The Schooling Issues Digest No 2004/1 is also available in PDF 
(371.91 KB, 8 pages).
The Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) is publishing a series of brief reports titled “Schooling Issues Digests” which summarise existing research material on selected topics relevant to schooling in Australia. The purpose of these digests is to provide status reports on the results of recent international and national research on selected topics, in a non-technical, easy to read format, which brings together and demystifies complicated research and statistical data. Contact Roger Wright on (02) 6240 7897 or email address roger.wright@dest.gov.au for more information on this series.
The author of this digest is Dr John Cresswell. Dr Cresswell is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Dr Cresswell has published articles about classroom and school environments in a number of journals including the Australian Journal of Teacher Education, International Studies in Educational Administration and the Learning Environments Research journal. Dr Cresswell’s work at ACER is in the area of policy research with a focus on teaching and learning. He is also the National Project Manager of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2003) in Australia.
This Digest was produced by ACER with funding from the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the Department.