The 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher background and experience, curriculum and instruction, and the availability and use of instructional resources. A total of 7,752 science and mathematics teachers in schools across the United…

Despite increasing emphasis on preparing more and better teachers and despite the near universal presence of student teaching across teacher education programs (TEPs), numerous questions about what and how student teaching experiences contribute to preservice teachers' development remain unanswered. Indeed, much of the attention focused on student…

Traineeships were introduced alongside apprenticeships to increase the reach of contracted training to a wider range of occupations and industries and to a broader range of learners (particularly women) and to improve the labour market prospects of young people. Traineeships have given hundreds of thousands of Australians access to nationally…

Today there is an accelerating trend towards qualifications frameworks as an instrument to develop, classify and recognise formal learning across the African continent, as is also the case across most of Europe, Australasia and the Asia-Pacific region. As more and more countries and regions across the world develop qualifications frameworks to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that perceived collective efficacy would mediate the effects of self-efficacy on individual task performance. Design/methodology/approach: An assessment center design with 147 participants in 49 three-person groups was used. Findings: It is found that for individuals working on an…

This paper is an author-edited transcript of a presentation to the ALIA Public Libraries Summit, Canberra, July 2009. The author starts off by talking about what people know about children, early reading and a literate Australia. He then discusses three main reasons why public libraries have had success in children's literacy and related programs,…

The aim of this article is to provide a Habermasian-inspired approach to the application of educational technologies. Such an approach is advocated here in order to counter voices that are critical of the idea of applying technology in the classroom, as well as current (instrumentalist) views that uncritically and unreflectively embrace…

In order to protect indigenous/traditional knowledge, intellectual property law must be leveraged in a way that is responsive to the dynamic inter-relationships between law, society and culture. Over the last decade, increased attention to Indigenous concerns has produced a wealth of literature and prompted recognition of the diverse needs of…

Motivation to transfer is essential for the transfer of training. Without motivation, newly acquired knowledge and skills will not be applied at work. The purpose of this integrative literature review is to summarize, critique, and synthesize past transfer motivation research and to offer directions for future investigations. First, seven…

This qualitative study was designed to investigate teachers' perceptions of the impact of inclusion of children with special needs on their classes. Twenty participants were randomly selected from the 25 teachers who had volunteered for the study. These teacher participants completed a survey which was composed of 62 items dealing with attitudes…

In November 2005, the International Olympic Committee's Medical Commission issued a statement on "Training the elite child athlete" recommending that "more scientific research be done to better identify the parameters of training the elite child athlete". This paper focuses on a specific issue related to training the child athlete: early…

What are the prospects for joining religious education and human rights education? (1) Human rights educators may cite good historical and philosophical reasons for teaching about human rights without making any reference whatsoever to a religious foundation. (2) For their part, many religious communities have resisted opportunities to form…

Educators and policy makers have placed leadership development at the top of the school reform agenda, believing that aspiring and new school leaders can learn the necessary skills to improve the most challenging schools. Leadership development builds the capacity of educators (teachers and administrators) to be effective in leadership roles or…

Context: The Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 allowed some rural hospitals meeting certain requirements to convert to Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and changed their Medicare reimbursement from prospective to cost-based. Some subsequent CAH-related laws reduced restrictions and increased payments, and the number of CAHs grew rapidly. Purpose:…

Over the last decade, awareness about the changing nature of children's play has gradually increased, leading to some concerns that outdoor play, particularly unstructured outdoor play, is rapidly declining. Reasons for these changes are diverse and multilayered, rooted in ever-evolving sets of social and parental expectations and the children's…