The exploratory studies in Educational Computing (ESEC) are nominally 15 studies, (actually 19) set up at the request of, and funded by, the Department of Education.
The studies were originated in a rather unusual way. It was announced in the Education Gazette in July 1985 that a substantial sum of ...

7/16ths, is it bigger or smaller than 8/17ths?
Fractions are notoriously difficult. Difficult to learn and difficult to teach. I have carried out, with help, some research which throws light on the questions 'When should we begin teaching fractions?' and 'What should our first lessons be like?'

Economics is so pervasive in modern life that economic questions and issues cannot be avoided. If young people do not have a basic understanding of economics they will be confused and misinterpret much of the world around them.
The media makes it almost impossible to avoid economics and by reflecting ...

The old adage, 'It's not what you know but who you know ... ', has more often been used to explain success in business than success in education. One educational indicator of who you know, 'The old school tie', is well known in business and politics. Recent research on principals ...

The stress on 'getting your qualifications' has become such a dogma that in New Zealand secondary pupils recently received a personal letter from the Minister of Education encouraging them to stay on at school. In this he gives support to the prevailing wisdom. Unfortunately staying at school is promoted by ...

Improved energy management in schools would produce significant cost savings. Only a small number of schools will make big savings but a large number of schools will be able to make worthwhile savings. However, many schools should look for savings in other areas, for example, text-book management, which may give ...

RECORDS, tapes and radio are central to adolescent experience and a key part is MTV - musical television - and its staple, the music video clip. 'MTV' itself is a 24-hour, non-stop, commercial cable television channel, beamed by satellite across the United States; devoted to screening rock videos.
Putting music ...

'The more socially unacceptable smoking becomes in adult society the more attractive it appears to the younger generation'. This was the comment of a South Auckland intermediate school principal whose school I visited during a nation-wide Health Department survey of Form One (Year 6) students' smoking. On the affluent northern ...

It is in the family that children learn the skills and knowledge necessary to get along. Most children in fact become pretty competent in both their own family group and in larger social groups such as school. However, some families manage to help their children to be competent better than ...

This story about sex-stereotyping was used by two American researchers to illustrate the persistence in United States' schools of traditional ideas on sex roles. But it could have come from a New Zealand kindergarten. Or an Australian one. In all three countries educational institutions have been slow to recognise the ...