We administered specially-designed, free-response mathematics tasks to primary students (N = 583, ages five to 12 years old). Our focus was on whether (i) the children's responses could be reliably assessed, and (ii) the responses could provide insights into children's mathematical thinking. We used a contemporary comparative judgement technique,…

This ethnographic study explores how elementary school children's participation in a culturally diverse music program, which featured their active engagement in group music-making and their acquaintance with the cultural-historical context of the music, affected them on interpersonal, collective, and social levels. The study focuses on the…

The paper explores one episode from a larger study, where a multilingual student (10-year-old) described her understanding of what makes a shape 2D or 3D. Bakhtin's dialogic theory and Garfinkel's ethnomethodology inform the theoretical framework. Transcribed data of the episode is presented, which is analysed at micro-level and macro-level. The…

This article addresses the pressing issue of food waste by focusing on the development of young adolescents' food waste literacy. The concept of "food waste literacy" (FWL), defined as the literacy for the judicious use of food, encompasses knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviours related to food waste. The article presents a study…

The interactional role of language use in the mathematics classroom is explored in the last few decades. This paper adds to the knowledge base by exploring different ways of talking that children and their teacher use in a New Zealand primary geometry English-medium classroom. Bakhtin's concept of speech genres is used for an analysing transcript…

Advances in learning approaches can enhance deeper levels of mathematical thinking and engagement through the use of new digital environments and technologies. The growing utilisation of portable digital devices in schools has meant there are enhanced tools to support mathematical learning and understandings. This article focused on those who work…

The national COVID-19 lockdown during school Term 1 and continuing in Term 2 2020, provided a unique context to investigate?children's experiences of informal, everyday learning in their household bubble. In Terms 3 and 4, 178?children in Years 4-8 from 10 primary schools agreed to participate in a group art-making activity and?an individual…

In 2012 a new education monitoring system called the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement (NMSSA) began collecting information about the achievement of Year 4 and Year 8 students enrolled in English-medium schools. Over the last 5 years it has had contact with over 20,000 students from more than 1,000 schools. This Assessment News…

As a facilitator of the Incredible Years for Teachers Programme (IYT), I have found that the classroom management strategies participant teachers learned during the 6-month programme period have not been embedded and sustained in their use through time. This inquiry investigated the benefits and barriers to IYT being spontaneously, consistently…

Emotional skills underpin what teachers do. However, relatively few studies have investigated whether these skills can be formally learnt by teachers and the benefits enhancing teachers' social-emotional skills may have on students. The current research aimed to develop an intervention to improve teachers' social-emotional skills in the classroom…

The Reading Recovery programme has been a key early literacy intervention in many international contexts for over two decades. As a consequence, there have been numerous investigations into its efficacy for short-term gains, but only a few on long-term sustainability. This study examines the progress of 95 Year 4-6 students from seven schools in…

Moving from primary school (Year 6) to the next stage in schooling (Year 7 intermediate or middle school) can provide challenges for students, teachers, and parents. A study was carried out to investigate these challenges with a focus on mathematics for 65 students from six different urban primary schools in New Zealand. Qualitative data were…

This longitudinal quantitative study compared literacy achievement of students from second through sixth grade based on two organizational systems: graded (traditional) and nongraded (multiage) classrooms. The California Standards Test (CST) scaled and proficiency scores for English-Language Arts (ELA) were used as the study's independent variable…

There is a significant body of international research indicating that reading instruction does not consistently occur in the final years of primary schooling and progress drops-off as students move through the schooling system. This paper uses case study research to investigate the interactions and the self-perceptions of five literacy leaders,…

Whilst prior research has identified children as avid users of new technologies, insufficient studies have explored their patterns of use. This paper investigates how New Zealand pre-teens use technology out of school and identifies a typology of technology use. Two hundred and twenty four children between 10 and 12 years of age completed a…