Journal article

When young children move from one educational setting to another, it is important to understand the context of their prior experiences. Most children starting primary school have already experienced transition. Early childhood transitions include starting at an early childhood service or centre, and moving sequentially or concurrently from one early childhood service or centre to another.

A survey of the science interests of Year 5 students was attached to Assessment Resource Bank material sent out to schools for trialling in terms 1 and 2, 2001. Overall the results show that there are clear preferences for particular topics/areas of study, though these preferences may vary by gender.

We know that children learn better when they are supported during new learning by someone who is more expert than they are. At a multi-cultural school in one of the five most “at risk” areas in Auckland, peer tutors were able to learn and operate paired writing techniques, with the teacher as coach. Improvements in unaided writing were clearly evident for both the tutored and the tutors.

How can research findings can be used to develop specific teaching approaches? This UK article concentrates on the potential of shared and guided writing for improving syntactical structure and grammatical awareness within particular genres, especially in the 7–13 age-range.

In a study based on a survey of Year 11 students, boys reported a higher level of negative writing satisfaction and less writing enjoyment in the English classroom than girls did. Boys and girls preferred different writing genres. While students did not see writing as inherently gender-biased, they did seem aware of differential outcomes in how boys’ and girls’ writing was regarded and valued by others. There was also a clear indication that boys’ writing styles were not the ones preferred in curriculum discourses.

Two strengths of the ARBs are their links to national curriculum statements and the range and control they give teachers and schools over what is to be assessed. They include a set of 96 writing resources for English, covering poetic and transactional writing. In view of positive feedback from ARB users, it has become apparent that schools can use the scoring guides when there is a need to make levels-based assessment of their own poetic and/or transactional writing tasks.

Keith Ballard argues that the commitment to individualism and to a commercial market model has implications for our working lives. The ideological belief that we are primarily motivated by self-interest carries with it the implication that we are not to be trusted, but need “incentives” to make us work. Relationships must be contractual and written down. Engagement with others thus becomes a technical matter. This context has redefined what it means to be a teacher.

The quantity and pace of current learning agendas for staff development mean that time is seriously limited for teachers to share ideas and concerns about their classroom practices. Eight teachers using a quality learning circle approach show how their learning is enhanced through opportunities for structured, focused and regular talk with one another. This approach demonstrates teacher enthusiasm, commitment, and ownership of very successful learning journeys, using the National Education Monitoring Project reports as the central focus.

To identify the specific needs of students with respect to literacy in the content areas, 21 students from Years 9-13 were interviewed about their views of themselves as readers and writers, and how their skills affected their learning. While a number of students identified themselves as competent, many felt that they lacked the motivation and skill to use written text effectively. In the light of this data, the authors advocate the need for the inclusion of strategic literacy instruction across all curriculum areas and sectors of the education system.

Supportive friendships and relationships at school contribute to children’s quality of life as well as their learning. There are some concerns that students with disabilities may be isolated, lonely and have few friends at school, even when they have always been taught in the mainstream. This article explores a range of friendship and relationship themes described by three students with disabilities and their families, and looks at some of the ways in which schools can support or create barriers to the development of friendships for students with disabilities.