Agentic orientation, critical thinking (CrT) and taking the fourth-person perspective (4PP) are described as teachable attainments. A Personal Viewpoints (PVs) Biblical Studies curriculum challenged Year 7 students to resolve socially problematic situations through group discussion and perspective-taking. A life-issue scenario was used to pre- and…

Although the benefits of addressing cognitive, social and affective aspects of learning in order to support conceptual change have been discussed in the literature, there are few studies of such interventions in the normal classroom. This study used a multidimensional conceptual change framework in order to teach five biology and physics topics…

Assimilating multiple interactive elements simultaneously in working memory to allow understanding to occur, while solving an equation, would impose a high cognitive load. "Element interactivity" arises from the interaction between elements within and across operational and relational lines. Moreover, operating with special features…

The topics of decimals and polygons were taught to two classes by using challenging tasks, rather than the more conventional textbook approach. Students were given a pre-test and a post-test. A comparison between the two classes on the pre- and post-test was made. Prior to teaching through challenging tasks, students were surveyed about their…

Proportional reasoning, the ability to use ratios in situations involving comparison of quantities, is essential for mathematical competence, especially in the middle school years, and is an important determinant of success beyond school. Research shows students find proportional reasoning and its foundational concepts difficult. Proportional…

"Thinking Science" is a 2-year program of professional development for teachers and thinking lessons for students in junior high school science classes. This paper presents research on the effects of "Thinking Science" on students' levels of cognition in Australia. The research is timely, with a general capability focused on…

Eighth grade students in Australia (N = 60) participated in an experiment on learning how to solve percentage change problems in a regular classroom in three conditions: unitary, pictorial, and equation approaches. The procedure involved a pre-test, an acquisition phase, and a post-test. The main goal was to test the relative merits of the three…

As part of a project exploring various aspects of teachers' choice and use of challenging mathematics tasks, we sought some responses from students on their preferences for the difficulty of tasks on which they might work and also on the ways of working. Despite the common finding that teachers are reluctant to pose challenges to their students…

This study investigated how to improve the teaching of problem solving in a large Melbourne secondary school. Coaching was used to support and equip five teachers, some with limited experiences in teaching problem solving, with knowledge and strategies to build up students' problem solving and reasoning skills. The results showed increased…

The aim of this research was to identify whether students of various academic abilities would achieve positive gains in cognitive ability after completing a modified cognitive acceleration program based on the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) program. This research was quasi-experimental in design, with small samples of…

This paper describes part of a mixed-methods study comparing the effectiveness of an individual, conceptual instruction based, tuition program delivered face-to-face and by personal videoconferencing (PVC) for 30 upper primary and middle school students with mathematical learning difficulties (MLDs). The experimental intervention targeted number…

This paper discusses pre-service teachers' responses to a critical analysis of gender/power relations using examples from a final assessment for an intensive elective unit called Teaching Sexuality in the Middle Years. This unit critically examines gender/power relations, the production of difference, heteronormativity and pleasure and desire,…

In this paper, we propose computational scientific inquiry (CSI) as an innovative model for learning important scientific knowledge and new practices for "doing" science. This approach involves the use of a "game-like" virtual world for students to experience virtual biological fieldwork in conjunction with using an agent-based…

As the disparity between educational standards and reality outside educational institutions is increasing, alternative learning infrastructure are challenging traditional modes of teaching. This study was based on an experiment with middle school pupils, pre-service teachers and college lecturers. The aim of this study was to examine the extent to…

The Test of Everyday Reading Comprehension (TERC) has recently been presented as an addition to the armoury of tests available for assessing the skills of low-progress readers. While comparison data for students of different ages are presented together with evidence for high test reliability, there is, as yet, no published evidence for its…