Current research around the middle grades has brought a heightened attention by teachers, policymakers, and researchers recognizing that this stage is a time when a students' health and social and emotional well-being directly impacts their academic progress. To date, school leaders and teachers have not been well served by explicit resources for…

Background: An overarching goal of school science education is to prepare young people for a rapidly changing and complex world. Middle school science students need more than a basic understanding of science concepts in preparation for further study. Rather, they need the skills to question and evaluate evidence and make decisions about complex…

The professional lexicons of middle school mathematics teachers in communities around the world were documented as part of The International Classroom Lexicon Project. This vocabulary captured teachers' naming of classroom pedagogical practice. Reported in this paper are attributes of the lexicons of teachers from Australia and Chile. A comparison…

This paper reports on the development and use of a "Blueprint for Rural Mathematics" (herein referred to as the "Blueprint") in a study of middle-primary mathematics teaching. The study presented a counter-narrative to the deficit discourse around rural education outcomes through an emic perspective of middle-primary…

Curriculum change affords middle leaders opportunities for pedagogical and planning renewal. This paper reports case studies of two schools engaged in preparing for implementation of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. Drawing on interview data from a middle leader from each school, Bacchi's question, "What's the problem…

Nationally and internationally, teachers are being held increasingly accountable for student achievement, particularly in light of high stakes literacy and numeracy tests. Policies have been implemented that are designed to improve educational outcomes through raising student literacy levels across all school years in all subject areas. This has…

Middle school teachers are being urged to involve students in inquiry learning to counter disengagement from learning common in this group. To do this, teachers need to develop students' self-directed learning (SDL) skills so they will be equipped to take responsibility for their learning. This study collected perspectives of four years 6 and 7…

This paper draws on data collected during an outdoor education camp in regional Australia, where the researchers observed the teaching practice of a veteran outdoor educator. We first situate the study in a summary of the outdoor education literature and policy that informed our research. We then present the observed teaching strategies, detailing…

The experiences of regional and rural teachers supporting students on the autism spectrum in their classrooms often differ from those of their metropolitan counterparts. Interventions designed for metropolitan settings may not work the same way in regional and rural classrooms, and teachers outside major centres may encounter challenges in…

Over the past 20 years, the authors have designed an interdisciplinary approach that integrates Arts-based methods into STEM education. This integrated STEAM education perspective is particularly useful for enabling students to develop (i) not only their traditional scientific (and mathematical) understanding of the outer world but also (ii) their…

Theory provides conceptual tools with which to engage in deep thinking about experiences and a shared language by which we can communicate our understandings. Socio-material theory allows us to take account of the role of technology in the performance of learning identities. This has implications for the way that students are produced as learning…

It is well accepted and understood amongst the mathematics education community that numeracy is the responsibility of all teachers, across all levels of schooling. However, the way numeracy is understood and actioned across the Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary contexts is different. This paper reports on a case study of secondary school…

Few studies in science education have examined how place-based experiences influence students' STEM career aspirations. Rural school students' lived experiences of place and non-traditional STEM career aspirations such as farming are scarcely considered in dominant narratives around science aspirations and career pathways. Adopting a critical…

Student disengagement is influenced by the degree of success that is experienced in the mathematics classroom. In turn, success is often determined by the depth of understanding that students gain during predetermined time frames. This paper reports on the Five Question Approach to teaching mathematics which provides teachers with greater…

Teachers do not simply deliver a set curriculum, but carry out classes based on practical knowledge, including their values, beliefs, and experiences. Therefore, it is meaningful to investigate the practical knowledge of teaching among teachers in terms of orientation, structure, and content in order to understand the teacher's knowledge,…