Research indicates an uneasy fit between curriculum frameworks and practice. In this paper, we explore the more subtle practices of context, providing insights into why teachers plan the way they do. Specifically, we examine the Australian early childhood education and care curriculum framework and local practices by analysing teacher planning…

This study analyses how community resources are integrated into four areas of the Australian Curriculum: Languages (Chinese), The Arts (Visual Arts), Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences (Economics and Business). It examines four case studies to compare the use of rural resources and local partnerships in achieving educational goals and…

At the turn of this century, expectations for learning mathematics by students with Down syndrome were low. Research and practice continued to indicate considerable difficulty with number and calculation (Bird & Buckley, 2001). Unfortunately, most authors extrapolated difficulty with number to difficulty with mathematics in general, even…

The Intercultural Competency (ICC) Program is a structured program that has been developed at the University of Adelaide's English Language Centre (ELC) to create opportunities for students to connect in a global context. This stand-alone and easily transferable program aims to create meaningful opportunities for mixed-language-ability learners to…

Within Australia, globalization, contentious connections with Asia, and an increasing concern with sustainable development and intercultural education have created a new educational framework and curricula. The Australian Curriculum is the tangible, multidimensional, and pedagogic catalyst to deliver capable, creative, culturally aware,…

In this paper JoAnne Reid explains why she is confident about the benefits of programming, and uses this opportunity to reflect upon Garth Boomer's influence on her own teaching practice. Reid adds "I think more theoretically about programming in my own situation of practice--teacher education." Using Boomer's own work on programming,…

Mathematical knowledge of pre-service teachers is currently "under the microscope" and the subject of research. This paper proposes a different approach to teacher content knowledge based on the "big ideas" of mathematics and the connections that exist within and between them. It is suggested that these "big ideas"…

In 2003, the International Conflict Resolution Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia, produced a primary school teaching manual for UNESCO Vietnam. The finished manual included lesson plans and materials for a five year, 50 lesson peace education course. The manual is one of the first examples of a systematic core national curriculum in…

The primary purpose of this exploratory study is to identify variations in the ways in which individual teachers in different educational contexts interpret their curriculum and plan their lessons and in particular to explore the possibility that cultural differences as identified by Hofstede (1991) may be a contributing factor to understanding…

This curriculum guide for Certificates in English Language Literacies (CELL) advocates "apprenticed" learning and assessment. At no stage is the learner expected to work alone, though it is expected and desired that learners eventually consolidate more skills and become more independent. This curriculum is designed so that the learner…

Curriculum integration and working in teams are two key characteristics of middle schooling in Australia today. As part of a new primary/middle teacher education program an interdisciplinary team of academics has developed a course that aims to teach pre service teachers how to plan for and teach an integrated curriculum unit in an authentic…

Units of work represent an effort on the part of the school to relate subject matter and the development of skills in the organization of children's learning about important interests, topics, or problems. The units are made by teachers with their children and are designed to fit the situation in which they are to be used. There is no single…