Self-regulating strategy development (SRSD) writing instruction is an evidence-based approach that has been shown to increase students' writing performance and knowledge of writing. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether early elementary students' story writing performance and knowledge of writing would change following 5 weeks of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Family Involvement Questionnaire--Elementary Version with families in Belize. Participants were 185 primary caregivers of children in primary education settings in Belize. Caregivers were given the Family Involvement Questionnaire--Elementary Version to measure their educational…

The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of the Family Involvement Questionnaire--Elementary Version with families in Belize. Participants were 185 primary caregivers of children in primary education settings in Belize. Caregivers were given the Family Involvement Questionnaire--Elementary Version to measure their educational…

This article reports on the understandings and practices of primary teachers in implementing the arts curriculum since the 2010 introduction of National Standards in Numeracy and Literacy within the New Zealand Education system. The ever-mounting pressure on schools to perform to these standards has resulted in a reduction of emphasis and time…

This paper reports on the illuminatory and exploratory phase of a study into how two educational systems are interconnecting content, policy, and teaching practice into science professional development (PD). New Zealand implemented a new curriculum in 2007 for full implementation in 2010, which should have altered how science was delivered in…

Removing barriers to learning for children with mild to moderate disabilities in mainstream primary classrooms calls for creative approaches that exploit the cognitive and sensory strengths of each child. Although their efficacy has not been fully explored, pictorial, symbolic and written supports are often used with the intention of helping…

Current curriculum demands require primary teachers to teach about the Nature of Science; yet, few primary teachers have had opportunity to learn about science as a discipline. Prior schooling and vicarious experiences of science may shape their beliefs about science and, as a result, their science teaching. This qualitative study describes the…

This pilot study aimed to test the well-being effects of a locally developed mindfulness-based program tailored for New Zealand elementary school children in comparison with an active control condition. It was hypothesized that significantly greater well-being change scores would be observed for the mindfulness group. Students (n = 106) between 9…

School efforts to engage parents are posited to influence whether and how they are involved in their children's schooling. The authors examined educators' engagement efforts in beginning reading, their subjective evaluations of engagement practices, and beliefs about parent involvement, in two stratified samples of New Zealand elementary school…

The self-efficacy beliefs of 140 generalist teachers for teaching dance in the New Zealand curriculum were surveyed using an adapted version of the Teachers' Sense of Self-efficacy scale (TSES) developed by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001). Four hypotheses were created to test relationships between the participants' self-efficacy beliefs…

The class climate is acknowledged as being related to student learning. Students learn more in classrooms that are supportive and caring. However, there are few class climate instruments at the elementary school level. The aim of the current study was to assess the measurement invariance of a recently developed scale in a different context (New…

Emotional skills underpin what teachers do. However, relatively few studies have investigated whether these skills can be formally learnt by teachers and the benefits enhancing teachers' social-emotional skills may have on students. The current research aimed to develop an intervention to improve teachers' social-emotional skills in the classroom…

This study aimed to examine which genres parents are reading to children and for themselves. Furthermore, it aimed to examine mothers' and fathers' shared reading strategies for different book genres in relation to children's language and literacy development. Parents shared a narrative and an expository book with their preschool-aged children.…

Current concerns about a childhood obesity crisis and children's physical activity levels have combined to justify fitness lessons as a physical education practice in New Zealand primary (elementary) schools. Researchers focused on children's understandings of fitness lessons argue that they construct fitness as a quest for an "ideal"…

This article reports on the findings of original field research carried out in the small island developing state of Fiji, in the South Pacific. A North-South research partnership was built upon previous collaboration between team members and, in so doing, pioneered the blending of Pacific and Western research approaches sensitive to a postcolonial…