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…

Attitudes of preschool directors (N=591) in New South Wales, Australia, toward mainstreaming of students with disabilities and relevant competencies required of teachers were surveyed via questionnaire. Results indicated greatest optimism concerning the mainstreaming of students with mild disabilities. (Author/PB)

Presents an analysis of good and bad teaching practices through the perceptions of students and teachers in an Australian Catholic boys' school. Investigates ways teachers negotiate order in the classroom. (MD)

DICOT, a computer program for the Rasch analysis of classroom tests, is described. Results are presented in a self-explanatory form. Person ability and item difficulty estimates are expressed in a familiar metric. Person and item fit statistics provide a diagnosis of individual children and identification of problematic items. (Author/DWH)

This handbook on drug education is written for teachers of students in the 9th and 10th grades. It is based on the philosophy that drug education requires a special kind of classroom climate and a classroom management style in which the teacher is not an instructor or expert, but a facilitator. The booklet helps teachers to understand why and how…

The challenges facing language teachers with large classes are discussed from an Australian perspective, including absentee learners and field coverage. Some blackboard and student performance techniques are identified along with possibilities of group work and individual work. (Contains five references.) (LB)

This middle school curriculum guide provides support for teaching and learning about issues related to achieving a fair and just Australian society. An Introduction, the first and core chapter, introduces information, concepts, teaching strategies, and thinking tools used throughout the materials. The materials support learning areas for health…

A teacher had always allowed 20 minutes for silent reading in her classroom. But when she looked at her Year 3/4 composite class, she noticed that although some students were reading, some were not. She decided to explore why they might not be reading. She focused on three students--a boy with severe learning difficulties and an auditory…

Elementary school teachers know that classroom experiences do not just happen, but reflect a teaching and learning program that synthesizes a host of contemporary, and sometimes competing, concerns. To be coherent a program is something of an art form. This book elaborates some programming approaches developed by expert practitioners around…

Students working together in small groups are a familiar scene in Australian elementary schools. But why are small groups used, and who benefits from their use? This book puts the case for small-group organization in the light of contemporary educational theory. In doing so, the book guides the teacher taking the first steps towards small-group…

This pamphlet describes "learning challenges," a method of classroom organization designed to meet the needs, strengths, and interest of children at all levels of development. These challenges are a means by which teachers can individualize their programs and invite their students to explore, think, create, and respond. The pamphlet…

Intended primarily for student teachers and beginning teachers, this paper provides a base from which teachers may develop their own approach to classroom management and suggests ways of fostering a classroom climate conducive to effective management and student self-discipline. The discussion begins by considering four factors influencing…

For one middle school teacher, the "functional grammar" approach to narrative writing promised to offer students explicit instruction in how to structure a narrative text to build up suspense, and it could give focus to the types of descriptive language that further engage readers. Her classroom research was built on the teacher…

According to the management perspective, educational practice is a technical process with predictable and guaranteed outcomes. This viewpoint is reflected in the New South Wales (Australia) Scott Report on educational reform. However, this approach must be challenged, and uncertainty and unpredictability in education must be acknowledged and…

Michel Foucault's discourse theory and Pierre Bourdieu's critical sociology are used to reexamine early literacy training. The resulting model is used to describe educational discourse, particularly in a series of literacy events in an Australian first-grade classroom. Implications for pedagogy are discussed. (70 references) (Author/MSE)