Children's early skills are strong predictors of later learning outcomes. Research aiming to disentangle the causal effects of early skills from unmeasured, stable characteristics related to learning throughout development demonstrates that unmeasured confounders explain a large portion of the effects of early skills previously identified. To…

Background/Context: School readiness refers to the foundational skills and behaviors children leverage as they begin kindergarten, including a combination of early academics, executive function (EF), and social-emotional competencies. In both high-income and low- and middle-income countries, these early skills collectively enable children to…

Research on teacher knowledge has been criticised for taking too narrow a view on expertise. Therefore, teacher competence frameworks have been developed that are closely related to professional demands. Their practice-oriented conceptualisations have led to innovative measures with situative demands. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on…

Opportunities for self-determined online professional development (OPD) are emerging, but their potential for increasing adult learners' agency is not yet fully realised. Faced with the problem of successfully designing a self-determined comprehensive evidence-based online numeracy resource for educators who are often time poor and do not engage…

Increasingly, teachers are considered accountable for continuous improvement in student achievement. They are expected to integrate and analyse data from multiple sources in order to make decisions aimed at positively influencing student outcomes. Given the growing recognition of the importance of data-informed decision making in teaching, it is…

Through a single-case study design, the research study described in this article examined one rural Canadian school division's use of teacher-directed collaborative action research as a mediating tool for teacher learning within a professional development (PD) initiative known as the Numeracy Cohort. The PD initiative brought together a dozen K-12…

Teaching assistants are not always utilised effectively in mathematics classrooms. Moreover, there is limited research examining instructional models that might more meaningfully incorporate teaching assistants into the teaching and learning of mathematics. To address this gap in the literature, the current study explored three distinct…

In the education system in Trinidad and Tobago, only 60% of students are achieving mastery in literacy and numeracy as documented by national tests. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore principals' experiences leading strategic planning designed to increase achievement in literacy and numeracy in eight high-performing primary…

Research interest in numeracy is growing as a result of increased understanding of the impact of low levels of numeracy. However, there has been little research on factors that influence how teachers implement learning from professional development interventions to support teachers to promote numeracy learning. This paper reports on how a…

Defined as language, literacy and numeracy, and employability skills, foundation skills are essential for individuals to participate in further education, employment and wider society. Community education providers, such as community colleges, neighbourhood houses, faith-based organisations and adult learning associations, are key providers of…

This paper discusses the critical situations I have been asked to "improve" by providing professional development for teams of adult numeracy and functional mathematics teachers in the post-16 sector in London. These situations have not been identified through any research process, but arise from internal management reviews of course…

This paper reports and reflects on a collaborative and multi-layered action enquiry project in the New Zealand polytechnic sector. In the context of widespread national professional development centred on adult literacy and numeracy teaching and learning in vocational educational institutions, an action enquiry methodology was piloted with…

The supposed pre-eminence of an external examination can exert a disproportionate influence on a curriculum and the associated learning and teaching. Teaching can easily subordinate learning and understanding to curriculum coverage if the society develops a culture that appears to make such demands. This study focuses on Tanzania and provides the…

This paper explores how a secondary school in western Sydney used educational research as an impetus to change its mathematical education culture over a three year period. Key changes occurred in four areas: leadership; pedagogy; structures for teaching and learning; and mathematical environments. These included increased professional…

One of the greatest challenges in education today is to adapt and respond to a linguistically and culturally diverse world, and to combat social disintegration and discrimination. Participatory and collaborative action research represents an empowering and emancipatory approach to this challenge because the "target groups" become…