We in Australia and New Zealand are proud of the way we broke free of the British class system when we set up our own nations. In the new lands Jack and Jill became as good as the Master and Mistress. However, as the world becomes economically, if not culturally ...

Once upon a time there was a passerby who stopped to watch three workmen going about their labours on a building site. After a time he approached each of the workmen in turn and asked them what they were doing. The first man replied: 'I 'm laying bricks, for $4.50 ...

What aids our understanding of what we read? Firstly good writing, clear print, diagrams, and so on. As well as these, we can take notes, or underline important points; teachers and textbooks writers can insert questions in the text, and special paragraphs which help organize our ideas can be given ...

Educational testing, once the subject of debate by teachers and other professionals, is now being debated in public forums and in open court. Public concern has been most clearly expressed in the United States where standardized educational testing has been debated in the media, in state legislatures and in Congress ...

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons. The theme is the full participation of disabled people in all aspects of community life. There is a need for greater public awareness of the effects of disablement, and for an appreciation of the disabling ...

One does not win brownie points anymore for saying that New Zealand is undergoing profound change. New technology could bring about a global village culture, or a return to rural living, or a new approach in schooling, or a centrally controlled society.

Teachers have always needed valid tests to assess students' proficiency so that the most appropriate classroom instruction can be used. This is particularly true in the current educational climate with its growing emphasis on accountability, since teachers need good testing techniques to show that their work is worthwhile.

Youth unemployment is not a new problem but its extent, and the way it will not go away, are new. Economic downturns affect young people disproportionately: they are unemployed, or the last hired and the first laid off, and when working they are given the least rewarding jobs, financially and ...

Concern about disruptive behaviour has increased dramatically in the last decade. Three reasons are often put forward for this.
(i) Disruptive behaviour in schools is the inevitable manifestation of increased violence or at least of increased reporting of violence, in the world as a whole.
(ii) At a time when ...

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 ...