The importance of genetic diversity, especially within small populations of endangered species, is becoming increasingly apparent. Genetic engineering techniques that could potentially enhance diversity are now being developed. However, the use of such techniques would require social licence and yet within the general population there is limited…

Classroom conversation between students is complex and used for multiple reasons every day. Student dialogue also allows teachers insight into student's learning. This article presents findings from a qualitative study that used dialogism, a branch of sociocultural theory, to investigate in depth student to student (inter-student) questioning…

Purpose: To investigate the effects of a nonlinear pedagogical approach to primary school physical education (PE) upon children's movement skill competence. Methods: Forty-six (male = 25 and female = 21) children aged 6-9 years participated in either a nonlinear pedagogy (NP) or linear pedagogy approach to PE for 9 weeks. Children's movement skill…

This article presents an innovative narrative inquiry study carried out in a primary school in Aotearoa New Zealand with three young people who provide insights into how they perceive, construct, give meaning to, and make sense of their own emotions. The analysis from this primary research draws on Foucauldian scholarship to examine how the…

It is assumed that digital tools with ubiquitous classroom use have affordances for student agency and a range of social skills. However, few studies have explored the generalised impact of everyday digital classrooms on self-regulation and empathy, perspective taking and prosocial skills. Ten and 11 year old students' (n = 115) ratings of…

Throughout the world, Aotearoa-New Zealand is recognised for its extraordinary biodiversity. However, many species that make up this distinctive biodiversity are under threat of extinction due to human impacts, such as the ill-considered introduction of particular animals. Many New Zealanders participate in the protection and restoration of their…

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the lack of government funding and support for interventions beyond Reading Recovery means that assessment and support for students demonstrating literacy difficulties are primarily left to schools themselves. To meet the needs of students, including those demonstrating difficulties with literacy learning, schools and…

The increasing use of digital devices by young children, has led to calls for earlier teaching for information literacy. However, some research indicates reluctance to do this, due to perceived limitations of young children and notions about what is and is not 'appropriate' for them learn. This study examines this proposition, through analysis of…

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be in the future lives of children at school today. Voice-activated intelligent personal assistant devices are used in the home and could be useful in the classroom. This article explores how two groups of New Zealand children aged 7-12 engaged with Google Home devices in their classroom. Interactions recorded…

Purpose: A recent United Nations (2021) report stated that education needs to be concerned with enhancing human relationships with the natural world if we are to work toward building a sustainable future. This paper proposes that educational practices underpinned by an ecological orientation in mid-century Aotearoa offer insights for educators…

This study evaluated the changes in literacy and numeracy levels on schoolchildren across four New Zealand primary schools. A total of 187 schoolchildren aged 8-9 years were assigned to either a dance group (n = 101) or control group (n = 86). The dance group (DG) from each school participated in a six-week, curriculum-integrated dance program…

The traditional education system is designed around time rather than learning, with a one-size-fits-all curriculum and students moving on after a set amount of time regardless of what or how much they have learned. Educators must rethink how time plays a role in education and instead put attention on student mastery, ensuring each student gets the…

Primary classroom teachers are increasingly moving to the side-line as physical education (PE) is outsourced to external providers. Although there are many critiques of external providers, few studies draw on primary school students' perspectives. This study calls on data from semi-structured focus group interviews with 24 students from four New…

We examined the concurrent validity of the Preschool Early Literacy Indicators (PELI®) with 105 New Zealand (NZ) five-year-old children entering primary school. PELI® incorporates oral language and emergent literacy tasks into a picture-book that is administered as a shared adult-child read-aloud activity. In this study, PELI® administration and…

The inclusion of games in mathematics programmes is widely believed to foster the enjoyment of mathematics. The focus of this paper is on fluctuations in emotional climate during the playing of whole-class mathematics games. A multimethod approach drawing on the sociology of emotions was employed to explore changes in the classroom emotional…