An enduring educational dilemma is that young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds do not have their needs met in conventional schooling. As a result, many have left school by Year 11. To counter this trend, some schools in disadvantaged areas introduce targeted in-school interventions before Year 11 to meet the needs of their…

This paper examines the factors that hinder students' success in working with and understanding the mathematics of quadratic equations using a case study analysis of student error patterns. Twenty-five Year 11 students were administered a written test to examine their understanding of concepts and procedures associated with this topic. The…

The "flipped classroom" is gaining popularity in a number of settings, including secondary schools, reflecting a belief that the approach is more engaging and effective for students. This paper reports on a senior secondary mathematics class's experience with adopting a flipped classroom approach. The findings indicate that the teacher…

Whilst the technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) model has been increasingly adopted for understanding teachers' use of technology, there have been many calls for greater discussion about the constituent constructs, their relationship with one another and the central TPACK. This paper analyses qualitatively the TPACK…

In late 2008, the Australian Government announced funding for a national collaborative project to develop a curriculum framework for courses of study in Chinese (Mandarin), Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean for "heritage speakers" of these languages at the senior secondary school level. This article examines some of the issues surrounding…

Past research has documented a link between negative problem orientation (NPO) and poor emotional well-being, but little of this research has focused on adolescence or has collected multiple waves of data. The authors conducted a 3-wave longitudinal survey of 841 adolescents in Grades 8, 9, and 10 (428 boys, 411 girls, 2 unidentified). The survey…

A summer school in Science and Technology was held in January 2008 for nineteen Indigenous students commencing year 11 who were identified as having high academic potential in science and mathematics. Known as the Aboriginal Summer School for Excellence in Technology and Science (ASSETS) the summer school was held at the Australian Science and…

Many of the explanations for girls' disinterest in physics focus on the role of the educational system in creating this situation. Here, we use evidence from free-choice science learning settings to study if this lack of interest is also expressed in non-school settings. Three sets of self-generated questions raised by children, adolescents and…