Professional learning that includes coaching is an effective method of supporting teachers to make changes to their teaching practice. This article provides an overview of the initial in-situ professional learning and coaching in a primary school in Western Sydney facilitated by a Mathematics Teaching Educator. In this article I present the…

For students to engage in mathematical thinking, a greater emphasis is needed on the expectations of students, by themselves and others, as active listeners and explainers. As student responsibility for mathematical thinking and participation increases, the roles of the teacher and learner change. A qualitative study of changing classroom…

Self-efficacy has been associated with benefits to everyday life such as resilience to stress and adversity, healthy behaviours, improved performance, and academic achievement. Research into self-efficacy development is scarce in early childhood, yet self-efficacy is associated with numerous skills and competencies taught in the early years of…

Technology can play a pivotal role in mathematics education. Qualitative methods were used to report on how a Year 1-2 teacher incorporated "Conveyance technology" (iPads), to support the teaching and learning of mathematics through student reasoning and problem-solving. The study was conducted in Australia. A single case was chosen,…

Foundation and Year 1/2 teachers at Saint Martin de Porres Primary School, a Catholic School in Laverton, Melbourne have been collaborating with a team of researchers from Monash University on a four-year project led by Professor Peter Sullivan and colleagues. The teachers have been trialling and implementing a series of lesson sequences as part…

This article presents the journey taken by staff at St. Patrick's Primary School in Kilmore to implement a consistent approach to the teaching of mathematics, using an instructional model to support student learning through structured inquiry pedagogies.

The National Quality Framework is used across Australia to drive quality improvement in early childhood settings. Unique to Western Australia, the National Quality Standard is also used in schools to improve quality in classrooms up to Year two (seven to eight years). However, the literature suggests the National Quality Standard is too broad with…

Family engagement in children's learning is an evidence-based approach supporting student learning. This study examines four primary school teachers' family engagement practice, within a non-dominant community. Utilising the framework of Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), the teachers examined their partnerships with families,…

The ability to write is central to students' success at school and beyond, and key to this success is the design and implementation of classroom learning experiences. Teachers' writing lessons are informed by their beliefs about learning, their writing content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. This knowledge supports their…

This paper reports on early years teachers and how often they should devote planning time to anticipating student responses in advance of the lesson. Sixty-five Foundation to Year 2 teachers (students 5-8 years of age) completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of a year-long research-based professional development program. Participants…

Background: On an annual basis, students across Australia in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on their literacy and numeracy skills via the National Assessment Program -- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), with the student performance data used for purposes including national accountability. Purpose: Against this backdrop of large-scale national…

The Australian government funded the West Australian project 'Reporting Values to Parents' as part of 'The Values in Action Schools Project' (2009). The two aims of the qualitative study were to develop a common values language supported by observable behaviours and an appreciation that values education is fundamental to schooling. Teachers used…

This study reports on an early career Year 2 teacher's reflections of enacting specifically structured resource materials and her practice change when participating in a mathematics professional learning project. A qualitative case study was designed to examine the reflections of a teacher's pre-service and in-service teaching experiences. Data…

The idea of variation is a foundation of statistical reasoning, and many curriculum documents, including the "Australian Curriculum", include variation in the learning required for the primary years. In this paper, we consider the design of activities that can exemplify the idea of variation for young students and investigate how…

Engaging students in a challenging (cognitively demanding) task and launching a mathematics lesson with a task before instruction are two characteristics of a reform-oriented approach to mathematics instruction often considered together. The authors systematically contrasted teaching with challenging tasks using a task-first lesson structure with…