Differentiated instruction is an inclusive approach that recognises and values diversities among students and adapts instruction to include every student. The concept of differentiation has been discussed over the past two decades. However, only limited attention has been paid to how pre-service teachers understand this phenomenon, while very…

This paper uses a Gwen Harwood poem to open up questions of "knowing" around the teaching of Literature. Following our own brief reading of the poem, we particularly discuss ways in which questions of knowing/knowledge have been considered in Literature teaching historically, such as: - the binary of "knowledge" and…

In this paper we make an argument for paying close attention to the materiality of practice in understanding the work of teacher educators; specifically, the meanings of artefacts used by teacher educators in the course of their daily work. We locate this analysis within a dialectical materialist understanding of the development of human activity,…

Within the increasing body of research that examines students' reasoning on socioscientific issues, we consider in particular student reasoning concerning acute, open-ended questions that bring out the complexities and uncertainties embedded in ill-structured problems. In this paper, we propose a socioscientific sustainability reasoning…

Purpose: This paper aims to argue that substantive changes are required in both curricula and pedagogical practice in higher education institutions to challenge dominant epistemologies and discourses and to unsettle current ways of thinking about, and acting in relation to, the environment. Central to such a shift, it is argued, is the need for…

This study assessed the quality of preservice primary teachers' written arguments in an open inquiry laboratory task. An analysis of the features of the laboratory task was also undertaken to ascertain the characteristics of the task that facilitated or constrained the development of participants' written arguments. Australian preservice primary…

Describes a study of a range of challenging activities centered on evaporation and condensation done with elementary school children. Analyzes children's explanations in light of the existing literature. Finds that older children display a surer sense of ontological categories, greater epistemological sophistication, greater precision in language…

This conceptual framework is grounded in the data analysis of transcribed interviews with 50 Ontario teachers and the text of a 7-month online discussion group among 25 principals from England, Ireland, Canada, United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Both methods were employed with the stated purpose of understanding emotional experiences of…

Discusses students' perceptions of using writing as a component of their science learning. Results, collected over four years, are organized to include students' perceptions of writing in science, learning, ownership, purpose, and science. These results are then discussed in terms of students' developing metacognition and epistemologies of…

Describes study of elementary school children in Australia which was designed to determine their sequential knowledge of measuring length and to apply recent cognitive theories to predict the sequence of development of knowledge. Recent literature is reviewed, information processing skills are discussed, and skills required for measuring length…

Discusses how learning occurs and the role of the learning environment as a source of information. Argues that the culture of the learner has a central role in the learning of science using the traditional world view of African students as an example. Contains 124 references. (DDR)

Outlines two theories of cognitive science that are relevant for instructional design, i.e., schema theory and cognitive load theory; and describes four experiments with Australian secondary school geography students that used these theories to examine the effects of splitting attention between technical illustrations and related text. (20…

Videotaped interviews of 29 Australian students from grades 1-3 were analyzed to assess and compare the processing loads of mathematical representations and strategies used by teachers and children to learn the concept of place value. Results indicated that some representations and strategies impose an unnecessary processing load that can…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…