What might a "fun" and "interesting" curriculum entail from the pupils' point of view? The author draws on findings from a review of the research undertaken in the UK on pupils' perspectives and experiences of the curriculum. The article explores some of the findings in relation to pupils' views on ...

Literature provides a strong case for the importance of teachers caring about their students' mathematics achievement, and provides a wide range of ways teachers can show such care to their students. This article describes New Zealand students' and teachers' views on the importance of teachers caring about mathematics progress and ...

In recent years, a number of countries including New Zealand have initiated numeracy projects to enhance the learning and teaching of mathematics. These initiatives are to be applauded as they provide mathematics education with a focus for the professional development of teachers that has political and community support, and there ...

Critical literacy is a critical thinking tool that encourages readers to question the construction and production of texts. This article discusses the findings from a collaborative research project that examined the use of critical literacy strategies in guided reading. Specifically, the authors discuss the strategies of: direct teaching of metalanguage ...

In recent years, the cries for teachers to have high expectations for all their students have been heard far and wide—yet, research in the expectancy area carried out at the whole class level has been sparse. This article reports findings from a study aimed to address this gap in the ...

The implication that teachers with high expectations will improve student achievement has an appealing logic. However, whether or not the instructional practices and beliefs of teachers having high expectations would differ from those whose expectations were low has not previously been explored. High and low expectation teachers identified in a ...

This article describes how a teacher in a high school classroom facilitated her students' acquisition and use of the specialist language of mathematics. Using ideas from second language acquisition, the teacher's strategies for language development are grouped into four stages. This paper suggests that for students to become fluent producers ...

Measurement scales allow raw test scores to be converted to locations on an equal-interval scale.   This article outlines how these work, how they are numbered and how they relate to national norms.

This year we have provided you with a wide range of evidence-based topics, across sectors and across many of the key areas that are of concern and relevance to educators. We like to think that, at times, we have surprised you, challenged you, and affirmed you in your practice. The ...

Investigating suspected underachievement in literacy in an intermediate school revealed that the levels of achievement in reading and writing were indeed a concern, especially the writing of Years 5–9 students. Teachers from the intermediate, seven primary schools, and one secondary school worked together to strengthen their curriculum understandings of students’ ...