We investigated effects of tracking students into higher, more academic, and lower, less academic, school types immediately after primary school (early tracking) instead of having a comprehensive secondary school system (late tracking) on school gender segregation and gender gaps in achievement outcomes. We assumed that, in early tracking…

Exploring why more boys than girls continue to study higher levels of mathematics in senior school when there appear to be no gender differences in achievement in earlier years is worthy of investigation. There are potentially many reasons why this occurs including career aspirations, interest, and attitudes. One factor explored in this study was…

The "Australian Curriculum: History" has emerged out of a neoliberal federal education policy landscape. This is a policy landscape where pragmatic and performative, rather than pedagogic concerns are clearly foregrounded, and this has implications for curriculum development and implementation. A useful way to conceptualise the features,…

Overall, the educational achievement of rural and regional students is lower than that of students elsewhere. To address uneven student achievement, a regional NSW high school, in collaboration with the local university, adopted a whole school approach to literacy teaching and learning. The literacy pedagogy adopted by the school has been applied…

Examines seventh and eighth grade students in Australia, Japan, and the United States for attitudes related to mathematics, and the relationship these attitudes have to students' development of abstract mathematical thought and spatial relations. Study uses the Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test, Differential Aptitude Test-Spatial Relations, and the…

The author discusses the aims, outline, and evaluation of an existing self-paced ungraded mathematics program for grades eight, nine, and ten. (MN)

Research on gender differences in classroom interaction patterns is reviewed. The analysis of 24 Year 8 science lessons in Brisbane, Australia, indicates that the interaction patterns of girls are not significantly different from those of boys. Suggestions for future classroom interaction research based on more complex perspectives are proposed.…

Compared self-ratings with teacher-ratings of adolescents' Type A Behavior Pattern for 80 eighth-grade and 70 eleventh-grade students. Data indicated that there were significant differences in ratings from these two sources, with little predictive power from teachers' ratings to adolescents' ratings. Findings have implications for reliable and…

Determined reliability/usefulness of a simple anxiety measure administered to 2,068 grade eight and nine students. Also found relationships between anxiety and such classroom characteristics as participation, teacher support, and competition. Suggests use of the measure in guiding teachers to change classrooms to reduce student anxiety. (JN)

Investigated the efficacy of an instructional program designed to induce students to construct a mental scheme in which experimental design and natural experiments are understood as facets of the same problems and which incorporates a general solution procedure applicable to both. Results show a highly significant posttest achievement by the…

Focuses on the challenges associated with the introduction of language education in a secondary classroom containing learners of diverse backgrounds. Presents the results of action research of two groups of girls studying French. Findings indicate that a large group of learners can develop language skills through pair work and group activities and…

This study of Third International Mathematics and Science Study results addresses the issue of resource availability in rural and urban Australian schools, considering student attitudes toward math and science and career aspirations. Rural schools are more adequately resourced than urban ones. Students' attitudes and aspirations positively affect…

The free writing responses of 120 gifted/average Australian high school students (grades 8, 10, and 12) to a short story and a poem were coded according to Alan Purves' categories--engagement, perception, interpretation, evaluation, or miscellaneous--to detect any patterns of differences. The students also provided data about their preferences for…

Grade level and sex differences in attitudes to English, mathematics, social studies and art were explored among a sample of students in grades 7 through 10. Student attitudes generally were most favorable toward English, then toward mathematics, social studies, and (least favorable) art. (Author/MLW)

Structural equation models were used to examine the paths from school grades and self-concept to subsequent course selection for 246 male 8th- and 10th-grade Catholic school students in Australia. Specific components of self-concept were more strongly related to course selection than were grades, a finding with implications for the study of…