In England, pupils aged 16 take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations for a range of subjects. The current assessment models for GCSE include a two-tier structure for some subjects and a non-tier model for the others. The tiered subjects have a higher tier designed for high achieving pupils and a lower tier for low…

Curriculum and its associated assessment are at the heart of educational systems worldwide. In light of perceived national educational stagnation or decline, as well as of performance in international league tables such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), countries have embarked on curriculum and assessment reforms. This is…

Recent research suggests that Muslim boys have become the "New Folk Devils" of British education, who are characterised by resistance to formal education, especially at secondary level, and under-achievement. Since the 1990s, British Muslim boys would appear to have become increasingly alienated from compulsory schooling, especially in…

In this paper the idea of social entitlement to conceptual knowledge is considered in relation to students' views of music at secondary school in New Zealand. The data was collected as a means of triangulating the key focus of a study concerning the beliefs and actions of teachers in relation to curriculum. In interpreting the student data I…

There has been increasing concern over the poor performance and lack of interest in modern language learning among secondary-school students. Although there is some evidence as to the under-achievement of boys in modern languages (ML), there is less information as to the degree to which other factors such as social class, and bilingual or…

This article offers evidence from a classroom-based research study in English secondary schools which developed an innovative approach to teaching in Design and Technology based on inclusive design (also known as universal design). The research evidence highlights how creative, problem-solving approaches in Design and Technology can be used to…

Contemporary interest in student voice has evolved to include participation of "students as researchers" in school affairs, which has been encouraged by political developments underpinning the rights of children. Although there has been little exploration of the role of student researchers in curriculum development, this paper provides a case…

Since the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in the UK in 1994 much has been made in education policy of consulting with young people about their educational experiences. This article takes Arnot and Reay's notion of pedagogic voices to provide a critical framework to examine the different voices produced…

The International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum is increasingly popular in both national and international secondary education settings. The "Theory of knowledge" (TOK) course is cast as the prime example of the international globalised values the IB Diploma represents. This article argues that such a positioning is contested within the TOK…

This article discusses revisions to personal narrative writing made by Year 7 students (aged 11-12) in a UK secondary school. The concept of strategic revision was used as a basis for analysing drafts and revised texts in order to investigate strategies and techniques deployed by students in the process of revision and how these related to…

Within the new framework set out in the final report of the Working Group on 14-19 Reform (2004), an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) was proposed in England to foster the development of students' independent study skills. Widespread national provision of a fully accredited EPQ, as a stand-alone Level 3 qualification, began in September 2008,…

This article will explore the centrality of narrative in both the process and the content of enquiry-based learning, as a formative process which does not predetermine either its starting point or its outcome. Rather, it takes as its starting point the agency and life narrative of the learner and builds from this to a formally assessed outcome. It…

Teaching students to read is one of the main aims of education systems around the world. For a significant number of adolescents, however, formal schooling has failed to deliver adequate reading proficiency. This article reports on a study of teachers' responses to a reading intervention programme for adolescents implemented in a senior secondary…

This article explores a notion of "personalising learning" which puts the learner at the centre, supported by mobile technology and teacher mediation. It reports a small study in the Northern Territory of Australia, with indigenous students who were given mobile camera phones to capture aspects of their everyday lives and bring them into school.…

Successive national policy in England has striven to develop uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support teaching and learning, and has promoted the adoption of ICT in schools over a period of some 25 years (since the "Microcomputer in schools initiative" of 1981). The current level of deployment of ICT in schools is high.…