The Australian Curriculum requires teachers of all learning areas to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Culture and History where there is opportunity to do so meaningfully. Despite this requirement, there are few studies considering culturally responsive pedagogy for those perspectives in the teaching of Physical Education…

With the aim of engaging more students in meaningful thinking in mathematics, a cohort of Year 7 students were introduced to a 'Building Thinking Classrooms' framework for learning in mathematics. In this paper, the authors outline the key features of the implemented framework and share reflections on challenges and benefits.

Mathematics Anxiety (MA) is an increasing challenge for mathematics educators and is a barrier to mathematical learning. Through reflection on the implementation of a lesson sequence designed to elicit regular use of explicit metacognitive questions (EMQ's), this paper explores the impact of the incorporation of self-regulated learning (SRL)…

Coding is increasingly popular in schools around the world and is often taught by non-specialist teachers as an integrated task with other subject areas. In this article, we explore the relationship between computer science (CS) concepts and students' multimodal expression in a coding animated narrative (CAN) task in the context of an integrated…

The demand for improving student interest in science has increased efforts toward teaching Einstein's theory of general relativity in schools. Research has already shown that teaching Einsteinian gravity at the secondary level is feasible, however, appropriate resources must be readily available for science teachers to make Einsteinian gravity…

The "Maker" movement is a cultural as well as educational phenomenon that has the potential to offer significant opportunities to students in conditions of social, economic and cultural disadvantage. The research reported in this paper, however, suggests that the simple provision of "Maker Spaces" for such activity is…

The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is intended to assess all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to ensure equity and inclusion. This paper explores the extent to which equity and inclusion are achieved for students with disability through NAPLAN reporting. Document analysis of publicly accessible NAPLAN…

In Australia, it has been observed that there have been significant declines in the proportion of students studying senior sciences over the last two decades (Commonwealth of Australia 2017 & 2018; Steidtmann et.al, 2023). It has been suggested that one of the causes for this decline could be a link between students' literacy achievement and…

Grouping students into separate classes according to their 'ability' is an inequitable practice that does not, overall, improve academic outcomes. Research has continued to show that class ability grouping widens the educational gap between students from disadvantaged and privileged backgrounds. PISA data analysis suggests that class ability…

The middle-school years (Year 7 to Year 9) is a particular challenge for socially disadvantaged populations, with high proportions of children either repeating school years or dropping out of school. In Australia, a group of particular concern is First Nations children for whom there is a collective effort by all governments to improve education…

Students' prior achievements in school have significant correlations with their later achievements. Specifically, students' prior numeracy achievement is the most important predictor of later numeracy success. However, the assessment of this predictor across gender and its trend across students' year levels is often overlooked or not adequately…

This study sought to determine the factors that motivate teachers to differentiate curriculum for gifted students in a case study school in Victoria, Australia. For this purpose, 10 teachers from Year 7-9 mixed ability classes at the school were engaged in interviews about their practice of differentiation specifically for gifted students and the…

This study investigated school connectedness, student engagement, academic grades, and student affect. Factor analyses of 331 adolescent students (Years 7, 9, and 11 in Australia), validated a four-factor model of school engagement. The factors revealed in the analyses were described as (1) future and task focus, (2) planning and motivation, (3)…

Standardized literacy assessments that place emphasis on testing and attainment of results have caused many students, particularly in middle years schooling to be disenfranchised by literacy teaching and learning practices. This study employed an action research methodology to investigate whether an outdoor learning experience in a Year 7/8…

Educational researchers have long noted the apparent link between positive student attitudes and a student's desire to continue their study of particular subjects beyond the compulsory years of schooling, with much of the research motivated by concerns around declining student participation rates in high-school and university. However,…