Within any Educational System the transition of pupils from one stage to the next, and often the associated transition from one educational establishment to another, is an area of interest for educational establishments, educationalists and educational authorities due to the effects of this movement on pupil progress, their academic achievement…

After the transition to secondary school around age 12, a well-known decline in young adolescents' motivation for learning causes particular concerns in the lowest level of secondary education, where the percentage of early school leavers is highest. This article focuses on a study of the effects of an intervention, designed to enhance…

This paper explores levels of achievement amongst boys who attended a selective school in Birmingham, UK through consideration of their attainment, social background and ethnicity. It seeks to answer three main questions. Firstly, to what extent does academic attainment vary between students from different socio-economic groups and ethnic…

There is a significant body of research supporting the notion that teachers are the single most important school-based resource schools have to lift student achievement, and many principals and policymakers are aware of the need to retain good staff. This study used a large sample of Australian teachers in primary and secondary government and…

This paper sets out to interrogate the reality of secondary schooling in one part of the Caribbean, through a case study exploration of the "gender regimes" of four secondary schools in the small Eastern Caribbean nation state of Antigua and Barbuda. In Antigua, as in the Caribbean region more broadly, the focus of attention has been on…

This paper considers the role of social capital in the aspirations for higher education of a group of socially disadvantaged girls. Drawing on data from a longitudinal, ethnographic case study of an underperforming secondary school, the paper considers current conceptualisations of social capital and its role in educational ambitions. The paper…

Previous educational studies have investigated the impact of skills and contextual influences on adolescents' citizenship participation and efficacy. Yet, we know little about how adolescents give meaning to their citizenship efficacy. This study explores the narratives of 27 adolescents in the Netherlands on their citizenship efficacy. A…

Although the high level of achievement experienced by British-Chinese pupils in schools is well documented, the Chinese community in the UK is a relatively under-researched ethnic group. There is only patchy information on ways in which British-Chinese parents and children engage with education. It is often presumed the success of Chinese pupils…

Drawing on the National Educational Longitudinal Survey 1988 (NELS:88), this study identified (1) the growth pattern of academic achievement of adolescent children from Mexican and East Asian immigrant families; (2) investigated to what extent ethnicity and family capital influenced the trajectories in the academic achievement of children from…

This article reports upon research investigating the rapid rise to prominence of distributed leadership in schools in England. Distributed leadership is located within wider structural reforms of education in England as part of the New Public Management movement in public service delivery and the marked discursive shift to leadership which took…

This paper reviews empirical studies that have evaluated the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) on school-aged pupils, in order to summarise how it has been implemented and to assess its effects on academic and personal development. Following electronic searches of PsychINFO, the British Education Index and the Cochrane review database, six…

In 2006, Sandford, Armour and Warmington undertook a comprehensive review of the literature on the role of physical activity/sport and physical education in promoting positive development for disaffected youth. This paper revisits the findings of the literature review in light of data from a four-year evaluation of one corporate-sponsored physical…

The present paper examines Greek secondary education teachers' views on and attitudes towards in-classroom students' misbehaviour. Eight hundred and sixty-nine participants provided information, firstly, on the frequency and the forms of in-class misbehaviour incidents, secondly, on their beliefs about the origins of students' misbehaviour, and,…

Since 2007, the Lessons from Auschwitz Project organised by the Holocaust Education Trust, has taken groups of Scottish senior school students (between 16 and 18 years) and where possible an accompanying teacher from their school, to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum as part of a process of increasing young people's knowledge and…

This article reports on the final year of a four year research project into the influences on British South Asian women's choice of teaching as a career and on their subsequent career development. The research cohort was interviewed during their initial teacher training year on a PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate of Education) course in the English…