Background: The active involvement of learners as critical, reflective and capable agents in the learning process is a core aim in contemporary education policy in Australia, and is regarded as a significant factor to academic success. However, within the relevant literature, the issue of positioning students as agents in the learning process has not been fully examined and needs further exploration. Purpose: This study aims to explore ways in which aspects of self-regulated learning theory may be integrated with the concept of agentic engagement into classroom practice. Specifically, the study seeks to scaffold students' selfassessment capabilities and self-efficacy by using a formative assessment-aslearning process. The research examines how scaffolded planning, as part of the forethought phase in the Assessment as Learning (AaL) process, influences selfregulation and student agency in the learning process. Sample: 126 students from school years two four and six (student age groups 7, 9 and 11 years), and 7 teachers at an independent (co-educational, non-religious) primary school in the Northern Territory, Australia, participated in the study. Design and methods: Conducted as a one-setting, cross-sectional practitioner research study, the data sources included students' planning templates, writing samples, interviews with students and teachers and email correspondence with teachers. The data was analyzed for emerging themes and interpreted from a framework of social cognitive theory. Findings: In this study, students were given the opportunity and support to exercise agentic engagement. Findings suggested that, in particular, students who were identified by their teachers as low-achieving and/or with poor motivation, were perceived by the teachers as exceededing expectations by demonstrating relatively greater motivation, persistence, effort and pride in their work than would be the case usually. ERJ/2486 Conclusions: The findings from this formative Assessment as Learning study suggest that Assessment as Learning has the potential to help scaffold primary students' development of assessment capabilities.

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Effective feedback is an essential tool for making learning explicit and an essential feature of classroom practice that promotes learner autonomy. Yet, it remains a pressing challenge for teachers to scaffold the active involvement of students as critical, reflective and autonomous learners who use feedback constructively. This paper seeks to present a recalibrated perspective of feedback by exploring the concept as a student-initiated learning action, manifested within classroom practice as help seeking for learning. Teachers and students from years 2, 4 and 6 at an Australian primary school worked together on a writing project, which was structured as a threephase learning process. The value of this approach was revealed by data gathered through students' planning templates, writing samples, interviews with students and teachers along with email correspondence with the teachers. A framework of social cognitive theory guided the analysis. It is suggested that the three-phase Assessment as Learning (AaL) process has the potential to support teachers in scaffolding students to seek help at time when they are receptive to feedback. Furthermore, this AaL approach appears to have enhanced the teachers' practice, particularly in respect to providing support for students during the forethought stage of the learning process. Practical techniques for scaffolding students' adaptive help seeking and autonomy as learners are presented in the paper.

Researchers conducting studies in communities have long taken an interest in exploring the different merits of positioning themselves as 'insiders', 'outsiders' or 'inbetweeners' in relation to their participants. Yet research exploring the role of the researcher as a 'critical friend' --a supportive yet challenging facilitator in self-evaluation processes-has not been fully examined. This chapter speaks to the FUGuE element of transformation, which in the present context I define as a process where structures and forms undergo conversion. The chapter provides my account as a FUGuE researcher of exploring the methodological implications of my research with a small group of teachers at a primary school located in the Latrobe Valley in Central Gippsland. The emergent relationship now informs my teaching and research practices. The discussion draws on a recently commenced longitudinal study exploring teachers' use of strategies and processes aimed at improving literacy practices --a phenomena known as capacity building--through collaboration in a professional learning team, within a context of school improvement. Due to a prior connection with the school, I was invited to become a critical friend and active participant as the school initiated a new professional learning team (PLT) in literacy. Informed by recorded conversations from the PLT meetings, my aim was to conceptualize the role and transformative implications of researching as an invited critical friend within a professional community. This chapter contributes to the methodological discourse of educational research by offering a contextualized analysis of the tensions among the notions of trust, credibility and positionality as a critical friend researcher.

Emerging scientific knowledge such as the role of epigenetics and neuroplasticity-the brain's capability to constantly rewire with every action, experience, and thought-is fundamentally changing our understanding of the potential impact we can have on our brain. Our brain is formed by our habits in interaction with our body, the environment, influenced by our lifestyle, successes, failures, and traumas. Neuroplasticity proves that every student's brain is a work in progress, and it is never too late to take better care of one's cognitive fitness. This review presents a repertoire of good habits (GHs). Combined, we suggest that these GHs provide conditions for optimal brain health, by acting as a "Mental Vaccine" which enhances the brain's resilience to brain health-degrading challenges. We argue