Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth : Class 6 girls and boys in Afghanistan 2013

This publication provides a summary of initial findings of the Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) study in Afghanistan. Class 6 students in 13 provinces in Afghanistan were assessed in the domains of mathematical, reading and writing literacy. In total, 5,979 students, 42% girls and 58% boys, took the test and completed a student background questionnaire in either Dari or Pashto. The principal from each assessed school also completed a school background questionnaire. The initial results on gender differences show some promising outcomes as well as highlighting areas that require attention. The results of MTEG 2013 Class 6 indicate that girls and boys demonstrated similar levels of achievement in mathematical literacy, while girls outperformed boys in both reading and writing literacy; boys from non-urban areas and girls from non-urban areas have similar levels of achievement; girls schooled in an urban area outperformed girls schooled in non-urban areas; and boys reported receiving more support than girls to attend school, from family members, friends and the community

ACER Research Conference Proceedings (2016)

The focus of ACER’s Research Conference 2016 will be on what we are learning from research about ways of improving levels of STEM learning. Australia faces significant challenges in promoting improved science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning in our schools. Research Conference 2016 will showcase research into what it will take to address these challenges, which include: the decline in Australian students’ mathematical and scientific ‘literacy’; the decline in STEM study in senior school; a shortage of highly qualified STEM subject teachers, and curriculum challenges. You will hear from researchers who work with teachers to engage students in studying STEM-related subjects, such as engineering in primary school, and science and maths at all levels. You will learn how to engage both girls and boys in STEM learning, through targeted teaching, activities like gaming, and applying learning from neuroscience

Travelling scholarships available to Australians for study overseas

The detailed statements show that in 1945, approximately 31 scholarships were normally available each year for competition among Australian students who wish to continue their studies overseas. National scholarships included the Rhodes Scholarship, 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarships, British Council Scholarships and the Gowrie Scholarship Trust fund. The remainder of scholarships were state-based. The majority of scholarships were for engineering and Science. Free Passages scholarships were provided by the Australian and New Zealand Shipping Companies

Errors in the use of English by a group of pre-school children

Information Bulletin No. 21 reported the pronunciation errors of a group of pre-school children in an inner suburb of Melbourne. This bulletin reports their errors in English Usage. The group consisted of twelve boys and twelve girls, all of whom in 1951 enrolled for the first time at a state school in Melbourne. They were observed, and their speech recorded, for the ten days November 20-24, and November 27-December 1st while in a special group formed for the purpose at the Lady Gowrie Centre in Melbourne. Their ages ranged from 4 years 10 months to 5 years 8 months. The records used for the analysis of errors in usage were made by stenographers who were instructed to record the children\u27s speech as accurately as possible, recording errors and incomplete words or sentences exactly as they were uttered. The primary purpose of those records is to prepare a vocabulary list for those children, but as the tutorial lends itself also to analysis of errors in usage, such an analysis has been made in the hope that it can be of use particularly to teachers of infant classes, kindergartens. [p.1, ed