The barriers to school attendance that affect young Aboriginal people in Australia are diverse, immense and well documented; however, except for a handful of studies, Aboriginal students' voices receive no platform for policy makers to hear them. In this paper, we present results from yarning circles about barriers to school attendance conducted…

An open classroom climate, one where diverse opinions and discussion of social and political issues are welcome, promotes civic development among youth and fosters critical consciousness. Critical consciousness, defined as the capacity to recognize societal inequity along with the motivation and action taken to challenge such inequity and promote…

New analytical tools have facilitated the exploration of the trajectories of alcohol use; however, there are a limited number of studies that explore early adolescence. A sample of 5,903 youths followed from sixth through eighth grade was used to (1) examine the trajectories of alcohol use and (2) determine the degree to which common correlates…

In scientific arguments, claims must have meaning that extends beyond the immediate circumstances of an investigation. That is, claims must be generalised in some way. Therefore, teachers facilitating classroom argumentation must be prepared to support students' efforts to construct or criticise generalised claims. However, widely used…

This study explores strategies students use to construct their academic engagement in the social environment of school. The study is based on group interview data collected from 161 sixth (78) and eighth (83) grade students. Students reflected both engaging and disengaging episodes. Data were content analysed. The results show that students…

Mathematics teachers, researchers and specialists in educational technology from Quebec, Canada developed virtual tools that make interactive simulations of games of chance. These tools were presented to a group of teachers from New Brunswick through workshops and they then got to test and validate them with their students. Semi-structured…

Students often voice computations during group discussions of mathematics problems. Yet, this type of private speech has received little attention from mathematics educators or researchers. In this article, we use excerpts from middle school students' group mathematical discussions to illustrate and describe "computational private…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to determine the pedagogical value of Wiki technology-enhanced instruction for middle grade students. The sample consisted of three Wiki projects representative of work from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade middle school students. The examination of the data collected from the three samples of Wiki…

Online conversations help teachers engage in constructive criticism and attend more carefully to aligning lesson plans with problem solving. This article describes a strategy for using an online discussion board to help teachers evaluate one another's lesson plans. The online peer-review activity suggests that fostering critical pedagogical…

This paper describes how gestures are used to enhance scaffolding that occurs in small group settings. Sixth and eighth grade students participated in an elective science course focused on earth science concepts with a substantial spatial visualization component. Gestures that students used in small group discussions were analyzed and four…