The teaching and learning of statistical thinking begins at a young age in Australia, with a focus on data representation and interpretation from Foundation Year (age 5), and the collection, sorting and categorising of items from the natural environment starting even earlier. The intangible concept of "data," as part of statistical…

Low participation rates of students studying science at the secondary level are of international concern. One of the under-researched factors influencing low participation rates in the sciences in Australia is primary school student stereotypes concerning science and scientists. We explore how Year 4 (9-10-year-olds) students perceive science,…

Therapy dogs can improve the social and mental health outcomes for children and adolescents. School-based interventions that address social and emotional learning (SEL) can promote children's overall wellbeing and educational outcomes. This study used a qualitative approach to explore children's perceptions of a 12-week therapy dog-assisted SEL…

The current study explored the reasons for students' preferences for the teach-first and task-first lesson structures, and whether students' preferences were influenced by their perceptions of the teacher's preference. Students (n=18) from two composite Year 3 and 4 classes (aged 8-10 years) completed a post-lesson drawing task and participated in…

This case study aims to describe the learning characteristics of a child and evaluate his preferences for using physical manipulatives (PM) and virtual manipulatives (VM) to solve fraction problems. The participant in this study was a fourth-grade child. The child was given similar problems to solve using PM and VM. Data sources were observations…

This paper considers how digital technologies contribute to awakening primary-school children's enchantment with local places. We draw upon Bennett and Thoreau to theorize enchantment and adopt "enchantment as method" from Stainova to guide the research process. We analyze the contrasting digital artifacts produced by three children…

This collaborative inquiry between an academic (James Russo) and two school-based practitioners (Jessie McCosh and Travis Hewish) explores student attitudes towards learning mathematics through problem solving in a medium sized primary school in regional Victoria.

While digital multimodal composing, underpinned by a critical literacies approach, provides opportunities for students to make informed semiotic choices and voice concerns about social issues, there is limited research exploring how digital multimodal composing is employed to interrogate and challenge the entanglements of language, immigration…

In TIMSS 2015, while two-thirds of students in grade 4 reported feeling very safe at school, by grade 8, less than half of the students surveyed reported feeling a high level of safety. Overall, girls were more likely to report feeling safe than boys. For both genders, feeling safe at school seemed to be positively related to academic achievement…

The Australian government funded the West Australian project 'Reporting Values to Parents' as part of 'The Values in Action Schools Project' (2009). The two aims of the qualitative study were to develop a common values language supported by observable behaviours and an appreciation that values education is fundamental to schooling. Teachers used…

Language learners often require appropriate scaffolding to engage in digital multimodal composing to maximise its potential for learning. This illuminates the need for pre-service teachers to be ready for these experiences both on teaching placements and at the beginning of their careers. However, little is known about their readiness for digital…

This article reports on a pilot study that used concrete materials and TinkerPlots to support a Year 4 student's understanding of the big ideas of variation and expectation when investigating a random chance experiment using spinners.

Classroom engagement can be problematic for students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH), but is essential to ensure that they can reach their best educational and postschool outcomes. This study used semi-structured interviews to explore the self-perceived barriers and facilitators to classroom engagement for 16 DHH students educated in…

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is a large-scale comparison of the reading performance of Year 4 students in 50 countries, and Year 4 was chosen because it is the point in schooling where most students transition from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn'. As the essential nature of their relationship with reading…

This paper contributes to the Symposium: "Research Methods Involving Children's Drawings in Mathematical Contexts" by exploring the use of digital pens as a data gathering tool. The availability of digital recording devices has been a boon to researchers wanting to capture the real-time dynamics of a research situation. When capturing a…