Analyzing students' mathematical explanations can be a powerful tool to enhance teachers' practice, but collecting these explanations can be cumbersome. Here, we describe our quest to find effective tools to make explanations accessible to elementary (K-6th) teachers. First, we describe how digital audio recordings enabled teachers to focus on the…

Nowadays, there is a consensus that good teaching and learning needs instructional variation and personalised forms of learning. In teacher education, these concepts have been implemented for years, and prospective teachers are taught accordingly; it is thus assumed that the teaching of novice teachers is in accordance with these new teaching…

This case study reports on a student with special education needs in an inclusive seventh grade life science classroom using a framework of disability studies in education. Classroom data collected over 13 weeks consisted of qualitative (student and classroom observations, interviews, student work samples and video-taped classroom teaching and…

Out-of-school time (OST) youth programs are inherently difficult to assess. They are often very dynamic: Many youth interact with one another and with staff members in various physical environments. Despite the challenge, measuring quality is critical to help program directors and policy makers identify where to improve and how to support those…

This article draws on data from a project on children's playground games and rhymes in the new media age. One objective of the project was to examine the relationship between traditional playground games and children's media cultures. As part of the project, two ethnographic studies of primary playgrounds took place in two schools, one in the…