Teaching children who are not of our own culture or socioeconomic background can be difficult and frustrating. Two researchers working in classrooms have come up with new ways at looking at the differences. There is a section on what to do now.

Have you ever thought how some famous people would rate as teachers nowadays? Here is an evaluation form filled in for the most famous of all. The idea came from the American teachers' magazine Phi Delta Kappan.

Those who think that the education system should be fostering the competencies that make for enterprise are correct. However, the barriers that need to be overcome are surprising. This item is based on a very wide range of research.

Usually it is unacceptable behaviour that gives cause for concern. For up to 20 percent of children, learning spontaneously is interrupted by their own behaviour. These kindergarten teachers found a way of determining what strategies would help.

In the present-day classroom children talk to each other a lot. Two items present different, but complementary, analyses of what goes on. In this item very young children's ability to help one another in mathematics is examined.

In this research the extent of very young children's social interplay and learning about friendship and relationships, even whilst doing mathematics, was revealed.

Two years ago the way beginning teachers got a job in New Zealand was completely changed. A set item in 1990 looked at the changes. Now, two years further on, the latest figures are put through the mill and principals are asked about how the system is working for their schools.

Parents do look round for the ‘best’ school for their children. Can a school change itself to be the ‘best’? The options for change are limited, and advertising your wares may be more like selling soap than knowledge.

Contrasting the way chimps and young children learn gives an insight into a stage, most noticeable about the time children start school, when earlier ‘success’ is followed by ‘failure’ at the same tasks. When success comes again, it is a huge jump ahead of the best a chimpanzee can manage. Junior school maths, physics and language ...

New Zealanders, self-satisfied, pat themselves on the back for their excellent teaching of reading. One of the long-time reading gurus, Frank Smith, has written this thoughtful, if opinionated, account of how continued success can be achieved.