Currently there is a large variation in the quality of children's experiences, both across and within primary schools and concerns regarding the quality of physical education (PE) teaching. Significantly, a failure to engage children at this critical time in appropriate high quality PE provision, prior to the transition to secondary education, is…

This article presents the results of an evaluation of local teacher support strategies for implementing inquiry-based science education (IBSE) in French primary schools. The research objective was to determine which aspects of the French model of IBSE are implemented in class, and the efficiency of each teacher support strategy. Data were…

This study investigates Hong Kong primary science teachers' understandings of inquiry learning, perceived difficulties in implementing inquiry learning, as well as their current practices of and resistance to using online resources, in order to identify their needs and propose suggestions to address these needs. An online survey has been used to…

The purpose of the study was to investigate how young students engage in an inquiry-based project driven by real-life contexts. Elementary school children were engaged in a small inquiry project centred on marine biodiversity and species adaptations. All activities included the exploration of an out-of-school setting as a learning context. A total…

Preferences for teaching methods are influenced by several factors, including instructional goals, teacher's management style, experience and education. To discover in which ways primary school teachers with different management styles vary in their preferences for students' cognitive and social development, 128 teachers of Estonia were…

In a democratic education system, it is important to provide equal opportunity to every child. Both educators and researchers acknowledge a gap between students who attend school ready to learn and those who do not. School readiness prepares students for this learning. The purpose of the study was to ascertain Turkish classroom teachers'…

With career-long professional learning increasingly seen as a significant element of teacher education, this paper proposes that there is a need to acknowledge the complex nature of the professional learning process. The paper explores lessons learnt from over a decade of professional learning efforts by the Developmental Physical Education Group…

This study investigated the instructional practices of three teacher leaders employed in a diverse, elementary school in the USA. Through extended observations, it was found that learning centres occupied a central role in the organisation and learning in each of the classrooms. Bernstein's theory of classification and framing was used to analyse…

This study examined the predictive power of teachers' perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), behavioural intention (BI) to use personal response system (PRS) and computer experience (CE) on teachers' acceptance and attitude towards using PRS in improving communicative competence in the classroom where English is taught as a second…

The Primary Geography Quality Mark (PGQM) is a support mechanism for the development of successful school geography, which uses evaluative criteria to help subject leaders plan and lead the subject. Evidence from schools that have used the PGQM shows that whilst core knowledge is a necessary ingredient of geography, the knowledge and skill of…

We focus on children's approaches to managing group work in classrooms where collaborative learning principles are explicit. Small groups of 8-10 year olds worked on collaborative science activities using an interactive whiteboard. Insubsequent interviews, they spoke of learning to "be patient" and "wait", for multiple social…

In a previous paper (Loizou, F. 2011. How Cypriot primary school teachers promote their professional development through reflective practice. "Education 3-13" 39, no. 3: 233--247.) I explored the concept of theories-in-use within a qualitative research study in order to analyse the role of reflection in bringing about change in the…

A detailed insight into how the current educational climate influences the pedagogical decisions made by primary school teachers when teaching games is limited. Studies examining the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of teachers within physical education have revealed its close relationship with specific forms of subject knowledge. In…

Studies have investigated factors that impede enrolment in Honduras. However, they have not analysed individual factors as a whole or identified the relationships among them. This study used longitudinal data for 1971 children who entered primary schools from 1986 to 2000, and employed structural equation modelling to examine the factors…

Scottish educational policy advocates the benefits of collaborative learning as a way of developing critical life skills, across the primary curriculum. In this paper, the rationale for collaborative learning, and specifically the Critical Skills (CS) approach, is considered along with an account of the perspectives of primary teachers…