For some years now we have been studying the behaviour of preschool children in nurseries and playgroups. From our early observations a feature which most caught our attention was the difference in what went on in different preschools. In part, we felt the immediate physical and social environment of the ...

Moral education is important for developing good mental health. Ours is a pluralistic society in that different groups seek different goals and operate from different values. Therefore, we have to learn to reconcile conflicting pressures from such groups as the family, peer group, Church, trade union, employers, political parties, and ...

Most teachers are probably just as curious about what goes on in other classrooms as they are about what goes on in their own. But generally we do not get much opportunity to observe our colleagues at work teaching lessons. Do other teachers have similar teaching approaches and problems and ...

As every teacher knows, in any normal classroom and whatever subject is being taught, there will be a wide range of individual differences in students' learning. Some will learn more quickly than others; some will retain more. Whether learning is measured by results on achievement tests, by the number of ...

Most of the findings of research into teaching and learning seem fairly self-evident. Good teachers know about them almost intuitively and may be disappointed that educational researchers have not discovered new and exciting strategies for them to use. However, at a time when the role of the teacher in the ...

The need to assess how much students have learned has been fundamental in education for as long as there have been students and teachers. Long before standardized tests of achievement came on the scene, teachers were making such judgements. They based them on information gleaned from familiar sources: direct observation ...

There are three major methods of determining how readable (i.e. understandable) prose is.
1. The teacher, from experience, makes an estimate Teacher Estimates.
2. The pupil tries reading it (and a test can be used to find how well the pupil read) - Direct Assessment.
3. Someone applies a readability ...

Putting things in order is an important way of organising them. Children who can organise objects, according to colour, or size, or what they are used for, are well on the way to being able to think about organising other things, but young children have only limited ability to order ...

It is important to explore the relation between research and policy and this can be done by reviewing some of the findings of research which have focussed on transition from school. Although the subject has engaged the interests of researchers, particularly psychologists and sociologists, for many years, a sense of ...

A look at some factors in the selection and training of primary teachers, with some suggestions for a radical change in approach.