The late 20th Century saw the rapid rise of quality assurance and effectiveness measures in most industries and organisations. These trends were very much reflected in education at all levels. An associated emergent trend in primary and secondary education in Australia was growth in the use of standardised measures of student achievement that…

This paper examines reading achievement when the maternal/paternal language has become a de facto second language. The performance of a cohort of Greek-Australian high school students (N = 270) on a diagnostic Greek reading test was significantly below that of pupils in second to fourth grades in Greece. The mean item difficulty for…

In response to the need for the tertiary sector to ensure the ongoing quality of teaching and learning, a Western Australian university has implemented a divisional strategic plan in order to gain quality student feedback and support staff professional development. In 2000-2002 the Business Division within the university established a systematic…

This paper reviews previous social science knowledge about non-English speaking background (NESB) immigrant communities in rural Australia with the aim of systematising what has been a diverse and fragmented literature. We propose a number of unifying themes which suggest the outlines of an emerging social science of ethnic minorities in rural…

Teaching and learning online is one of several risky practices in higher education today that threaten to disfigure academics' work and identity. For many academics, accustomed to the tempo and practices of face-to-face teaching, it threatens disorientation. In this article the author examines the teaching beliefs of a computer science lecturer,…

In this article the author explores the seamlessness between children's online and offline worlds. For children, there is no dichotomy of online and offline, or virtual and real; the digital is so much intertwined into their lives and psyche that the one is entirely enmeshed with the other. Despite early research pointing to the differences that…

The Queensland (Australia) Department of Education s "Corporate Plan 1994-98" identifies student learning and teaching as a key issue and includes effective learning and teaching as a corporate value. This document provides information on five guiding principles that have been formulated for the development and implementation of quality…

The guide is designed to assist teachers in postsecondary education, particularly vocational education, with some students from language backgrounds other than English. It both offers suggestions for classroom organization and interaction and poses questions to stimulate teachers' examination of the processes at work in the learning situation.…

This paper reports on an interview study conducted with 80 science teachers in 12 secondary schools across Australia. The study was one component of the Science Education Professional Development Project, charged with developing a national strategy for enhancing the professional development of science teachers. Initial interviews were conducted…

Based on the belief that discipline problems reflect poor relationships and must be resolved in a social context, this book provides teachers with a framework which enables them to relate more effectively with students. Following a preface, the volume is organized into 11 chapters: (1) "A New Tradition in Classroom Management"; (2)…

This study documented a kindergarten teacher's efforts to actively involve parents as partners in the literacy education of their children. In addition to the teacher, subjects of the study were her 26 pupils and their parents, all residents of rural New South Wales. Data were collected through anecdotal records, field observations, interviews,…

This document was compiled to help keep science and mathematics teachers in Australia abreast of the results of important research endeavors in education. The monograph is divided into 12 chapters. Chapter one, "Exemplary Science and Mathematics Teachers," (Barry Fraser and Kenneth Tobin) describes a study focusing on examples of…

Measures of both preferred and actual classroom and school environment were administered to 1,675 secondary school students in New South Wales (Australia). Shortened versions of the My Class Inventory, Classroom Environment Scale, and Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire, as well as the Quality of School Life questionnaire were…

Papers in this collection were presented at a 1982 symposium convened to address the question, "What is the best way to provide school education for immigrant children?" The papers (and their authors) include (1) "The Social and Ideological Context of Multicultural Education in Immigrant Countries" (Ronald Taft); (2)…

In an investigation of Australia's declining rate of college bound students, a social psychological model of academic attainment (linking students' social origins to school experiences, perceptions of others' support, self-assessment, and high schools seniors' aspirations and grades) is applied to the processes used by students in adjusting to…