New publications

The 2008 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries’ performance. It provides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators on the performance of education systems and represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally. The indicators look at who participates in education, what is spent on it and how education systems operate and the results achieved. The latter includes indicators on a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of students’ performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment (from publisher's description). See article on the report in Sydney Morning Herald 10 September 2008.

The study of new literacies is quickly emerging as a major research field. This book samples work in the broad area of new literacies research along two dimensions. First, it looks at some typical examples, such as video gaming, fan fiction writing, weblogging, role play gaming, social networking websites, memes, and other social activities involving mobile technologies. Second, the studies cover a wide range of approaches potentially available for researching and studying new literacies from a sociocultural perspective. Chapter topics include the wireless classroom; academic blogging; and online memes, affinities and cultural production. Adapted from publisher's description.

This new edition engages with topics such as orality and literacy; the history of literacy, including the uses and abuses of literacy throughout history; the analysis of language as cultural communication; and social theories of mind and meaning. The book makes special reference to cross-cultural issues in communities and schools. Adapted from publisher's description.

Reading Problems combines several approaches to working with struggling readers of all ages, and includes practical instructional strategies, assessment tools, discussion of the research, and an informal reading inventory that students can use immediately. The fifth edition aims to distil many different approaches to teaching students with reading problems and presents them in an accessible, balanced and readable format. Early chapters present general information on the reading process, struggling readers, assessment and principles of instruction. Later chapters provide information about strategies for teaching various parts of the literacy process, while concluding chapters detail successful intervention programs and teaching in diverse and inclusive settings. Adapted from publisher's description; also available via DA Direct.

Robert and Ellen Kaplan are founders of The Math Circle, the learning program begun at Harvard in 1994. In Out of the Labyrinth, they describe the approach used in the program. The Kaplans argue that maths should be taught as the highest form of intellectual play, an endeavor to be explored and enjoyed by children or adults of any age. The book includes puzzles, practical equations, and anecdotes from their own classrooms. Adapted from publisher's description.

School counsellors can play a powerful role in closing the achievement gap when they incorporate the principles of social justice in their practice. In this resource for preservice and inservice counsellors, Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy suggests ways to help school students to overcome the destructive effects of racism, sexism or discrimination based on sexual preference or social class. The author provides a variety of strategies to support school counsellors in six key functions – counselling, consulting, coordinating services, connecting schools to families and communities, collecting and analysing data, and challenging bias – and shows counsellors how to advocate for the healthy development and academic success of all students. Adapted from publisher's description.

This book, part of the Professional Development for Teachers series, gives practical advice on teaching and assessing skills across a range of core subject areas covered by the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and O Level in England. Contents include interpreting the syllabus and planning a course; teaching and testing listening, speaking, reading and writing skills; ICT; and exam preparation. Adapted from publisher's description.