Self-explanation prompts are questions that encourage students to explain their reasoning. In this article Kelly, Laura and Julie explain the benefits of using self-explanation prompts for teachers, describe how they align with the Australian Curriculum, and provide instructions for creating them.

This paper argues that there is scope for considerable change and improvement in the way in which Poetry is taught at Key Stage Two in Northern Ireland. In making this case for significant improvement, the paper has three interconnected parts. In the first part, a range of critical ideas highlight the richness of poetry as a literary genre.…

Integrated approaches to curriculum planning and delivery are not a recent phenomenon. In the 1930s John Dewey advocated for a more cohesive conceptualisation of students' learning. Yet, despite state and national endorsement of curriculum integration in Australia, it is generally considered an alternative curriculum design that has failed to gain…

Walter Humphries and Kathryn Evans outline the aims of the new Welsh curriculum and demonstrate how neatly the Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC) problem-solving approach dovetails with the aims of the new 2015 curriculum for Welsh schools.

Research shows that students benefit when they explain their mathematical reasoning (e.g., Booth et al., 2015); however, not all students will do this on their own without being prompted (Berthold, Eysink, & Renkl, 2009). Self-explanation prompts are questions posed to a student that encourage the student to explain what they have learned…

Making accurate, manageable assessments of children's scientific understanding, skills and progress is one of the biggest challenges facing primary teachers. In Wales, where Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs) at age 11 were phased out in 2005, teacher assessment has been the only source of pupil attainment data in science for a much longer period…

The introduction of the Australian Curriculum in 2011 and 2012 brought with it a variety of responses, from consternation from some states less willing to give up their autonomous curriculum positioning through to significant optimism from educators and academics about the opportunities and benefits afforded by such a national curriculum…

The need to address culture in the language learning process has been emphasized as a means to promote both intercultural awareness and communicative language curricula. In countries such as Turkey, this has been an ongoing concern in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) education. Thus, attempts have been made to enhance the…

The aim of this study was to investigate the localized training for teachers during the reform of the education system in Kuwait between 2015 and 2017. It focuses on analyzing the professional development plans that were delivered to teachers for four core subjects in elementary and middle public schools. A mixed-method approach was employed,…

Australia has a National Numeracy Learning Progression (NNLP) that is strongly aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. This article examines how a sub-element within this progression could be impacting students' learning of Science. This sub-element is firmly based on Mathematics education research as to how students build their…

The Craft of Writing (CoW) is an intervention aimed at improving the writing skills, writing self-efficacy and writing creativity (ideation) of primary school pupils by developing teachers as 'writers' and improving their own writing practice and their teaching of writing. This intervention was delivered to Year 5 pupils between June 2018 and July…

In this article we examine the profiling of human rights and children's rights in religious education (RE) and its secular alternative in Finland. We use the term 'worldview education' to describe the combination of these subjects. We analyse what kinds of human rights and ethical issues are raised in Finnish worldview education. One specific…

While helping students develop informed views about nature of scientific inquiry (VNOSI) has been emphasised in science education, little is known regarding students' current VNOSI at a certain grade level and whether there was evidence of higher attainment of VNOSI in students in higher grades as compared to lower grades? The purpose of this…

This research aims at describing the 2013 Curriculum implementation for science learning on the planning, classroom implementation, and assessment stages, as well as the obstacles faced by teachers and their efforts to overcome them. This qualitative research was by involving Grade 4 teachers, students, and the principal of a primary school in…

This article presents an analysis of contextual tasks to support the development of counting in Foundation Year classrooms. The tasks allowed the students to engage in authentic and realistic number experiences on which to build their understandings of early number.