There is a growing concern that governmental calls for parental involvement in children's school mathematics learning have not been underpinned by research. In this article the authors aim to offer a contribution to this debate. Links between children's home and school mathematical practices have been researched in sociocultural studies, but the…

This study investigated the trajectories of preschool and first-grade childrens development of reading skills, as well as the cognitive and social antecedents of that development. One-hundred and ninety-six 5- to 6-year-old children were tested in October and April of their preschool year and again in the first grade. Data included measures of…

In this age of new media, children are exposed to media messages at an early age. What can we do when the mass media exert such a great influence on children? One proposal has been for the introduction of a new school subject: media education. Though media education has not been part of the official curriculum in Hong Kong, some schools, both…

A literature-based survey gathered 331 final-year preservice teachers' perceptions of their mentoring in primary science education from nine Australian universities. Data were analysed within five factors proposed for mentoring (i.e., Personal Attributes, System Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling, and Feedback). Results indicated that…

The usefulness of lesson observation in in-service education and training in a developing country is examined. Research data from a three-year INSET programme in Namibia is adduced with the aim of contributing to the relevant literature on lesson observation in INSET. The aim is to use the data to begin to fill a gap in the INSET literature…

The construct of "situational interest" involves the identification of classroom factors that arouse student interest, but previous research has focussed on non-science domains such as reading or mathematics. The first aim of this study was to identify the sources of situational interest in a science content/methods course for primary teacher…

This article describes a small-scale study which emanated from the concern of the head teachers and staff of two primary schools serving deprived, multicultural areas of an inner city. The concern of the staff related to the level of their pupils' spoken language skills through the schools and the perceived impact that this has on pupils learning…

In this paper I argue that language policies for education have effects on pupils' educational possibilities. With the case of the Karagwe district in Tanzania the research suggests that the policy of "Swahili only" in primary school education favours the small minority of the children that live in a context where Swahili is used. This…

Even the youngest readers and writers in today's classrooms can benefit enormously from engagement with a wide range of traditional and nontraditional texts. This teacher-friendly handbook is packed with creative strategies for introducing K-3 students to fiction, poetry, and plays; informational texts; graphic novels; digital storytelling;…

Austin Independent School District provided full-day prekindergarten to 5,196 4-year-olds in 2008-2009 at 66 schools. Seventy percent or more of students made measureable gains on a test of receptive vocabulary, and average gains showed growth about two times greater than that expected for 4-year-olds after a 7-month period.

This paper reviews the work on gendered achievement in the English-speaking Caribbean, with its often explicit focus on underachieving males. However, patterns of gendered achievement are more likely region-specific and variegated in some contexts. In Trinidad and Tobago, the full-scale implementation of national assessments in 2004 provided an…

Many state standards require teaching students about award-winning books, which can be a daunting task considering the number of Caldecott Medal winners. This author, a library media specialist at Mill Creek Elementary in Statesboro, Georgia, describes an efficient, creative, and energizing strategy she devised that enabled her to teach the…

In an age of scientific method much of any individual's thinking is quantitative. He lives in a world in which every situation involves concepts of quantity, amount, size, or number. He employs number language, that is, number names and signs to express his quantitative ideas. These various number names and signs constitute the medium for his…

Based on the exploratory study of a 3D multiuser virtual environment (3D MUVE), known as Quest Atlantis (QA), in a series of Primary Four (10- to 11-year-olds) Science lessons at Orchard Primary School in Singapore, this paper examines the issues of learning engagement and describes the socio-cultural context of QA's implementation. The students…

The study analyzes the achievement trends of all third grade students in the state of Illinois who scored in the Exceeds category in reading and mathematics on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) in the year 2000. ISAT performance of this cohort group of students was followed through the eighth grade. Descriptive analyses were utilized…