Reports the findings of a qualitative study investigating the interactions relating to special education between principals and parent advocates. Specifically focuses on variations in perspectives among the principals and parent advocates on disability, special education and inclusion. Places a particular emphasis on exploring the perceived power…

Life is lived in an era characterised by complexity and instability. Pedagogical ideals or educational goals are usually determined based on the socio-political and cultural period in which people find themselves at a specific point in its history. Then, in what ways do people train their principals to be models of and act in line with those…

Purpose: This research, based on a case study carried out in a Portuguese public school, was undertaken with the main purpose of investigating the perceptions of secondary school teachers regarding their principal and his leadership style. Design/methodology/approach: Teachers received a questionnaire which included 57 items, grouped under the…

New Zealand school education through the middle years appears to be in crisis. Sutton (2000) reports that students in the age range from 13-15 years (Years 9 and 10 of schooling) experience the crisis most poignantly. Their teachers increasingly say children in this age range are difficult to motivate, that they present them with their greatest…

"Talent in the New Millennium" was a research study into gifted education, conducted over a two-year period in 68 centres and schools in three disparate regions of New Zealand. Using questionnaires, oral interviews and sample case studies, the study drew input from educators of the gifted, from children and students identified as gifted,…

This paper compares two sets of data from the same year, 2001--the numbers of students taking languages other than English at primary and secondary level, and census statistics for the home use of languages other than English. The data draws attention to languages that are taught principally in day schools and those taken mainly in after hours…

This study has two parallel research agenda: (1) the development of social skills and pedagogical content knowledge in teacher candidates as they work collaboratively in pairs, and (2) the development of conceptual understanding and social skills in elementary school students who are taught by teacher candidates with cooperative learning…

The purpose of my qualitative, action study was to gain a better understanding of the effects of an experimental college course in computer applications. This inquiry was made concerning both the teacher's and learners' points of view. A holistic, arts-based approach was used by the researcher/teacher in order to design, develop and facilitate a…

Teacher shortages have encouraged initiatives to tailor training programs to meet the demand in both past, current and future contexts. Such programs have been streamlined to ensure a rapid response to shortages, in addition to also drawing participants from non-traditional groups as a source of potential educators. Within teacher education,…

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' perceptions of physical education classes in an urban Korean primary school. Furthermore, this study tried to interpret how teachers' beliefs were reflected in their teaching. One primary school with seventeen teachers was selected as the site for a case study. Data were collected by participant…

The concept of self-efficacy is based on the triadic reciprocality model symbolising a relationship between: (a) personal factors i.e. cognition, emotion, and biological events (b) behaviour, and (c) environmental factors (Maddux, 1995). Cognition, emotion and behaviour are the domains of personality which form the basis of research in…

Atlantis University is an ambitious international project in the area of learning and is currently being developed by a group of universities and companies. It combines three different types of learning and teaching to form a single package offered to Students and people in the workplace alike: face-to-face learning, e-learning and project-based…

Central Queensland University (CQU) has used paper based distance education materials, such as course profiles, study guides and resource materials since 1971. The purpose of this exploratory study was to review three different approaches to online delivery and assessment currently being used in the Faculty of Business and Law, CQU, and to analyse…

David Ingram's career has traversed several decades of shifting rationale for language policy in Australia. Government and institutional initiatives have at various times favoured traditional foreign language teaching, multicultural imperatives and language diversity, concern for Asian economically strategic languages, or a focus on literacy in…

We compared how teachers and pupils in Italy take into account different dimensions of bullying behaviour, such as intentionality, imbalance of power, repetition and typology of aggression, in relation to bullying behaviours, and investigated the attribution of meaning that teachers and pupils give to a set of terms frequently used to connote this…