The current push for principals' to be accountable for student outcomes has led to a renewed interest in the role of leadership in instructional improvement. This article describes the development and validation of a survey that focused on organisational management features that are likely to bring about improvement in instruction. The development…

A significant body of research documents the negative consequences of dropping out of school for both the individual and society. In attempting to respond to the problem of early school leaving, schools and systems internationally have put in place a range of system-level and local responses such as mentoring, targeted additional career guidance…

The effective use of an interactive whiteboard (IWB) in teacher-education institutions depends strongly on student teachers' intention of using it. Despite the recent surge in published research on the widespread applications for IWBs in teaching and learning, few have developed a model to elucidate the factors which influence student teachers'…

The gender-related challenges facing males entering the primary-school teaching profession have been well documented in the academic literature over recent decades. The majority of these data have come about through qualitative reports. Whilst qualitative methods provide important perspectives into these issues, the use of valid and reliable…

Purpose: Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), the purpose of this paper is to develop a framework and instrument to measure the organisational capabilities of university schools/departments. In doing so, this study provides evidence of the way competitive resources are bundled to generate organisational capabilities that give university…

Background: Having an objective means of evaluating the quality of behaviour support plans (BSPs) could assist service providers and statutory authorities to monitor and improve the quality of support provided to people with intellectual disability (ID) who exhibit challenging behaviour. The Behaviour Support Plan Quality Evaluation Guide II…

Results from the Survey of Adult Skills, also known as PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies), were recently made available for 24 participating countries. PIAAC involves several developments in relation to the earlier international "adult skills" surveys (IALS in the 1990s and ALL in the 2000s), notably…

Drawing on studies of successful remote schools in one region of Australia, it was found that two key strategies were common in the approaches at these schools. First, to make the strategies and expectations being adopted explicit to all those involved in the learning enterprise, and second, that consistency in approaches was crucial. Bourdieu's…

This study reflects that teacher education in Health and Physical Education (HPE) has long grappled with the challenge of how to disrupt pre-service teachers' (PSTs) established attitudes about HPE that may limit their capacity to positively engage with a diverse student population. This paper describes the development, validation and…

As with other countries, Australia has been grappling with the identification, measurement and impact of disadvantage in higher education. In particular, the measurement of socio-economic status (SES) has been of central concern. The immediate solution in Australia has been the introduction of an "area" measure in which students' SES is…

Based on Chickering and Gamson's (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice, this research project attempted to revitalize the principles by merging them with Merrill's (2006) Different Levels of Instructional Strategy. The aim was to develop, validate, and standardize a measurement instrument (DLISt7) using a pretest-posttest Internet…

The purpose of this study is to describe the development and validation of a survey that examines science students' social media learning behaviours. Inherent in critiques regarding "digital natives" is a need to better understand what the current generation of learners actually do in their social media practices for…

Systematic reviews of literature are studies that strategically search for published research on a specific topic in order to synthesize what is known about the topic. This systematic review describes 157 articles on synchronous online learning (SOL) from thirty-four different countries on instructional setting, content areas, participant…

Purpose: The International Tennis Federation recently launched a worldwide campaign advocating the use of equipment scaling for children learning to play tennis. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence that varying racquet sizes and ball compressions had on children's ability to play a forehand groundstroke. Method: This was a…

Background: In attempting to evaluate an intervention programme designed to improve English literacy outcomes in children in a remote indigenous community in Australia, the need for valid and culturally appropriate measures of the factors likely to impact on literacy development became apparent. One factor considered likely to be of importance was…