Teachers and researchers work hard to discover the most effective ways of teaching mathematics in the primary classroom. When searching for new tasks to teach or ways to adapt a task to fit the class's profile, they often "phone a friend," drawing on the know-how and knowledge of colleagues and experts. Other articles in this issue…

There are a wide range of provisions to be considered when catering for the mathematically gifted student(s) in the classroom. These include acceleration, enrichment, differentiation, curriculum compacting, mentorships, and competitions. The focus for this article is specifically on the use of competitions as one provision for the education of…

This paper explores the possibilities for building research-oriented, school-engaged teacher education through the professional learning of volunteer teacher-researchers. Volunteerism in education covers a broad spectrum of people and activities ranging from working in school canteens to supporting language and literacy programs. This paper…

This paper identifies the ways in which the Productive Pedagogies framework has been refined as a research tool for evaluating classroom practice within a current study into issues of school reform in Queensland. Initially emerging from the landmark Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (1998-2001), the Productive Pedagogies has been taken…

There has been growing interest in linking the learning of Science with the literacies of Science and representations. Recent attention has been focused on learning theories that emphasise the socio-cultural and situated aspects of learning, and in particular the notion of learning as participation in a discourse community. This paper will…

Literacy today is characterised by rapidly changing and emergent forms of meaning making in the context of increased cultural and linguistic diversity, giving rise to the multiliteracies pedagogy of the New London Group. This article responds to these imperatives, reporting findings from a critical ethnography investigating the interactions…

This article tells the story of one student who chooses her personal interest in pigeons and their lifestyle to demonstrate her understanding of measurement concepts. The student's work is used to consider the possibilities for assessment afforded by tasks designed within reform-based curricula. Anita (pseudonym) was a Grade 6 student who was part…

Mathematics games are widely employed in school classrooms for such reasons as a reward for early finishers or to enhance students' attitude towards mathematics. During a four week period, a total of 222 Grade 5 and 6 (9 to 12 years old) children from Melbourne, Australia, were taught multiplication and division of decimal numbers using calculator…

This study tested whether an individual's beliefs about the importance of appearance in their life is a mediator of sociocultural influences on body dissatisfaction in young girls. Participants were 265 girls in Grades 4 to 7 (M age = 10.71 years) from 5 private primary schools in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. Girls completed…

As environmental changes become a significant societal issue, elementary science curricula need to develop students' understanding about the key concepts of energy and climate change. For teachers, developing quality learning experiences involves establishing what their students' prior understanding about energy and climate change are. A survey…

The relationship between forward and backward digit span and basic cognitive processes was examined. Subjects were administered measures of sequential processing, simultaneous processing, and planning. Correlational analyses indicated the serial processing character of forward digit span, and the relationship between backward digit span and…

Language teachers are called upon to understand both the nature of students' intercultural competence and their own role in its development. Limited research attention has been paid to the relationship between the types of behaviour that language teachers model and the intercultural competence their students acquire. This article reports on a case…

From a group of 107 Australian sixth graders, a treatment group completed 10 weeks of career education activities. They had better understanding of occupational information sources, more interest in career information, and better perception of the relationship of school to potential jobs than did the control group. Many had gender stereotypical…

Recent publications continue to show that significant numbers of students in junior grades, while competent in basic ruler skills, seem not to have acquired important concepts about how rulers work and units of length. This paper reports on the results of a set of tasks completed by students from Grades 5 and 6. The results show that many students…

Reports the performance of grade six students in the Australian Primary Schools Mathematics Competition for 1990 to 1992 and provides general comparisons across states. Results showed that, overall, boys outperformed girls. Appendix contains selected competition questions. (MKR)