Much of the argument about comparability of examination standards is at cross-purposes; contradictory positions are in fact often both defensible, but they are using the same words to mean different things. To clarify this, two broad conceptualisations of standards can be identified. One sees the standard in the observed phenomena of performance…

This paper draws on some of the findings from a research study which examined the current structure of assessment for citizenship in secondary education in England and considers the rationale for the assessment of citizenship. The research included an empirical evaluation of citizenship assessment from the perspective of the key user groups,…

This article describes the work of artists taking part in Creative Partnerships programmes and seeks to identify the ways in which they were able to motivate students, some of whom had anti-learning dispositions. These creative practitioners approached their task in a number of different ways from the teachers whose classes they shared. They…

This article describes a study conducted at a shared secondary school in Cyprus - that is, a school which co-educates children coming from two conflicting ethnic communities on the island. The study focuses on teachers', students' and parents' perspectives about the struggles to negotiate co-existence in this school. Drawing on a three-month…

This paper investigates the respective roles of substantive and procedural understanding with regard to students' ability to carry out an open-ended science investigation. The research is a case study centred on an intervention in which undergraduate initial teacher training students are taught the basic building blocks of procedural…

An exploration of the significance of ability beliefs in four case study schools in contrasting systems (independent and state comprehensives) provides a foundation for this paper. Through four delimited case studies using observations, semi-structured interviews, telephone interviews and multiple perspectives, rich data emerged. Subsequently,…

The last few years have seen the implementation of fundamental structural and curricular policy initiatives affecting the teaching of languages in schools in England. Several policy initiatives have been introduced by the government affecting the position and status of languages in schools, such as the development of foreign language teaching in…

This paper presents an analysis of ethnographic data collected by researchers as part of the process of rewriting an institutional learning and teaching strategy in an English university. The research was driven by a desire to understand what work a learning and teaching strategy might accomplish, and the form/s of address in strategy documents.…

The focus of this paper is on student teachers' learning during the course of a one-year postgraduate programme and the importance of the interaction between learner identities and the contexts in which student teachers learn to teach: a relationship that is critical to our understanding of beginning teachers' development in whatever specific…

This paper surveys the extent of religious segregation in teacher education in Northern Ireland and notes that there are elements of separation within a general context of (increasing) common teacher education. With reference to liberal and communitarian theories the case for separate teacher education is considered. It is acknowledged that a case…

We describe two empirical investigations of three- and four-year-old children's uses of technology, one conducted in family homes and the other in preschool settings, with the aim of comparing the ways in which children's learning with technology is supported in these different settings. The studies conceptualise learning within a sociocultural…

The importance of school transitions for pupil adjustment, particularly their impact on later well-being and attainment, remains contested. This paper draws on data from a longitudinal, school-based study of over 2000 Scottish pupils, first surveyed in 135 primary schools (age 11) in 1994, and followed up in 43 secondary schools (age 13 and 15)…

The scores of Turkish students on the international tests such as TIMMS and PISA, which assess basic science concepts, reading and problem-solving abilities, are among the lowest. Although understanding the concept of democracy has been studied across the countries, it has not been clearly researched in Turkey. For this reason, the focus of this…

The continued downward spiral of enrollment in physical sciences in the USA and Europe has science educators concerned on both sides of the Atlantic. Physics has been particularly hard-hit, with the percentage of students choosing to major in the subject at the lowest level in decades. University physics has a reputation as a difficult, abstract…

In the past 60 years there have been considerable developments in the policy and politics of schooling for disabled children, including a shift of rhetorical emphasis from more segregated to more inclusive approaches. Previous research with disabled children in England has raised questions about the educational and social impact of segregated…