Professional learning is widely acknowledged as an effective way to improve teacher practice and, consequently, student outcomes. However, this presupposes a direct link from professional learning to the enactment of the content of professional learning in teaching. This paper explores teachers' engagement with a continuing professional learning (CPL) program intended to improve teachers' knowledge and practice in reading instruction. Six case study subjects, self-selected from 10 schools participating in a year-long CPL program, provided the opportunity to explore what teachers enacted from the professional learning. This research highlighted the significance of contextual factors on how teachers engaged with and enacted information from the CPL. Contextual factors included individual beliefs about reading instruction and the expectations of the systems in which they are operating. This research emphasised the need to identify the personal and professional contexts of teachers involved in CPL programs in order to more effectively influence practice.

Students’ thinking and learning in inquiry-based science is contingent on them being able to participate in substantive conversations so they explore their ideas and develop reasons and explanations for the outcomes of their investigations. While teachers understand the importance of talk for student learning, they are often unaware of the impact of their discourse practice on the quality of classroom talk. To develop substantive classroom discourse, first teachers need to understand what substantive talk looks and sounds like, and then they need to develop their capacity to use questioning and discourse moves to achieve such talk. Science poses additional challenges for teachers in that the form of discourse needs to be matched to the instructional purpose of the phase of inquiry. This article presents the findings of a study which documented the learning of primary school teachers participating in a professional learning intervention focussed on developing their capacity to manage discourse in science lessons. The article outlines the repertoire of questioning and discourse moves the teachers came to use to develop substantive whole-class discussions.

Language is critical in the mediation of scientific reasoning, higher-order thinking and the development of scientific literacy. This study investigated how an exemplary primary science teacher scaffolds and supports studentsu0027 reasoning during a Year 4 materials unit. Lessons captured on video, teacher and student interviews and micro-ethnographic analysis of classroom discourse reveal a sophisticated repertoire of teacher practices focusing on the development of language, conceptual understanding and reasoning within a classroom culture that supports reasoned arguments. The integration of conversation threads supporting language and conceptual development, syntactical and metacognitive scaffolds, prompts and self-regulation strategies extend the opportunities for scientific reasoning. Recommendations are made for adopting strategies that enhance opportunities for reasoning in primary science lessons.

Aboriginal children experience social and educational disadvantage and many are not engaged with schooling or learning, which results in significantly lower levels of educational attainment. The Aboriginal Education Program delivered by Scitech to remote Western Australian schools has been shown to significantly increase student ratings of their enjoyment of science, curiosity about science phenomena and their rating of science as a favourite subject. Teachers reported that student focus and engagement was very high during the Scitech activities and that student attendance and behaviour was better than usual (Hackling, Byrne, Gower, and Anderson, 2012). This study investigated the practices used by the Scitech presenters that generated high levels of student engagement. Analysis of classroom observations and transcripts of classroom dialogue from lessons that generated high levels of engagement showed that a set of 11 pedagogies underpinned this engaging practice. The pedagogical practices addressed: relationship-building, facilitation of effective hands-on activity work, participation in classroom discourse and connecting the science activities to the student's experiences and local context. The findings of this study elaborate the Primary Connections Indigenous perspectives framework (Australian Academy of Science, 2008), and provide a model to underpin approaches to teaching Aboriginal children, and possibly other children, who are not engaged with learning science.

Video-based classroom research is opening-up exciting new insights into how teachers generate productive opportunities for student engagement in quality learning, reasoning and the development of their scientific literacy. The significant role played by multimodal representations in learning and teaching becomes evident through the medium of video and its analysis. Classroom research that is framed from social constructivist, sociocultural, activity theory and social semiotic perspectives highlights the social interactions involving multimodal representations which are used to communicate science ideas and also act as semiotic resources for meaning making. Social and cognitive processes of co-constructing meaning are mediated by talk, embodied representations such as gesture and role play, graphical and textual representations. Video offers unique affordances to capture the multimodality of these representations and interactions (Flewitt, 2006), however, new methods of documenting, transcribing and re-representing such data are needed to capture the rich multimodality of the data (Bezemer & Mavers, 2011). This paper outlines research methods developed to analyse and represent classroom video data collected in a study of primary science teaching and learning funded by the Australian Research Council.

With trends across many countries still indicating the decline of student interest in school science and diminishing numbers of students studying science beyond the compulsory years, it seems that the field remains in crisis. To address these unfortunate trends, there needs to be a greater emphasis on science education research that highlights the good news stories. For example, what are science teachers actually doing in their classrooms to increase student interest and understanding in science? This article focuses on the science teaching beliefs and practices of four Western Australian primary school teachers. The teachers were nominated by a professional colleague as effective practitioners. The study involved gathering information from classroom observations and teacher interviews to provide background information to assist in developing understandings of these teachers and their science teaching. This article reports on the initial findings drawn from Deanne A, Kate B, Lisa C and Rebecca D. Their practices were organised into the following six categories: classroom environment; conceptual knowledge and procedural skills; teaching strategies and approaches; student-specific considerations; teacher-specific considerations; and context-specific considerations. In examining the components contributing to these categories, it was evident that the teachers’ beliefs, as well as the contextual factors inherent in each classroom environment, influenced how and why they teach science in the ways they do.

The possibilities inherent in the collection and use of video footage point to an important innovation for classroom research. Unfortunately, researchers often experience uncertainty about incorporating video into their methodological approach as it can present a potential minefield of operational, technical, and ethical issues that require consideration and negotiation. Nevertheless, with the increased emphasis on the use of digital technologies, the timing is right to engage in more in-depth discussions about the role of video data in education research. In contributing to this discussion, this article unpacks several issues connected to the use of video technology as a tool for data collection and analysis. This article focuses on addressing some of the barriers faced by education researchers such as making sampling decisions, maintaining research authenticity, and grappling with ethical issues that arise. In terms of the advantages for researchers, this article highlights the suitability of video technology for classroom-based research because it provides a permanent and detailed record, which can be analyzed from multiple perspectives. These issues are explained through the experiences of an education researcher, who used video as the main data source for documenting and examining the practices of two effective primary science teachers in Perth, Western Australia.

Video-based classroom research is opening-up exciting new insights into how teachers generate productive opportunities for student engagement in quality learning. This research reveals the extent to which effective teachers draw on a range of multimodal representations of science phenomena and learners must use these as semiotic resources for learning. This case study of a Year 4 class studying an introductory astronomy unit offers insights into a teacher's orchestration of a range of multimodal representations to support the co-construction of an explanation for a science phenomenon.

Multimedia technologies such as Slowmation can be used to enhance curriculum resources and support innovative teaching methods. This case study research of a rural multi-aged class of primary science students included analyses of classroom captured video and interview data from a term long module on Astronomy. The study explored how students' engagement in the construction of a Slowmation impacted on their use of science discourse and multi-modal representations of key concepts. Intentionally crafted learning and teaching with Slowmation promoted the development of students' scientific literacy and engendered a joy of science learning.