Science curriculum and pedagogy offer ideal avenues for teaching young people the critical thinking skills they need to live in a post-truth world. Drawing on the theory of epistemic cognition, we present a selection of research-based pedagogies that have been shown to be effective in developing school students' understanding of knowledge and how…

This research was designed to investigate the conceptualisations and thinking strategies Indigenous Australian students use in counting tasks. Eighteen Aboriginal students, in years 1 to 11 at a remote community school, were interviewed using standard counting tasks and a "counting" task that involved fetching "maku" (witchetty…

The ability to interpret information from any source, and increasingly visual sources, is a vital skill for all graduates in contemporary culture. The development of the skills to read visual texts and communicate that understanding requires a certain level of critical thinking and reflection, skills which can only be developed over time, through…

Examines the processes of science focusing on the higher-order skills and the role that relevance may play in their acquisition. Argues that an open inquiry style of instruction appears best suited to stimulating the learning of process skills because it allows students to pursue problems of genuine relevance. Contains 26 references. (JRH)

This is a record of the proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of the conference is "Mathematics: Essential research, essential practice." The theme draws attention to the importance of developing and maintaining links between research and practice and…