This paper focuses on the development of the academic and personal literacy and numeracy skills of pre-service teachers. It examines how an embedded enhancement framework of literacy and numeracy support named the DEER (Developing, Embedding, Extending, Reflecting) framework by the researchers was created in initial teacher education (ITE)…

To track the quality of instruction delivered at the University of Western Australia, the university surveys all units using its Students' Unit Reflective Feedback (SURF) metrics, and faculties use these metrics to benchmark student satisfaction. Consequently, teaching staff are actively encouraged to adopt teaching practices that will increase…

This study investigated the effects of the GLAMA (Girls! Lead! Achieve! Mentor! Activate!) and BLAST (Boys! Lead! Activate! Succeed Together!) controlled 8-week peer-led stealth intervention on school connectedness and physical activity self-efficacy (PASE). The GLAMA and BLAST sessions were conducted during curriculum time in an Australian state…

An evaluation of the effectiveness of a large-scale professional development (PD) programme delivered to 258 schools in Queensland, Australia is presented. Formal evaluations were conducted at two stages during the programme using a tool developed from Desimone's five core features of effective PD. Descriptive statistics of 38 questions and…

Doctoral training is strongly focused on honing research skills at the expense of developing teaching competency. As a result, emerging academics are unprepared for the pedagogical requirements of their early-career academic roles. Employing an action research approach, this study investigates the effectiveness of a competency-based teaching…

Despite a broad consensus on the ethical dimensions of the teaching profession, and long-standing efforts to align teacher education with wider trends in professional education, little is known about how teacher candidates are being prepared to face the ethical challenges of contemporary teaching. This article presents the results of an…

This paper investigates the implementation and outcomes of "Growing Better Beginnings": a family literacy program for four and five year olds. The program builds on "Better Beginnings: Birth to Three" launched in 2005. Parents, teachers and librarians were surveyed and interviewed to ascertain their perceptions of the program.…

One of the more demanding tasks faced by teacher educators and mentors is providing high-quality feedback for preservice students during their professional learning. The limited formative assessment currently available impacts on their professional learning. This paper reports on research into how iPhones® have been used by preservice students,…

Research training should facilitate effective researcher role development. While researcher roles require the performance of specialised knowledge and skill, they also require development of personal research identities within social contexts. Interaction with research peers can provide opportunities for reflective role development. Ad-hoc…

The purpose of this paper is to show how "realist synthesis" methodology (Pawson, 2002) was adapted to review a large sample of community based projects addressing alcohol and drug use problems. Our study drew on a highly varied sample of 127 projects receiving funding from a national non-government organisation in Australia between 2002…

Personalised learning is now broadly endorsed as a key strategy to improve student curricular engagement and academic attainment, but there is also strong critique of this construct. We review claims made for this approach, as well as concerns about its conceptual coherence and effects on different learner cohorts. Drawing on literature around…

This study assessed the feasibility and impact of introducing a programme of an additional 30 minutes per day of moderate physical activity within curriculum time on learning and readiness to learn in a large elementary school in south-east Queensland, Australia. The programme, Active Kids Active Minds (AKAM), involved Year 5 students (n = 107),…

This summative evaluation examines a pilot program supporting beginning science and mathematics teachers through mentoring. It includes mentors' and mentees' expectations of the outcomes of participation in the program and their perceptions of the success of their mentoring relationships across the latter part of the 2008 school year. As well,…