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…

The National Quality Framework is used across Australia to drive quality improvement in early childhood settings. Unique to Western Australia, the National Quality Standard is also used in schools to improve quality in classrooms up to Year two (seven to eight years). However, the literature suggests the National Quality Standard is too broad with…

There is increasing awareness of the high levels of support needed for literacy learning for children on the autism spectrum. Although research has investigated the quality of the classroom literacy environment, little attention has been paid to examining the classroom literacy environment in specialist classrooms catering specifically for…

Peer observation of teaching can provide valuable insights into effective educational practices. By adopting a developmental focus, peer observation can also provide insights into how practices might be enhanced and, importantly, how enhancements in practices might be aligned to teachers' development goals. However, a review of peer observation of…

Statistical terms are used in everyday language and, at times, used in non-statistical ways. It is often assumed students understand statistical terms because of their common use; however, research into their understanding of specific statistical terms is scant. This report focuses on 58 Year 3 students' responses to the basic question, "What…

This research involves two case studies, one in Melbourne, Australia the other in Gothenburg, Sweden, that focus on how using observation tools to gather classroom evidence of teaching and learning promoted opportunities to discuss and develop professional practice. We found that dialogues between pre-service teachers and more experienced…

Video has become a useful tool in Initial Teacher Education for self-evaluation and reflection by pre-service teachers (PSTs). The availability of 360degree video cameras and web-based applications, to review and annotate 360degree videos, allows PSTs greater flexibility to view and review their practice from a variety of perspectives. This study…

We explored 3 general classroom teachers' experiences of including a child with Down syndrome in their early years classrooms. Located at 3 different Australian school settings, 1 teacher was the head of a Preparatory class, 1 was a Year 3 teacher, and the third was a teacher of a split Preparatory/Year 1 class. Interview data were drawn from a…

Mathematical reasoning is now featured in the mathematics curriculum documents of many nations, but this necessitates changes to teaching practice and hence a need for professional learning. The development of children's mathematical reasoning requires appropriate encouragement and feedback from their teacher who can only do this if they recognise…

Peer Review of Teaching (PRT) programmes have been implemented in the Higher Education context to ensure teaching is a collaborative, evolving and inspiring activity in an era of ever shrinking resources. These programmes are reported to have many benefits but are notoriously difficult to implement and even more difficult to sustain, with research…

This article reports on the evaluation of one topic in an enrichment program designed for children in their early years of learning. The program is responsive to an increased understanding of the benefits for very young children of programs that not only take advantage of the sensitive periods for learning but that also assist parents to a take a…

Three video/web conferencing technologies (Pocket Camcorder, Skype, Adobe Connect) were used in regional schools in Australia to determine whether the technologies are appropriate for the needs of the university supervisor, trainee teachers and supervising teachers with regard to practicum teaching placements. Findings revealed that Pocket…

Historically, handwriting is a skill acquired by children in the classroom. The relevance of this skill today is currently debated due to advances in technology. A nonexperimental time-series design investigated how much time Australian primary school children spend on handwriting in the classroom. A second aim investigated how much time was spent…

The aim of this research is to investigate the intergenerational changes that have occurred in Australian Jewish day schools and the challenges these pose for religious and Jewish education. Using a grounded theory approach according to the constant comparative method (Strauss 1987), data from three sources (interviews [296], observations [27],…

This paper demonstrates how classroom trouble warranting teacher intervention can stem from transgressions in different layers of the complex moral order regulating classroom interactions. The paper builds from Durkheim's treatment of schooling as the institution responsible for the inculcation of a shared moral order, Bernstein's distinction…