Background: Children and young adolescents are reaching puberty earlier. Providing information about such changes before puberty can help them develop in a more competent and informed manner. Context and Objective: UNESCO's "International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education" forms a comprehensive, evidence-based, authoritative…

This article traces the development of the Dick and Jane texts, examining the dominent intellectual and economic considerations of their authors and publishers in order to demystify their transmission of values, beliefs, and meanings. (MT)

The relationship between literacy achievement in schools, socioeconomic marginality and cultural difference has been a central theme in literacy research since the late 1960s emergence of civil rights movements. Contemporary approaches to literacy education all begin from the assumption that "more" or "better" reading and…

It is an underlying principle of Australian Education Review (AER) 54 that active efforts should be made to cultivate the latent bilingual potential within Australia's wider population and that this should be linked to major improvements in the quality of language teaching in schools. A combined approach of this kind will require investment in…

Although many children change schools during the course of a school year, itinerant fruit pickers' children in Australia often move residences as well as schools on a regular basis, generally attending at least two schools per year. Although research has argued that time missed at school and change of schools is often disruptive to children's…

Documenting an educational experiment that began in Sydney, Australia, this book presents essays by theorists and practitioners in the genre literacy movement that describe this approach to literacy instruction in a clear, practical, and accessible way. The book notes that the genre approach to literacy teaching emphasizes content, structure, and…

This report discusses the outcomes of a project that examined the social and contextual factors that underpin the identification of elementary students as having learning disabilities. Data were collected in a primary education classroom in Queensland, Australia. Initially the teacher was interviewed on teaching practices, the literacy curriculum,…

Presents an historical case study on the transplanting of curricular and instructional practices to Queensland (Australia) from the United States. Focuses on two eras of curriculum development and reform from 1969-71 and 1981-89. Finds that curriculum workers in the 1980s were more distanced from the efforts in the United States. (CMK)

Summarizes results of a longitudinal study fitting multilevel models to three waves of data on literacy progress for three cohorts of Australian elementary students. Provides estimates of prior achievement and social background influences on student progress and examines effects of grouping practices and other classroom variables. Attentiveness…

Examines the transplanting of curricular and instructional practices from the United States to the state educational system of Queensland (Australia) from 1969 to 1981. Provides an overview of the involvement of curriculum workers and the contextual influences that impacted their work. Discusses the educators' reaction to the social studies…

Queensland, Australia, is embarking on a massive limited bilingual second-language learning program for all students in the first eight years of school. Potential implementation problems and implications for the wider society are discussed, including the effect of the emphasis on studying Asian languages. (Contains 40 references.) (Author/LB)

The effect that television programs have on the socialization of children is examined. As traditional sources of socialization have declined, and children's viewing of television has dramatically increased, it is important to consider just what children are learning from television programs about the world and their place in it. A study of the…

A study was conducted to identify aspects of self-knowledge about general cognitive activities, such as cognitive screening tests routinely used in school, hospital, and community settings. The study used SYSTEMS (R. Ouvrier and others, 1995), a brief one-to-one screening test that indicates whether a child requires full cognitive assessment. The…

This report evaluates school-based initiatives aimed at eliminating educational disadvantages at a small, rural state primary school in Meiki, New South Wales (Australia). Meiki is a small impoverished community of approximately 850 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. The community has a history of racial tension that directly affects the school…