Teachers in the early years of primary school play an important role in supporting students' oral language skills; however, there is evidence to suggest many Australian teachers are not adequately prepared to provide systematic, evidence-based instruction in oral language and early literacy. The aim of this study was to describe the observed and…

Based on a one-year longitudinal experimental study with 3,782 kindergarten school children across 15 countries, this article examines the association between prayer and happiness. Results show that the post-test scores on the faces scale were higher for the participant group who had taken the prayer lessons vis-à-vis the comparison group.…

Students living in disadvantaged contexts and whose second language is English (ESL) are at risk of not succeeding in school mathematics. It has been internationally recognised that students' socioeconomic background and their achievements in mathematics is more pronounced for Australian students (Thomson et al. 2011). This gap is even more…

Language and literacy skills are instrumental to success at school and early success with writing is a key factor in literacy development. By eight years of age, children spend up to half of their school day engaged in writing tasks suggesting that those who find learning to write difficult may be disadvantaged. The ability to hear and record…

The response-to-intervention model is predicated upon increasingly intensive tiers of instruction. The aim of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a Tier-2 small-group literacy intervention ("MiniLit") designed for young readers who are still struggling after experiencing whole-class initial instruction. A total of 22…

The gap between young Indigenous and non-Indigenous students' capability within mathematics is widely acknowledged. This gap is conjectured to exist at all levels of schooling, including pre-school, and widens as students mature. Most of these findings are based on research relating to students' understanding of number and space. Little is known…