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Although the value of physical activity for physical and mental health is well accepted, benefits for learning are less clear. Research about the incorporation of physical activity in teaching practice and the benefits teachers perceive for student learning and behaviour is sparse. In the current study, Australian teachers (n = 222) completed an online survey. Over 70% of the participants reported using physical activity in their teaching practice. Activities included movement breaks, such as stretches and balancing games, or ones that were intended to stimulate the brain, described as 'crossing the midline' exercises. Some teachers integrated physical activity with academic content, such as tossing a ball while practising math facts. Among the perceived benefits of physical activity were energising students and promoting their engagement with learning. Overall, there was strong acceptance of the value of incorporating physical activity in teaching practice.

The global higher education sector has been significantly disrupted by the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, especially in relation to its implications for assessment. However, few studies to date have explored student perspectives on these tools. This article reports on one of the first large-scale quantitative studies of student views on generative artificial intelligence at an Australian university (n = 1,135). When the survey was conducted, most students had low knowledge, experience, and confidence in using these tools. These results varied across disciplines and across some student sub-groups, such as mature-age students and international students. Confidence appeared to increase with experience, although the data also revealed a portion of students that have never used these tools yet still felt confident in using them. In exploring these results, this article aims to shed new light on this fast-evolving landscape and inform the future direction of supporting students to engage with generative artificial intelligence tools appropriately.

Education is increasingly infiltrated by technology and datafication. This techno-data amplification is entangled with neoliberalism and the emphasis on calculation and measurement it brings, often through metrics. This article critically examines how metrics are shaping discipline practices in schools through ClassDojo, a popular platform for managing student behaviour. Little is known about how ClassDojo is implemented in schools, and how its dependence on metrics is impacting school discipline practices. Through a critical qualitative inquiry, we examined teachers' practices with ClassDojo, and found they operate via techniques of control, and that metrics are central to these techniques. We draw on the concept of 'metric power' to understand how these school discipline practices manifest as forms of power. We argue ClassDojo's metrics operate as powerful narrowing pedagogical devices that fixate on measurement and lead to practices which operate via neoliberal governing rationalities that reshape school discipline.

Australia first documented national goals for primary and secondary education in 1989 with the Hobart Declaration on Schooling. Since then, Australia's goals for the education of children have been updated in three subsequent National Education Declarations. Each of the Declarations includes specific goals for Indigenous Australian students, as well as goals for students to learn about Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures. Arranged into four thematic sections covering each Declaration, this paper traces colonial representation of Indigenous Australians in these policy documents. Each section discusses the socio-political factors that influenced education policy at the time each Declaration was written, and the socio-political priorities of Indigenous peoples in the same period. We argue that the evolution of representations of Indigenous peoples in education policy is evidence of the continued resistance of Indigenous peoples to colonial dominance in education policies.

Traditionally Australian primary school teachers have been viewed as generalists responsible for instruction across all content areas. Adopting self-determination theory as a lens, the aim of the study was to explore the extent to which generalist primary school teachers are interested in becoming subject matter specialists. Questionnaire data were collected from 104 early years primary school teachers. Findings suggest that two-thirds of these generalist teachers expressed an interest in specialising in either English, mathematics, and to a far lesser extent, science, such that they would be responsible for exclusively teaching this subject. Preferences for specialisation were based on teachers' self-perceived content and pedagogical expertise and/ or their enjoyment of teaching in this content area. By contrast, the one-third of teachers who would choose to remain generalists referred to the value in a variety of teaching experiences, teaching from a whole child perspective and content integration. Implications for educational policy are discussed.

Just as students experience productive struggle or spend time in the 'zone of confusion' when engaging with challenging tasks, teachers also experience similar difficulties and periods of confusion when engaging with new pedagogical approaches. Prior to a 19-week lockdown due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) during 2020, two Foundation teachers implemented a student-centred pedagogical approach when teaching with challenging tasks. While they had some initial success implementing the pedagogical approach and a three-phase lesson structure, they struggled to do so online during the lockdown. It is the experiences of these teachers, in particular their experience of confusion relating to aspects of the pedagogical approach, and how this confusion was overcome, that is reported in this paper. Central to our findings is the importance of teachers reflecting on their own experiences of struggle and the impact this had on their professional learning, as well as the notion that adversity can be a catalyst for change.

The availability of tutors in schools is a privilege and an opportunity to support those students who may be sufficiently far behind the expected level that it is difficult for the classroom teacher to bridge the gap. The challenge for schools is to find ways to guide the work of tutors and teachers to improve chances that supported students can learn the relevant concepts and to use those concepts flexibly in the classroom. This article examines some evidence from research studies suggesting that well-structured tutoring programs in mathematics can be successful. But it also seems that unstructured initiatives, both small and large scale, may have limited value for students. It then argues that tutors may need specific professional learning support and presents suggestions of ways for structuring tutoring sessions that can form the basis of professional learning for tutors.

Education plays an important role in the successful settlement and life outcomes of young people from refugee backgrounds. Because of this, research into young people from refugee backgrounds in education systems tends to focus on examples of "good practice" in terms of how these young people experience education. Yet, examples of good practice commonly fail to take into account that schools are engaging in particular practices from very different contexts. This article contributes to the study of refugee education by drawing attention to the role that school contexts play in how different schools enact "good practice". It presents data from a large multi-stage study which explored how the schooling experiences of students from refugee backgrounds are shaped by educational policies and school practices. By outlining case studies of seven schools, it highlights the impact of differing school contexts on how schools respond to the needs of students from refugee backgrounds. In this way, this article highlights that the notion of "good practice" within refugee-background education is always nuanced and contextual.

There is increasing awareness of the high levels of support needed for literacy learning for children on the autism spectrum. Although research has investigated the quality of the classroom literacy environment, little attention has been paid to examining the classroom literacy environment in specialist classrooms catering specifically for children on the spectrum. The current study used the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO) to guide observations, combined with stimulated recall and semi-structured teacher interviews to explore the classroom environments and teacher practices used to support children on the spectrum. Ten teachers from two primary specialist schools participated. The findings highlighted the strong focus on language development and foundational literacy skills across the early years in both schools. Findings demonstrated the potential utility of an observation checklist such as the ELLCO in guiding observations when augmented by stimulated recall interviews. Suggestions are provided for assessing the literacy environment in specialist classrooms for children on the spectrum.

In 2014, the Australian Government established the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) to advise on how teacher education programmes could ensure new teachers were adequately prepared for the classroom. Following this, the Australian Government endorsed a key recommendation of the TEMAG Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers report, the inclusion of specialisations in primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE). This research was conducted at an Australian public university that, in 2016, had embedded specialisations in a revised primary teacher programme structure and was one of the first ITE institutions in Australia to graduate primary teachers with a specialisation. Using a mixed-methods case study design with convenience sampling, this study sought to investigate these primary graduates' perceptions of undertaking a specialisation in relation to the development of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge in the specialist area, as well as perceived employment advantages. This research took place over 4 years with participants having completed a Bachelor of Education (Primary) at least three months prior to participating. The participants reported benefits to having completed a primary specialisation but expressed concerns about their preparedness to teach their specialisation and whether it would result in any advantages for employment. Recommendations from the participants included teaching practice in their area of specialisation, consideration of specialist skills and changing the timetabling of the specialisation in the programme. Ultimately, there is a need for ongoing research in this area to determine the extent to which primary specialisations deliver the intended outcomes and impacts at both the policy driver level and the university level.

Given what is known about the importance of productive struggle for supporting student learning of mathematics at all levels, the current study sought to examine teacher attitudes towards student struggle when students learn mathematics in remote learning settings compared with classroom settings. Eighty-two Australian early years primary teachers involved in a professional learning initiative focused on teaching mathematics through sequences of challenging tasks completed a questionnaire inviting them to compare the two settings. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, we found that teachers were more positive about the value of student struggle in classroom-based settings compared with remote learning settings. Qualitative analysis of open-ended responses revealed four themes capturing why teachers viewed efforts to support productive struggle in a remote learning setting as potentially problematic: absence of a teacher-facilitated, synchronous, learning environment; parents' negative attitudes towards struggle when learning mathematics; lack of social connection and peer-to-peer collaboration; and difficulties accessing learning materials. Suggestions for mitigating some of these challenges in the future are put forward.

This article reports on a systematic review of literature on the experiences of substitute teachers, also known as casual or relief teachers. This occupational group are an essential part of school improvement efforts, allowing release time for other teachers to participate in professional learning, complete administrative duties, and attend to personal matters. Although a ubiquitous component of the teaching workforce, little is known about their work conditions, motivations, experiences, and support. This study involved a mixed-methods research synthesis approach. Peer-reviewed studies and dissertations that examined the experiences and needs of substitute teachers in primary/elementary, middle, and secondary/high schools were examined. The study found that, although substitute teachers are a heterogeneous group, their conditions and experiences are less than satisfactory, exacerbated by a lack of targeted support. Education systems need to consider professionalizing this occupational group further. In addition, systems need to develop policies and practices that improve substitute teachers' work.

Teaching assistants are not always utilised effectively in mathematics classrooms. Moreover, there is limited research examining instructional models that might more meaningfully incorporate teaching assistants into the teaching and learning of mathematics. To address this gap in the literature, the current study explored three distinct teacher-tutor dyads involved in a particular intervention program, Getting Ready in Numeracy (G.R.I.N.), from a single Australian primary school. All three tutors currently operated as teaching assistants in the classrooms of their G.R.I.N. teacher counterparts. The professional working relationships between G.R.I.N. teachers and their respective tutors were investigated through interviews. We outline common themes between the different dyads' approaches to G.R.I.N., and argue that all three dyads' practices are consistent with principles outlined in the literature around the effective utilisation of teaching assistants. We conclude by synthesising our findings, and presenting an embedded tutor model for the G.R.I.N. program. This model is presented as a prototype of good practice in a context where G.R.I.N. has been implemented successfully, whilst also serving as a more general model for how teaching assistants can be meaningfully incorporated into mathematics intervention programs.

An educator's ability to engage in critical reflection is core to provision of high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC), and is a priority for quality improvement in Australia. This study explored the nature of critical reflection using the example of sleep-rest practices. These practices have been identified as a 'barometer of ECEC quality' because they present significant challenges for educators, requiring negotiation of a complex set of competing priorities. Responses of educators (n = 53) to a scenario presenting a typical sleep-rest issue were analysed. These encompassed different types of reflection used to negotiate information sources and situational demands, namely: Technical--Limited Negotiation involving adherence to standard procedure, Practical--Negotiation with reference to diverse others; and finally, Critical--Negotiations analysing multiple sources of evidence. Overall, the findings showed an over reliance on technical and practical reflective strategies to address the sleep-rest time issue. Only one educator responded in a way that suggested critical reflection in which multiple sources of information, including an evidence base, were applied. The findings direct us to two conclusions. First, researchers and policy makers should consider cognitions about knowledge and knowing, with respect to understanding critical reflection, as integral to the professional work of educators. Second, we identify the potential benefit of providing more structured opportunities in pre-service education and training educational leadership and ongoing professional learning to facilitate dialogical thinking.

Consumer, economic and financial literacy education at school is central to active and informed citizenship. Over the past decade, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has led various policy initiatives and influenced curriculum and resource development in this area. However, there remains a paucity of research exploring how Australian teachers make sense of and approach their work as financial literacy educators or their professional learning needs and interests in this interdisciplinary field. This article reports research exploring practising teachers' perceptions of the opportunities for financial literacy teaching and learning. Data were collected from 35 teachers in 16 Victorian primary schools. The findings suggest a need to educate teachers to: reflect upon the knowledge, skills and capabilities required to make informed financial decisions; identify and interpret the possibilities for financial literacy teaching and learning in the Australian Curriculum; and enact sophisticated pedagogical practice.

This article considers the ways in which two senior secondary assessment policies that aim to be inclusive are enacted for students from refugee backgrounds. The final years of secondary school in Australia are shaped by high-stakes assessment requirements. Yet there have been policy moves in South Australia to be more inclusive of students by providing more flexibility for them to demonstrate their learning in diverse ways. We undertook a critical policy analysis to investigate the ways in which South Australian senior secondary certificate policies are enacted in two case study secondary schools. Our analysis of the data indicates that school staff navigate between competing demands of conflicting policy directives. These conflicting directives result in tensions for staff as they enact policies . In high-stakes assessment environments where staff and students strive towards academic achievements, inclusive policies can be limited by other policies that impose uniformity and fairness. The limitations to inclusion noted in this study may be indicative of broader exclusions created by the enactment of policies in high-stakes assessment contexts.

The international agenda for quality improvement in early childhood education and care (ECEC) has driven policies targeting workforce professionalisation. Increased training and accountability have been required, but without commensurate renumeration. Attendant staff turnover and educator stress threaten to undermine the achievement of intended policy goals. In a study of the Australian ECEC workforce, we conducted a national survey. We also longitudinally tracked staff turnover in a stratified sample of ECEC centres in remote, regional and urban locations, each with different populations and economic ecosystems. National survey data (N = 916) showed intended exit (22%) was associated with upgrading qualifications and positive motivations at entry to the workforce while intention to stay was associated with having a career role and personal satisfaction. The small variations in wages or work demands in the sector did not moderate these relationships but supportive workplaces increased intention to stay. In tracked centres (N = 98 staff), annual turnover (37%) was explained by personal (e.g., maternity) and workplace factors, both positive (promotion, removing unsuited staff) and negative (dissatisfaction). Highest turnover was in remote locations (47%). We conclude that long term sustainability should attend to appropriate reward of professionalisation. In the short-term supportive workplace culture is critical in retaining and sustaining educators. [This article was co-written with The Early Years Workforce Study team: (Karen Thorpe, Sue Irvine, Paula McDonald), Jennifer Sumsion, Angela Ferguson, Mary Lincoln, Kate Liley, and Pam Spall.]

Pressure on labour-supply has rekindled concern about the low participation of men in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and public debate about the 'appropriateness' and 'value' of male educators in these settings. We examined this issue from the perspective of all staff (N = 23), in two Australian ECEC centres employing a male educator. A diversity lens framed analysis, providing a contemporary and inclusive account of male educators as members of the teaching team rather than as gender-anomalies in the workforce. Staff identified male educators as assets with their value extending beyond symbolic salience as men in a feminized workplace. Men's pedagogical contribution was described as related to employment role, not gender identity. Distinct benefits to productivity and relationships were reported. From the perspective of those inside gender diversity enhanced workplace (relationships) and work productivity (quality); low participation of men presents an opportunity-cost that extends beyond simply increasing the workforce pool.

Purpose: Curricula is developing from a pure knowledge-based outcome to a more skill-based outcome, with the objective of creating and advancing competencies that meet employer expectations. While the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demand organisations to change practices and adapt to sustainable goals, there is a lack of understanding in how competencies can enhance these goals. The purpose of this paper is twofold: Study 1 explores competencies related to sustainability required in a work force and examines employer perceptions on the existing literature for competencies. Study 2 empirically tests the influence of sustainability scholarship on non-technical competencies in the work force. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach was undertaken. A sample of managers from 39 large Australian organisations participated in the scoping study. This was followed by further interviewing executives from 12 multinational corporations in China to assess the validity of competencies and provide deeper understanding of the issues at hand. The quantitative study analysed a sample of executive responses from 229 multinationals in China using factor and regression analysis to test for the effects of mediation. Findings: The research highlights that the underlying competencies regarding sustainability influences the bigger picture within firms for attaining sustainability. The affective and cognitive growth of sustainability scholarship is governed mainly by a firm's sustainable values. Core organisational values facilitate the development of non-technical competencies. These relationships and their cumulative effect on competencies provide a theoretical framework for acquiring sustainability within organisations. Employees need sustainability scholarship for enhancing sustainability. Sustainability scholarship reflects high-level learning obtained through universities or training. The research found that non-technical competencies such as professional ethical responsibility mediate between core business competencies and sustainability scholarship. Originality/value: By exploring employer's perception of competencies, the study first makes an important contribution in addressing the need to support SDGs by bridging organisational-level competencies and sustainability literacy, which hold significant benefits for practitioners, academia and organisations at large. Second, the theoretical findings strengthen the need for embedding competencies in the curriculum. It conveys the need for sustainability literacy/scholarship to align with organisational training and learning pedagogies, in order to effectively meet industry needs. Third, it provides useful insights on employers' estimation about workplace competencies and broadens our understanding on the contribution that competencies within organisations make to this end.

Universities are no longer limited to traditional media platforms for recruitment advertising; increasingly, institutions are using online videos and social media to promote themselves locally and internationally. We analysed a sample of 81 YouTube videos that promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses in 40 Australian universities. We used quantitative content analysis to examine gender and ethnic representations, and qualitative content analysis to inductively find marketing themes. Videos used on the websites of both established and younger Australian universities had almost equal numbers of women and men. Students (including alumni) were the most common speakers in videos. However, representation of non-Caucasians remained low. Of the 17 reoccurring themes identified, Course Experience and Labour Market were most common. The lack of clear unique selling propositions was a key weakness across all videos. Overall, video content from Australian STEM faculties rarely went beyond vague platitudes and generally lacked specific STEM content.

In this article, the authors emphasise the importance of purposeful mathematical discussion and using sequences of connected, cumulative, and challenging tasks in advancing students' spatial reasoning in the early years of schooling.

This article reports on a project which involved introducing challenging tasks in the early years' classrooms of twenty Victorian primary schools. The obstacles teachers encountered and how they overcame those obstacles are discussed.

This article reports the findings of classroom research exploring the potential of posing challenging mathematical problems situated in real-world financial contexts to activate mathematical knowledge, skills and reasoning. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 mathematical literacy assessment framework (OECD, 2013) provided theoretical framing for the study, which examined the use of a "financial dilemma" titled "Shopping for shoes" in a Year 5/6 composite class in a suburban Australian primary school. The social and mathematical dimensions of the task, together with a particular lesson structure, successfully engaged 10 to 12-year-old students in exploring mathematics through a financial problem-solving experience. The findings reveal that students' notions of friendship and fairness guided the way they "formulated" the problem and "employed" mathematics. Strategies intended to encourage students to "interpret" the alignment and reasonableness of their social and mathematical thinking against the problem context were critical to the lesson.

Middle school students have been pervasively described in the research literature as exhibiting disaffection, disengagement, and a lack of interest in mathematics classrooms. This study investigated this notion empirically using students' own voice on their wishes for mathematics learning to see if they characterise themselves in this way in their self-reports. Over 3500 Australian middle school students responded to a free-format prompt and reported diverse but overwhelmingly positive aspirations related to intrinsic motivational features inherent in their disposition and to extrinsic factors in their environment, such as the learning context and activities provided. Evidence of all four goal orientations was found in the students' responses but most noticeably for the productive mastery-approach orientation. When these students described what they wish for in their mathematics classrooms, they mentioned challenging work, interesting work, and opportunities to collaborate.

Productive struggle leads to productive classrooms where students work on complex problems, are encouraged to take risks, can struggle and fail yet still feel good about working on hard problems (Boaler, 2016). Teachers can foster a classroom culture that values and promotes productive struggle by providing students with challenging tasks. These tasks are designed in such a way that they are accessible to all students and the expectation is that everyone will persist when solving challenging mathematical tasks. This article looks at examples of challenging mathematical tasks designed to enable students of all abilities to experience productive struggle, and examines the lesson structure and teacher's role when implementing a challenging task, along with students' responses to being challenged through the tasks. It adds to existing research on challenging tasks, including in previous editions of "Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom" (APMC) (e.g., Cheeseman, Clarke, Roche, & Walker, 2016; Roche & Clarke, 2014; Russo, 2016) through challenging tasks being used to evoke productive struggle, and illustrative examples of what productive struggle 'looks like.'

The article reports phase 1 of a two-year study that focused on seeking and use of information by students at various stages of their secondary education. The project used a large qualitative sample selected from four Australian schools and was undertaken during 2006 as part of a wider project concerned with using information creatively and effectively to minimize plagiarism. The field work included observation of students undertaking an assignment, two interviews with students, and the analysis of the completed assignments. Topics covered and reported, in the context of the available literature, include: preferences for information sources, self-perception of information skills, help from other people, trust in and perceived reliability of sources, attitudes to information seeking, recording and use of information, and attribution of information sources. Criteria for good practice include the avoidance of plagiarism by students, general attitudes to information seeking and use, and awareness of the need for an evaluative, critical approach to information. The responses of the students who plagiarised most are examined towards the end of the article. The discussion and conclusion explore the issues in greater depth, provide recommendations for future improvements, and outline the remaining two phases of the project. (Contains 1 table.)

This article from Carly Sawatzki and Peter Sullivan encourages schools and teachers to consider ways to embed financial literacy tasks in mathematics lessons more often, and includes an authentic task to try with your students.

Background: Both parent-report and clinician-administered autism spectrum disorder (ASD) screening instruments are important to accurately inform ASD risk ascertainment. The aim of this study was to adapt a clinician-administered ASD screening instrument, the Autistic Behavioural Indicators Instrument (ABII), as a parent questionnaire equivalent (ABII-PQ). Method: The modification of ABII items into parent questions is described. The ABII-PQ was trialled in a sample of parents of children, aged between 12 months and 6 years, with an ASD (n = 65, M child age = 4.03 years) or typical development (n = 37, M child age = 2.09 years). Results: Internal consistency was high, a = 0.92. Receiver operator curves analysis identified the optimal ABII-PQ cut-off score, which yielded high sensitivity (0.97) and specificity (0.95). Classification accuracy was high for children across the autism spectrum (autistic disorder: n = 35, 100%; Asperger syndrome: n = 14, 93%; pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified: n = 14, 93%). Conclusion: The ABII-PQ shows promise as a parent questionnaire version of the ABII.

Rural education thrives on building teaching capacity and mentoring from within communities. Whilst isolated and remote areas have the potential to participate in online teacher education, strategic and effective delivery requires a targeted analysis of the characteristics of the learners, the motivations that drive them, and day-to-day environmental and community factors influencing the students' studies. This paper reports on an innovative model of teacher education recently implemented in the Republic of Nauru. In this model, the Nauruan Government has partnered with an Australian regional university to develop quality Pacific-focused teacher education programs that are delivered through a hybrid of online and classroom instruction. The Nauru Teacher Education Project (NTEP), conceptualised and administered by the University of New England, provides culturally responsive online and on-island teacher development for the community of Nauru. It is here that the lecturers come to 'know the students'.

The content and purpose of written unit plans in mathematics is an under-researched area. In this article, we provide a brief overview of research on teachers' planning processes and the place of mental and written plans. We report on data from a questionnaire completed by 357 teachers from Victorian Catholic primary schools, where we focused on possible elements of written unit plans for primary mathematics, and the relative importance which teachers attributed to these elements. We then discuss 48 written unit plans which were provided to us by primary schools from which the 357 teachers were drawn. There was considerable variation in the length, intended teaching time, and level of specification of key ideas in these plans. We discuss this variation, and some discrepancies between the ratings of teachers of the importance of certain elements and their presence in the plans we examined. We also suggest potentially productive areas of future enquiry.

In this paper, we undertake a brief review of the "conventional" research into the problems of early career teachers to create a juxtaposed position from which to launch an alternative approach based on resilience theory. We outline four reasons why a new contextualised, social theory of resilience has the potential to open up the field of research into the professional lives of teachers and to produce new insights into the social, cultural and political dynamics at work within and beyond schools. We then move from these theoretical considerations to explain how we used them in a recent Australian research project that examined the experiences of 60 graduate teachers during their first year of teaching. This work led to the development of a "Framework of Conditions Supporting Early Career Teacher Resilience" which we outline, promote and advocate as the basis for action to better sustain our graduate teachers in their first few years of teaching. Finally, we reflect on the value of our work so far and outline our practical plans to "mobilise" this knowledge in ways that will make it available to a variety of audiences concerned with the welfare of this group of teachers.

The Encouraging Persistence Maintaining Challenge (EMPC) Project has been working with secondary teachers in Melbourne as they seek to build persistence in students, during work on challenging mathematics tasks. The authors have developed sequences of tasks in various topic areas for Years 7 and 8, which require students to connect different aspects of mathematics, to devise solution strategies for themselves and to explore more than one pathway to solutions. There is an expectation that students record the steps in their solutions, and justify their thinking to the teacher and other students. The authors have surveyed teachers on their strategies for encouraging student persistence, before and after the experience of teaching some challenging tasks which have been provided to them. This article provides examples of the kinds of challenging tasks teachers are using with students, and share teacher insights on helpful strategies.

Under the auspices of its 'Education Revolution', the Federal Labor Government is currently implementing a national curriculum for schools. Representing an important intervention into educational practice and governance, the Australian Curriculum offers a unique research opportunity, providing substantial scope for the examination of the changing systems and school-level practices entailed in large-scale curriculum reform. Research into the Australian Curriculum also presents a valuable opportunity to develop educational research methodologies that attend to the complex and multifaceted processes of curriculum reform, from systems to classrooms. Taking two of the disciplinary towers of modern curricula (English and mathematics) and Australia's two largest jurisdictions (New South Wales and Victoria) as the focus, this article draws on a three-year Australian Research Council Linkage Project to outline an approach to researching major curriculum reform.

It is widely accepted that mathematical learning builds upon students' prior knowledge and understandings, and their identities. In this study, this phenomenon is explored with indigenous students in remote community schools in outback Australia. Through one-on-one task-based interviews, it was found that these students had some clear understandings of the measurement concepts involved, although these understandings were often idiosyncratic to these students in this context. The task-based one-on-one interview gave better insights into students' knowledge than the written form of the National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy assessment. Nevertheless, the students' conceptions provide a useful basis upon which to build subsequent knowledge, understanding and skills in the forms required by the formal mathematics curriculum.

This article promotes the use of mathematically appropriate, engaging and challenging tasks to support learning that is worthwhile. The authors share insights from a three-lesson design experiment and the three tasks along with the results from their implementation are explored.