This article outlines the research design of a large-scale, longitudinal research study in England intended to describe and explore variations in teachers' work, lives and their effects on pupils' educational outcomes. The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and incorporated into the Teaching and Learning Research…

The TLRP project reported on in this article attempts to understand how the Learning and Skills sector functions. It traces how education and training policy percolates down through many levels in the English system and how these levels interact, or fail to interact. The authors first focus upon how policy impacts upon the interests of three…

This longitudinal research tests the effectiveness of the SPRinG programme, which was developed through a collaboration between researchers and teachers and designed to provide teachers with strategies for enhancing pupil group work in "authentic" classroom settings. An evaluation study involved comparing pupils in SPRinG classrooms and trained in…

This paper argues that contemporary workplaces give rise to many different forms of knowledge creation and use, and, as a consequence to different forms of learning and pedagogical approaches. Some of these are utilised to the benefit of the organisation and employees (though not, necessarily, in a reciprocal manner), but others are buried within…

In this report, it is argued that the most salient factor in the contemporary communicative landscape is the sheer abundance and diversity of possibilities for literacy, and that the extent and nature of students' communicative resources is a central issue in education. The text outlines the conceptual underpinnings of the Literacies for Learning…

This study used an analysis of variance (ANOVA)-like approach to predict reading proficiency with student, teacher, and school-level predictors based on a 3-level hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) analysis. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2000 reading data for 4th graders sampled from 46 states of the United States of…

One widely accepted explanation of bullying, known as the aggressive-motive thesis, assumes that bullying is a form of aggressive behaviour triggered by external stress. However, recent evidences have suggested a different explanation, known as the frustration-aggression thesis, which asserts that bullying is a psychological defense triggered by…

Current educational policies show a growing tendency towards giving schools more autonomy and internal quality control. Accurate and comparable data on school performances are thus needed. In Flanders, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS-R (Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat) have provided…

The study explored the relationship of self-concept and locus of control to science engagement and science achievement. Furthermore, the relationship of self variables with science engagement and science achievement was studied across ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). The data were accessed from the 3 waves of the National…

This article provides a children's rights critique of the concept of "pupil voice". The analysis is founded on Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives children the right to have their views given due weight in all matters affecting them. Drawing on research conducted on behalf of the Northern Ireland…

The "Approaches to Studying Inventory" (ASI) was based on qualitative research by Marton and Saljo, which established "surface" and "deep" approaches to study. This article attempts a new qualitative explication of the meanings of study. A heuristic due to Husserl is employed which distinguishes between the "noema", the "subjective object" of…

This article discusses the way in which social identities structure the learning processes of students in two subjects in the Dutch secondary school curriculum--Care and Technology. It analyses interviews with 23 students and their teachers with a view to explaining the disappointing results in these subjects in terms of breaking through gender…

This article aims to contribute to the debate of how theoretical concepts can be operationalised when researching educational issues. Specifically, it examines the application of the concepts of social and cultural capital in empirical research seeking to provide explanations for educational processes relating to post-secondary school choice…

Science in English primary schools has been judged a success, yet few pupils make the progress in secondary schools that their performance at the end of primary school suggested. Projects where pupils start science work at the end of the primary school and complete it at the start of secondary school--known as bridging units--have been suggested…

This article argues for the potential that email interviewing has as a qualitative method in educational research. The article draws on research that uses email as a way of generating online narratives in order to understand how academics construct their identities. In doing so, the article considers the challenges that email interviewing poses…