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This paper reports on a study that investigated the process and outcomes of using "Appreciative Inquiry" (AI) in an Australian initial teacher education (ITE) program review. The aim of the study, which drew on a sample of teaching staff involved in this Master of Teaching program, was to gain an understanding of the extent to which the application of the AI framework can be used effectively in the review of ITE programs. AI promotes collegial reflective practice and the generation of positive resolutions and thus aligned with the purposes of the review that were to foster collaboration, strengthen staff morale and, subsequently, build a stronger program for students. This paper provides a perceptual account of the AI review process as reported by the facilitators and a sample of review participants, and contributes to international literature in the areas of ITE program appraisal, organisational reform and Appreciative Inquiry. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Midwifery educators have to provide students with stimulating curricula that teach academic and vocational content, as well as transferable skills. The Research Skills Development (RSD) framework provides a conceptual model that allows educators to explicitly scaffold the development of their students' research skills. This paper aims to demonstrate the effective use of the RSD framework and constructive alignment theory to redesign a second-year Midwifery assessment task. The assessment task was changed into a scenario-based question to better reflect the unit learning objectives and expected graduate attributes. Students were provided with extra time in class to explore the assessment task in a peer environment. Following the return of their assessments, students were asked to complete a questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the assessment redesign. We show that using a constructively aligned scenario-based assessment task in a second year unit more successfully articulated the expected graduate attributes of midwives. Qualitative and quantitative feedback suggested that students and staff appreciated a more clinically-relevant assessment task. This paper demonstrates that the use of the RSD framework to constructively align graduate attributes, learning experiences, and assessment tasks allows for the transformation of undergraduate assessment into a learning experience relevant to clinical practice.

This paper presents the research findings from a study reviewing graduates' opinions on completing online reflective journaling tasks during work integrated learning as an undergraduate. The study was divided into two parts with an initial focus group conducted with six physiotherapy graduates seven months following graduation. Findings from the focus group guided the development of a questionnaire sent to graduates nine months after course completion. Results from both the focus group and questionnaire (n = 25) highlighted the benefits of online, structured, assessed reflective writing tasks. Graduates provided specific examples of their personal and professional development and perceived benefits from undertaking reflective journaling during work integrated learning. These findings may have application across a wide variety of tertiary courses of study with work integrated learning incorporated into curriculum. [Papers included in this "Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education" ("APJCE") Special Issue stem from selected manuscripts from the Australian Collaborative Education Network Annual Conference 2012.]

Rationale A multidisciplinary primary care clinic in Sydney, Australia, was planning to use electronic questionnaires to measure patient-reported outcomes. Methods Semi-structured interviews with 20 patients were undertaken to explore, among other things, practical issues regarding different questionnaire formats. The response rates and costs of email versus postal invitations were also evaluated. Results Compared with postal invitations, email invitations offered a cost-effective and practical alternative, with a greater proportion of patients volunteering for an interview. Assuming the interface is well-designed and user-friendly, many patients were happy to use the Internet to answer questionnaires. Most patients thought alternate formats should also be offered. Patients discussed advantages and disadvantages of the Internet format. Although more younger patients and females had given the clinic an email address; both sexes, and young and old patients, expressed strong preferences for either wanting or not wanting to use the Internet. Conclusion Researchers should consider using email invitations as a cost-effective first-line strategy to recruit patients to participate in health services research. Internet questionnaires are potentially cheaper than paper questionnaires, and the format is acceptable to many patients. However, for the time being, concurrent alternate formats need to be offered to ensure wider acceptability and to maximize response rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a partnership approach preparing pre-service primary teachers to teach science. Partnerships involving pre-service teachers and volunteer in-service colleagues were formed to teach science in the classroom of the colleague, with support from the science education lecturer. Each pre-service teacher collaboratively planned and delivered a sequence of at least six science lessons over six weeks. An earlier paper reported on how the program affected the confidence of the pre-service teachers. Over three iterations, 61 in-service teachers from 23 local schools participated. In this paper the data from the colleague teachers and principals who participated is explored. The evidence indicates that the principals valued the program as an opportunity to improve science in their schools and as science professional development for their staff. The in-service teachers were positive and results show that the triadic partnerships offered professional development that addresses common barriers to teaching science in primary schools. (Contains 4 tables.)

Graduates need to be prepared for working in global organisations that increasingly rely on virtual, culturally diverse teams. This paper reports on a qualitative research study concerned with the perceptions of university business students who collaborated on a virtual and international project to learn about intercultural communication. The findings indicated that participants capitalised on the opportunity the project presented to find friends and to negotiate and deepen relationships. In addition, the analysis revealed that social interaction also characterised and influenced the learning experience itself and had implications for engagement. The paper concludes that the subjectivities of social interaction are powerfully embedded in the learning process and may play a part in engagement. Second, the project was perceived as a valuable way of preparing students for workplaces where developing intercultural communication skills and online, culturally diverse team relationships are required.

First year accounting has generally been perceived as one of the more challenging first year business courses for university students. Various Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) have been proposed to attempt to enrich and enhance student learning, with these studies generally positioning students as learners alone. This paper uses an educational case study approach and examines the implementation of the IGCRA (individual, group, classroom reflective action) technique, a Classroom Assessment Technique, on first year accounting students' learning performance. Building on theoretical frameworks in the areas of cognitive learning, social development, and dialogical learning, the technique uses reports to promote reflection on both learning and teaching. IGCRA was found to promote feedback on the effectiveness of student, as well as teacher satisfaction. Moreover, the results indicated formative feedback can assist to improve the learning and learning environment for a large group of first year accounting students. Clear guidelines for its implementation are provided in the paper.

Recruiting and retaining practitioners to rural and remote locations is a challenge for many industries including health and education. The medical, nursing and teaching professions have utilized immersion experiences for trainees and students to better prepare them and to address workforce shortages in crosscultural and underserved areas. This paper describes the steps taken to improve an immersion experience for medical students and evaluates the impact of these improvements. The University of Notre Dame's School of Medicine requires all second year medical students to undertake the Kimberley Remote Area Health Placement Program (hereinafter the "Program"). The Program provides opportunities to learn life skills required for remote area living via an immersion experience in which students live with, and do useful non-clinical work for, a host community or organization for one week in a remote area in Western Australia. A series of preparatory and post-immersion activities (including film viewing, debating and site visits) are provided to prepare students for the experience. In 2009, the "style and format" in which these activities were delivered was changed in response to student feedback. The changes comprised altering the format of the Program Handbook from an information repository to a workbook equipping students with critical thinking frameworks such as: de Bono's Six Thinking Hats (1992) and graphic organizers to facilitate reflection on preparatory and post-immersion activities. All changes were based on humanistic, cognitive and constructivist approaches to learning. These changes were followed by improvements in students' perceptions of several activities. Activities preparing students to undertake and reflect on a cultural immersion experience involve student engagement in active learning and critical thinking. Educators involved in preparing students for placements in other underserved, culturally and/or geographically diverse settings may employ these approaches to learning and adapt the activities described in this paper as suited to the needs of their particular professional group.

Experiential learning pathways within education programmes such as Service-learning are a means to enrich the learning of pre-service teachers. As a pathway, Service-learning provides value-oriented learning focused on inclusion, diversity, and difference. This paper adopts critical social theory to examine how, along with these values, critical Service-learning promotes a deeper comprehension of values such as empathy, civic responsibility, social justice, and equity. Our paper also studies how, along with values, enterprise skills develop when pre-service teachers adopt a self-responsible, decision-making approach to implementing inclusion, social justice, and equity. Fifty-one data sets from interviews, questionnaires, and reflection logs with two groups of students over two semesters were examined to comprehend the unique experiences of students as they navigated through values and enterprise skills. The study concludes by reiterating the value of incorporating nontraditional ways of learning that align with the traditional pedagogical offerings for pre-service teachers.

This paper reports the findings of a study on pre-service teachers' background and confidence in music and visual arts education. The study involved 939 non-specialist pre-service primary teachers from five countries. Initially the paper identifies the students' perceptions of their background and confidence in relation to music and visual arts education. Secondly it examines any differences between the visual arts and music education background and confidence of Australian students and those from the other four countries. Results indicated that 25% of the subjects agreed or strongly agreed that they had a good background in music education and 16% indicated that they had a good background in visual arts education. In relation to confidence, 56% of the respondents indicated they felt confident teaching visual arts and 50% felt confident teaching music. There were also significant differences between countries in relation to background and confidence in the two art forms. (Contains 6 tables.)

Cultural diversity is evident throughout schools in Victoria, Australia. Many students are new arrivals from war-torn countries including Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq. To what extent do teacher training courses in Victoria prepare pre-service teachers to cater for the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students? This paper reports findings from a qualitative study on pre-service preparation for teaching CALD students in mainstream secondary schools. It investigated ways in which CALD student needs are addressed in secondary teaching courses in Victoria. Data included course outlines, questionnaires completed by forty-one final year pre-service teachers, and interviews with four final year pre-service teachers. Findings revealed that the majority of pre-service secondary teachers feel that their teacher education courses lack a focus on cultural and linguistic diversity in schools. Course content analysis supports this. Courses need to be updated to address the needs of teachers of CALD students, and consequently of the students themselves. This paper provides practical ways to begin this process.

Managing the teaching-research-creative practice nexus is a concern for everyone working in higher music education, particularly those involved with the supervision and mentorship of graduate students and early career academics. This paper takes as its subject the new Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), drawing examples from research frameworks elsewhere to identify some of the pertinent issues facing music educators and their students. The findings from a series of surveys and short interviews suggest that the formal recognition of artistic research remains largely dependent on the articulation of that research into traditional academic language. Furthermore, the increasing focus on research as a form of revenue generation highlights the separation of research and teaching and the lessening of academic autonomy. The paper argues that a balance can be achieved only with a fundamental, systemic shift that recognises the new knowledge and innovative methodological approaches within artistic research and, equally, within the scholarship of teaching. (Contains 1 table.)

The purpose of this paper is to introduce an integrated values, skills and knowledge (VSK) framework for initial teacher preparation programmes. The VSK framework articulated, in broad terms, the desired skills and knowledge components for beginning teachers, with the underlying core values permeating the programmes. The paper has two parts, the first of which details the development as well as the conceptual underpinning of the VSK framework. Part two, through a programme evaluation, discusses the validity and reliability of items developed through the VSK framework to measure the values, skills and knowledge that student teachers perceived through their initial teacher preparation programme. (Contains 10 tables and 1 figure.)

The development in today's society of knowledge workers for tomorrow is of critical importance. Worldwide, there is considerable interest in the respective roles of higher education (HE) and vocational education and training (VET) in building human capability. This paper is designed to provoke such questions as: what kinds of learning places and spaces are Australia's HE and VET institutions? and how do individuals make sense of the learning and teaching in these sectors? The paper focuses on the experiences of those learners who have studied in both sectors--faces who are therefore in a unique position to analyse them as learning places and spaces. A survey was undertaken of 556 learners who commenced study in technical and further education (TAFE) and universities in South Australia. Subsequent interviews with 69 of these students explored their educational histories in greater depth. The data reflected important differences in the learners' experiences within the sectors. The findings can provide policy-makers and institutional leaders with insights into how best to position these two sectors to the advantage of learners with changing needs, expectations and desired pathways. They suggest that greater recognition could be afforded to the different but increasingly complementary roles that HE and VET play. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper contributes to the knowledge base for preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) for contemporary multicultural classrooms. To do so, we refer to our ongoing project "See, Listen and Share: Exploring intercultural music education in a transnational experience" across three Higher Education sites (Australia and Spain). Drawing on our narrative, and PSTs' questionnaire data, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyze and code the PST data, we report on our initial experience and findings across the three sites and cultural contexts. Generalisations to other institutions cannot be made. We discuss what was taught and how it was taught in our three settings, highlighting some key highs in relation to enjoyment, and learning from culture bearers and some lows in relation to language and accompaniment. We contend that music education in teacher education courses may serve as an effective vehicle to explore cultural expressions, enabling positive attitudes towards cultural diversity.

Using the concept of a developmental lens (Brighton, 2007; Caskey & Anfara, 2014; Davis, 2006; J-F, Pullen, & Carroll, 2013; National Middle School Association, 2010; Peterson, 2010), this article focuses on young teenage students' perceptions of teachers. School teachers play an important role in the educational development of teenagers but little is known about how teachers cater for teenage students' social, emotional, physical and cognitive developmental domains. Even less is known about teenage students' perceptions of their teachers. The current study asked a cohort of Year 9 students in a secondary school in Brisbane, Australia (N=182) to comment on what they "liked" about their teachers. The students' responses were mapped against each of the four developmental domains. Analysis of the data showed that students' emotional and social domains were more salient than their physical and cognitive domains. Specifically, the young teenage students reported liking their teachers when the teachers' were emotionally positive and socially accommodating. The findings of this paper are discussed via a developmental lens with regard to the implications for teacher education.

Guided Inquiry (GI) is an emerging pedagogy based on the Information Search Process (ISP), a research-based information-literacy model identified by Carol C. Kuhlthau (1985, 1988a, 1988b, 1988c, 1989b) and operationalized by the Guided Inquiry Design (GID) process (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari 2007, 2012, 2015). This study investigated perceptions and use of GI by Year 9 students at an Australian independent private school engaged in an inquiry unit in their Personal Development, Health, and Physical Education class focused on "Overcoming Adversity." Two academic researchers and the school librarian collaborated on this mixed-methods study collecting data from survey questionnaires, focus-group interviews, and students' work in digital inquiry process journals and final product presentations. Findings indicate students understand important elements of the GID process, including its independent nature, structure, and pacing through stages, and the element of choice. However, they differ on whether these aspects have a positive or negative effect on their learning and research process. An implication for GI practice from this study is a greater focus on allowing students independence and to proceed at their own pace, as expressed in a student's comment and the title of this paper: "Just let me go at it."

Problem Based Learning (PBL) has been used with increased frequency in Higher Education settings since first introduced by Barrows and Tamblyn during the 1980's. Since this time PBL has been used in medical, engineering and education faculties to support pre-service students in the acquisition of skills and content knowledge relevant to their disciplines. This paper explores the perceptions early childhood and primary pre-service teachers held regarding their participation in a unit of study structured around the use of a PBL scenario. The paper examines the frustrations pre-service teachers experienced within the PBL scenario as well as the perceived benefits regarding their participation in the unit of study.

This paper documents students' observations and perceptions of their respective teachers' "performance" within the context of four year nine English classrooms. Drawing upon student interview data--and signalling researcher observations on occasion--it identifies key themes pertaining to the performances of the teachers. Specifically, it addresses the students' perceptions of the qualities or characteristics of their teachers, and the sets of practices employed by the teachers; and the students' views of the types of learning activities with which--and the classroom contexts within which--they were expected to engage. The paper identifies those teacher performances deemed by students to be "effective" and "ineffective" and the constitution of these performances, and draws conclusions as to what we, as educators, might learn from the students with regards to effective teach-er/ing practice. Finally, it is noted that while this paper draws specifically upon student observations and perceptions of English teachers' performances, these offer valuable insights for all teachers--teachers of all subjects and across all sectors of education.

Higher education in Australia attracts many international students. Universities are challenged to prepare them with the necessary understandings, knowledge and skills to effectively participate in their study. For international students, understanding Early Childhood contexts in Australia is a new way of viewing teaching and learning from their own cultural perspective. This paper situates itself as part of a wider study "Improving work placement for international students, their mentors and other stakeholders". A pilot program was run at Deakin University for the Master of Teaching Early Childhood students to undertake play workshops before commencing placement. Questionnaires were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three themes emerged and are discussed. The findings show that while play workshops may provide a "place and space" for international students to gain knowledge, skills and understandings before going out on placement, they do have some limitations. Generalisations to other institutions cannot be made.

A difficult nexus can arise in positivist research when developing a model or theoretical framework that is then used to underpin the construction of measuring instruments that are subsequently used to test the assumptions underlying the model. This paper explores this nexus through consideration of a study of risk-taking in decision-making for public school principals in Western Australia (WA). A theoretical model of factors impacting on reasoned risk-taking in decision-making was developed and a questionnaire developed to measure the constructs included in the research model as there were no pre-established measurement instruments. The design of the questionnaire and development of items utilised findings from research in measurement theory to structure the items and the response scales to measure constructs in the model. Data was provided from a stratified random sample of principals in 253 schools. Rasch modeling and factor analysis were used to analyse the resultant measurement scale.

Critical questions in educational psychology research to be addressed in this paper concern the casual relationship between academic self-concept, academic motivation and its effect on academic achievement. Do changes in academic self-concept and academic motivation lead to changes in subsequent academic achievement? Various studies have attempted to answer this question by examining the causal relations between academic self-concept and academic achievement as well as academic motivation and academic achievement. Less integral to research however has been the investigation of the relationship between both academic self-concept and academic motivation and their combined effects on academic achievement. For this reason, this paper aims to elucidate further the relationships among self-concept, motivation and academic achievement by proposing a longitudinal design by which self-concept and motivation are measured from a multidimensional perspective. The theoretical and practical implications of this important question will be discussed. (Contains 1 footnote and 1 figure.)

This paper reports the use of several quantitative analytic methods, including Rasch analysis, to re-examine teacher responses to questionnaire items probing opinions related to the compulsory numeracy tests conducted in Years 3, 5, and 7 in Queensland, Australia. Nisbet and Grimbeek (2004) previously reported an interpretable and statistically acceptable 6-factor exploratory factor solution. The present paper improved on this outcome by utilising Rasch analysis to identify items with orderly sequences of scores across response categories, and to subject these to fresh exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The resulting 3-factor scale proved acceptable in terms of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis as well as in terms of Rasch item analysis. The paper briefly discusses the implications of these outcomes in relation to the refined instrument's capacity to gather information about how teachers view the Queensland numeracy reporting system. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures, and 1 footnote.)

Despite a growing body of evidence, the common causal factors of plagiarism among international students are still widely seen to be poor language skills or a lack of academic integrity on the part of the students. This research uses the experiences of a particular cohort of students to explore these assumptions. It investigates and compares the notion of academic integrity and the understanding of plagiarism of both Indian postgraduate students who are currently studying in Australia and students currently studying at Indian universities. Postgraduate international students from India have studied in English at an undergraduate level in India and have a clear understanding of academic integrity in their own context. However their undergraduate experience occurs in a culturally different context to that of the Australian university system and they face the challenge of learning new academic conventions. This paper argues that students coming from different educational cultures require proper and explicit induction into the principles and philosophy behind many western academic conventions as different conventions of scholarship in the Australian education system can create unique difficulties for them. To accuse international students in general of a lack of integrity because they plagiarise or to blame only their lack of language skills for plagiarising seems to be arguable. Rather, the impact of transition from a different university culture without explicit academic skills orientation and instruction needs to be addressed. The paper also points towards the paradox of punishment in western universities where international students have to prove their integrity and innocence regarding the ethical principles of a new and foreign culture.

This paper reports findings in relation to one aspect of the "I Go to School" research project carried out in South Australia which tracked children attending integrated pre-school/childcare centres as they made their transition to school. Eight centres participated in the study involving 347 children. In order to measure some of the outcomes of the children's participation in integrated early childhood programmes, parents and teachers completed questionnaires regarding some aspects of the children's cognitive and social development in the year the children turned four and then again in the term they started school at age five. The researchers were thus able to ascertain some of the changes that had occurred in the children's development during their participation in early childhood programmes. This paper reports on the comparison between parent and teacher judgements of particular aspects of the four-year-old children's cognitive development at one point in time. The analysis presented here compares the teacher and parent/carer judgements from a subsection of the Child Development Inventory). This comparison led to the conclusion that parent ratings of particular aspects of their four-year-old children's cognitive development were reliable and relatively consistent when compared with those of teachers.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the HRD practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Australia to understand the value that MNEs place on investment in their human capital, particularly managerial talent. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on a representative sample of 211 MNEs operating in Australia, this paper investigates the extent (using frequencies) and determinants (using logistic regression analysis) of training and development expenditure, management development strategies, talent management and succession planning policies. Findings: The findings suggest that less than 20 per cent of MNEs operating in Australia are investing over 4 per cent of their annual pay bill on training and development. Furthermore, almost a quarter of firms invest less than 1 per cent in training and development. However, most MNEs invest in their managers and those with high potential through the use of management development programmes, talent management strategies and succession planning. Interestingly, in comparison to US MNEs, Australian MNEs were less likely to use management development or talent management programmes for senior management or high performing staff. Research limitations/implications: The current study is cross-sectional and represents a snapshot of MNEs' HRD practices at one point in time. The study measured the perceptions of the most senior HR manager and did not include the views of other organisational participants. The authors suggest the need for future research studies that incorporate longitudinal research designs and the views of different organisational actors. Practical implications: HR managers or HRD specialists need to develop a strong understanding of the Australian institutional context, as well as demonstrate the importance/business case for an integrative approach to HRD. Originality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to study the HRD practices of MNEs operating in Australia, particularly focusing on the value that MNEs place on their human capital.

Indigenous Australians represent 2.2% of the working age population, yet account for only 1.4% of all university enrolments. In relation to higher degree research students, Indigenous Australians account for 1.1% of enrolments, but only 0.8% of all higher degree research completions. This paper reports on findings that emerged from an Australian Research Council-funded study which aimed to establish a model of best practice for the supervision of Indigenous doctoral students. The project identified the dissertation examination as one of the critical factors underpinning the success of doctoral candidates. Whilst research into the examination process for doctoral students is limited, the research that specifically explores the examination of dissertations submitted by Indigenous students is entirely inadequate. Our research identified key epistemological concerns that impact approaches to the examination process, to demonstrate how the dominance of Western methods of research impact the examination process for Indigenous doctoral students. This paper explores the experiences of 50 successful Indigenous Australian doctors with a specific focus on their examiner preference and disciplinary requirements. It highlights the limitations that some Indigenous students and their supervisors experience in finding an appropriate examiner.

This paper illustrates the use of exploratory focus groups to inform the development of a survey instrument in a sequential phase mixed-methods study investigating differences in secondary students' career choice capability. Five focus groups were conducted with 23 Year 10 students in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Analysis of the focus group data helped inform the design of the instrument for the second phase of the research project: a large-scale cross-sectional survey. In this paper, we discuss the benefits of using focus groups as an initial exploratory phase in a sequential phase mixed-method design and demonstrate how the findings from this initial exploratory phase informed the development of the survey questionnaire to be used in the main phase of the research. The paper will be of interest to researchers considering the use of exploratory qualitative methods to enhance the quantitative phase in a mixed-methods study.

Teaching of pathophysiology concepts is a core feature in health professional programs, but it can be challenging in undergraduate medical/biomedical science education, which is often highly theoretical when delivered by lectures and pen-and-paper tutorials. Authentic case studies allow students to apply their theoretical knowledge but still require good imagination on the part of the students. Lecture content can be reinforced through practical learning experiences in clinical environments. In this study, we report a new approach using clinical simulation within a Human Pathophysiology course to enable undergraduate science students to see "pathophysiology in action" in a clinical setting. Students role played health professionals, and, in these roles, they were able to interact with each other and the manikin "patient," take a medical history, perform a physical examination and consider relevant treatments. Evaluation of students' experiences suggests that using clinical simulation to deliver case studies is more effective than traditional paper-based case studies by encouraging active learning and improving the understanding of physiological concepts.

While a great deal of research has focused on children's experiences as they start school, less attention has been directed to their experiences--and those of their families and educators--as they start school age care. This paper draws from a recent research project investigating practices that promote positive transitions to school and school age care. Data were generated through questionnaires, document analysis, visits to sites and conversations with a wide range of participants. In this paper, data related to school age care are reported. The results emphasise the importance of communication in the development of strong positive relationships among all those involved in transition. The practices identified as effective reflect the principles of My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia, and are aligned with the Transition to School: Position Statement, which focuses on the opportunities, expectations, aspirations and entitlements for all during educational transitions. Drawing on these practices, possibilities for enhanced professional practice are explored.

Student characteristics, their attitude to school and classroom climate can influence teacher-student relationships and adjustment to school. Poor early school experiences are associated with school avoidance, disruptive behaviour, teacher conflict, and suspension and exclusion. The focus, however, remains on the behaviour of individual children, rather than seeing behaviour as the result of interactions between individuals and their pedagogical contexts. This paper presents findings from the first year of an Australian longitudinal project tracking 240 children (101 boys, 139 girls) from high suspending primary schools serving disadvantaged communities through the first six years of school. Analyses, using multiple measures, including classroom observations, assessments and questionnaires, and multiple informants, such as teacher and child reports, explore associations between child characteristics, children's attitudes to school, teacher-student relationship quality and the quality of classroom interactions as children commence school. Findings point to the importance of self-regulation as children transition to school and the pivotal role of inclusive and emotionally supportive classroom contexts in supporting the development of positive teacher-student relationships in the first year of school.