This paper examines an initiative promoting collaboration between schools located in a city setting in Northern Ireland, which is broadly divided along ethnic and political lines. The schools involved, like the vast majority of schools in Northern Ireland, educate Protestant and Catholic children separately. This presents particular challenges for…

It is a challenge for an early education teacher to enhance the development of self-regulation of young children to become and stay motivated for tasks that elicit school-related skills that do not immediately make sense for them. Being aware of motivational orientations in young students is therefore a must. In the study, a cross-cultural…

One approach to tackling problems of division in society has been to promote collaboration and engagement between schools separated on ethno-religious lines. Based on some variant of contact theory, the received wisdom is that inter-group encounters can contribute to prejudice reduction and promote more harmonious relationships. Evidence to…

International surveys indicate that the prevalence of private tutoring in England is relatively low but as few national surveys have been undertaken, there is little detailed evidence available. The aim of this research is to provide a systematic description of the nature and extent of private tutoring at three points of transition in the English…

In this paper, we adopt Bernstein's notion of the pedagogic device to serve as a framework for explaining conflict and change in the field of literacy education across the past few decades, particularly in England, the USA and Australia. Following an overview of the pedagogic device and related constructs, we examine the relationship between the…

This article presents and uses the notion of configuration of activity, which extends the Norbert Elias's original concept of social configuration based on the study and analysis of individual and collective activity. Although this concept embraces all types of social activities, in the present study the authors used it to describe and analyse…

British government policy on teacher recruitment gives a high priority to increasing the number of male teachers, particularly in primary schools. This focus stems from concern to challenge 'boys' underachievement': policy-makers believe that 'matching' teachers and pupils by gender will improve boys' engagement with school. Yet there is little…

Questions about how best to deploy teaching assistants (TAs) are particularly opposite given the greatly increasing numbers of TAs in British schools and given findings about the difficulty effecting adult teamwork in classrooms. In six classrooms, three models of team organisation and planning for the work of teaching assistants -- "room…

If teachers are to sustain engagement with the challenges involved in promoting Learning How to Learn in classrooms they need to continue learning, and to be supported to do so by their schools. This article addresses the research question, "How do teachers value and practise professional learning?" Data are reported from the ESRC TLRP Learning…

The Malta Primary Literacy Value-Added study was the outcome of a process of testing and matching at ages 9-10, the pupils in Maltese primary schools who were tested three years earlier, at ages 6-7. All primary schools in the island took part at both stages. Pupils were tested in both Maltese and English at both ages. In addition extensive data…

Compared with the volume of research on school effects on educational outcomes, and in spite of growing interest in the health promoting school, there are very few studies that have investigated the way schools influence pupils' health behaviours. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study of over 2000 young people in the West of…

On 1 August 1989, the introduction of a National Curriculum of subjects to all maintained schools throughout England and Wales brought compulsory science education into the primary sector for the first time. As a direct result of its elevated profile and an immense amount of hard work and effort by teachers and other professionals responding to…