Research on volunteer mentor programs has demonstrated mostly positive outcomes for mentees. As a result, many schools seek to attract and retain volunteers to assist children in need of support. The researchers interviewed 26 adult volunteers (from Australian companies) who help children with reading difficulties and examined intervention effects…

Professional development in the form of coaching has the potential to support practitioners who are being inducted into new policy and curriculum initiatives. This paper examines the efficacy of a coaching program in its support of educators to align their practice with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework for all Children…

Many researchers have identified and expressed concern over the state of science education internationally, but primary teachers face particular obstacles when teaching science due to their poor science background and low confidence with science. Research has suggested that exemplary resources, or units that work, may be an effective way to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the notion of designing and developing applied, industry-engaged learning environments that embrace ambiguity and uncertainty in overcoming pedagogical inertia in educating young entrepreneurs and innovators. The research reported on proposes a solution to the dual expectations of producing…

This study with 326 girls-school teachers developed and tested a model of predictors of the likelihood that teachers will intervene in indirect bullying, and evaluated a professional development presentation. Teachers responded to bullying vignettes before and after a presentation on indirect bullying (Experimentals) or adolescent mental health…

This paper discusses upper primary school teachers' perspectives on changes to their knowledge and practice through participation in a design-based research project. It analyses their experiences using Clarke and Hollingsworth's (2002) empirically-founded model for professional growth to understand more about the mechanisms for change that might…

This paper reports a research project that was conducted in 2009 and 2010 to support new teachers in the areas of Design and Technology and Home Economics. As a result of a retraining program, teachers in these areas were posted to remote schools, and the concern was that the combined difficulties of a new teaching area and a remote location would…

As a consequence of local population ageing, which is more pronounced in rural areas, the issue of maintaining a positive quality of life for rural older people is attracting significant attention. While environmental psychology theory has advocated the role of place identity in defining the self, there has been little applied research exploring…

Beginning teachers that possess a good sense of efficacy are less likely to suffer stress, burnout, or attrition. This study reports final-year Australian pre-service primary teachers sense of efficacy scores and the sources of information that contributed to it. Results showed that our beginning teachers had a good sense of efficacy, and…

The authors evaluated whether a brief group workshop that combined psycho-education and learning strategies improved self-efficacy, attitudes, and anxiety regarding statistics in psychology students. The workshop was completed in Week 1 of a compulsory 1st-year psychology statistics course. Prior to the workshop, the attendees (n = 10) did not…

In many public primary schools across different countries, generalist primary teachers are required to teach all subjects, including music, dance, drama and visual arts. This study investigates the background and confidence of preservice primary teachers from five countries in relation to drama and drama education. It also examines if there is a…

The primary aim of this study was two-fold: 1) to identify salient psychosocial features of the classroom environment that influence students' motivation and self-regulation in science learning; and 2) to examine the effect of the motivational constructs of learning goal orientation, science task value and self-efficacy in science learning on…

Parent involvement in play, learning, and everyday home activities is important for promoting children's cognitive and language development. The aims of the study were to (a) examine differences between mothers' and fathers' self-reported involvement with their children, (b) explore the relationship between child, parent and family factors, and…

During this past decade the level of interest in building research capacity has intensified in Australia and internationally, with a particular emphasis on the development of postgraduate research students, but also extending to undergraduate research experience. This study investigated the student experience across a diverse range of fourth-year…

Teachers' judgments in their ability to motivate students and promote learning can play a vital role in determining a student's performance in the classroom and once a belief has been held for a long time, it can become difficult to change. Utilising a sample of 467 beginner and final year pre-service teachers training to become primary…