Background: Horizontal gender inequalities appear to be rather stable, with girls more often choosing "female" service professions, and boys choosing career paths related to science, technology, engineering or Mathematics. Purpose: Non-egalitarian patriarchal gender-role orientations and gender associations (perceived femininity) of the…

Background: In the past decade, educational settings worldwide have experienced a significant increase in the number of school-based teaching assistants (TAs). The deployment of these TAs has been accompanied by reports of confusion and uncertainty about their roles and responsibilities within schools. While the need to reframe the role and…

Background: Literature draws attention to the relationships between the initial experiences of students as they begin their higher education and how they fare subsequently. In Portugal, the new student's reception is ritualised by tradition, and involves the organisation of an entire integration ceremony (known as "praxe") proposed…

Background: A "learner identity" can be broadly defined as how an individual feels about himself/herself as a learner and the extent to which he/she describes himself/herself as a "learner." The literature suggests that those from non-traditional backgrounds may struggle to adapt to a university environment with all its related…

Background: Academic and pastoral support is fundamental to the achievement of a high-quality student learning experience. Aim: This study reports on full-time undergraduate students' views on the effectiveness of academic and pastoral support in one higher education institution. The intent of the study was to explore how academic and…

Background: European and national policies on citizenship education stimulate the implementation of a participative approach to citizenship education, fostering active citizenship. The reason given for fostering active citizenship is the decline of participation in political and social life jeopardizing democracy. Schools have to implement a…

Background: This paper is the product of a two year investigation into the contribution of post-16 education to community cohesion. The investigation took place between 2010 and 2012 and was funded by the University Centre at Blackburn College in England. Fieldwork was undertaken in three East Lancashire colleges and focused on students aged…

Background: School climate is a heterogeneous concept with a multitude of standardised and validated instruments available to measure it. Purpose: This overview of measurement scales aims to provide researchers with short summaries of some of the self-report instruments in existence, especially in relation to the link between school climate and…

Background: Previous studies have argued that technology can be a major support to the music teacher enabling, amongst other things, increased student motivation, higher levels of confidence and more individualised learning to take place [Bolton, J. 2008. "Technologically mediated composition learning: Josh's story." "British…

Background: Measuring the student experience is becoming increasingly important in higher education in the UK. Student experience surveys are used as indicators of quality and form the basis of rankings of higher education institutions. They are also used by them as tools to assist their quality enhancement initiatives. However, these surveys…

Background: An equitable and democratised higher education system should, in principle, be permeable to the flow of populations with different social and/or cultural backgrounds, allowing access to any parts of the system. However, despite the democratisation efforts that took place in Portugal after the 1974 revolution, and although the student…

Background: Research on the relation between teaching and learning approaches has been mainly conducted in higher education and it is not yet clear to what extent the results can be generalised when it comes to secondary education. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to research how students in secondary education perceive their teachers'…

Background: There is currently ongoing debate in Hong Kong between the teachers' union and the Government on the reduction of large class size (typically more than 40 students) in secondary schools and whether smaller class sizes might facilitate improvements in teaching and learning. In fact, many Hong Kong secondary schools have already started…

Background: In England over the last two decades, there has been a growing interest in the role of English schools in developing, facilitating and supporting young people's community participation. A number of policy initiatives have sought to build the capacity and opportunities for youth participation. Research suggests, however, that pupils and…

School racial climate is an important aspect of the school environment that can have significant implications for youths' development. However, existing research is limited by conceptual and methodological concerns that restrict the ability of researchers and educators to identify "what" about and "how" the racial climate…