The relationship between teaching practices and student achievement in first year classes

This study investigated the links between the teaching practices of primary school teachers (n = 200) who were observed while presenting a new text to their first year classes, and the student achievement levels in those classes. The teaching practices are specifically concerned with the way the teachers supported and encouraged students’ activities during verbal interactions. Two different populations were observed: classes of first year students with a reduced teacher–student ratio (about ten students per class) and classes with a normal teacher–student ratio (between 20 and 25 students per class). We found that the average level of student achievement in the reduced size classes was higher than in the standard size classes but that teaching practices differed only at precise periods of group or individual introduction to new reading texts. In these periods, we found links between teaching practices and student achievement.     

Are schools meeting their clients' expectations? Parents voice their perceptions about children learning to read in schools today

This research, as part of a larger project examining effective reading instruction for 10–12 year old students, explores the perceptions of thirteen parents in six schools. The study identified: parents recognise their engagement in reading with their children impacts on children's motivation to read; parents have concerns about the degree to which schools meet children's reading needs; and some parents seek external assessment and support. The study as a whole indicates the importance of effective home school relationships.     

Learning to teach mathematics through inquiry: a focus on the relationship between describing and enacting inquiry-oriented teaching

This article is based on one of the several case studies of recent graduates of a teacher education programme that is founded upon inquiry-based, field-oriented and learner-focussed principles and practices and that is centrally concerned with shaping teachers who can enact strong inquiry-based practices in Kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. The analysis draws on interviews with one graduate, and on video data collected in his multi-aged Grade 1/2 classroom, to explore some of the ways in which this new teacher enacted inquiry-based teaching approaches in his first year of teaching and to consider his capacity to communicate his understanding of inquiry. This article presents implications for beginning teachers’ collaborative practices, for the assessment of new teachers and for practices in preservice teacher education.     

The first year university experience: using personal epistemology to understand effective learning and teaching in higher education

Personal epistemological beliefs, or beliefs about knowing, provide a way in which to understand learning in a range of educational contexts because they are considered to act as filters for all other knowledge and beliefs. In particular, they provide a useful framework for investigating learning and teaching for first year students in tertiary education, who are typically considered to hold less sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Using semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the nature of beliefs about knowing and learning of 35 first year teacher education and creative writing students at a large metropolitan university in Australia. The interview analysis indicated that a relationship existed between individuals’ core beliefs about knowing and their beliefs about learning. This relationship has implications for the way in which we support first year students’ learning as they transition into university and progress through their courses.     

Middle School Choices for Bilingual Latino/A Youth: When the Magnet School Represents “Status” and the Neighborhood School Represents “Solidarity”

Drawing on data collected during the second year of a longitudinal qualitative study that followed over 10 Latino/a bilingual students, this article foregrounds the experiences of participants during their sixth-grade year. The principle data sources included structured and unstructured interviews with teachers and students, school observations, and weekly small-group conversations in a courtyard outside of their classrooms. We focus on the experiences of Leila, Maricela, and Esperanza who were three of the sixth-grade girls actively recruited by their teachers to attend the district’s magnet school program for their upcoming seventh grade-year instead of their neighborhood middle school. We found that much of the reasoning behind their decision-making process centered around issues of status (e.g., how the magnet school offered better academic, economic, and professional opportunities for their future) and solidarity (e.g., attending the neighborhood school with their friends and siblings). In conclusion, we problematize the very nature of these so-called educational ‘choices’ for bilingual Latino/a youth.     

Re-examining cognition during student-centered,Web-based learning

During student-centered learning, the individual assumes responsibility for determining learning goals, monitoring progress toward meeting goals, adjusting or adapting approaches as warranted, and determining when individual goals have been adequately addressed. This can be particularly challenging while learning from the World-Wide Web, where billions of resources address a variety of needs. The individual must identify which tools and resources are available and appropriate, how to assemble them, and how to manage and support their unique learning goals. We analyze the applicability of cognitive principles to learning from Web-based multimedia, review and critically analyze issues related to cognition and student-centered learning from Web-based multimedia, and describe implications for design research and practice.     

Unsettling orthodoxies: education for the environment/for sustainability

In this paper I employ Foucault's notion of governmentality to reflect on a debate that occurred in the pages of this journal some 10 years ago. I argue that their exchanges indicate ways in which various positions are engaged in a struggle for dominance in this field, and how particular strategies are used to legitimate and maintain these positions. My purpose is not to propose a new orthodoxy – or even to critique those we have – but rather to raise questions about how the unquestioned ‘that‐which‐is’ of orthodoxies comes to be, and their effects. I also suggest that as environmental educators and researchers, we need to work harder to unsettle more often the taken‐for‐granted in environmental education so that we remain alert to our own easy acceptance of orthodoxies. Without this, we risk our exhortations to those we seek to educate – to think critically, to question assumptions, and so forth – becoming empty rhetoric if we are not practising these ourselves – examining our own, as well as others', assumptions and practices.