Tests, especially high-stakes ones, occupy a prominent role in education and impact on students' personal and professional trajectory. Therefore, it is crucial that they are well understood. Enhancing understanding of the workings of tests requires a multidisciplinary approach, one that treats tests not only as assessment instruments, but also as…

Exercise referral schemes aim to increase physical activity amongst inactive individuals with or at risk of long-term health conditions. Yet many patients referred to these schemes (by health professionals) fail to take up the exercise opportunities on offer. Understanding factors influencing uptake to exercise referral schemes may help improve…

Active learning is recognised as a crucial component of university courses in enhancing performance and retention. However, universities face numerous challenges in broadening the provision of active learning, including time constraints, and a lack of staff training and confidence to develop appropriate activities. This article outlines an…

This article uses the case study of developing a collaborative "out-of-hours" virtual enquiry service by members of the Northern Collaboration Group of academic libraries in the north of England to explore the importance of communication and collaboration between academic library services in enhancing student learning. Set within the…

Richard Kerridge writes here about his efforts to help students to overcome an experience that was once his own: of being labelled low-ability, with all the attendant lowering of expectations that this entails. He recognises the merits of rigorously ensuring that all students should be able to access their entitlement in terms of what they are…

A key goal of Biosphere Reserves (BR) is to foster environmental education for sustainable development. In this study we systematically analyse two cases in which environmental art is used as a mechanism to engage communities in "building environmental understanding", in Noosa BR in Australia and North Devon BR in the United Kingdom.…

Participation rates are low in further education (FE). In attempts to increase participation for disadvantaged young people (YP), government initiatives, such as raising the participation age to 18, A Level reform, enhancing the quality of apprenticeships and work-based learning and placing emphasis on English and Maths qualifications have, been…

Despite the considerable institutional changes schools have made to accommodate the individual needs of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), as underpinned by key principles of inclusion, there is still international concern about the mainstream experiences pupils with SEND have in school settings. This study helps us…

This project was developed from practitioner action research and considers the impact of integrating fund-raising activities into the formal curriculum with a target group of undergraduate students. The main aim of this project was to evaluate the impact of developing fund-raising activities as an integral aspect at both module and programme…

Mindfulness training (MT) is considered appropriate for school teachers and enhances well-being. Most research has investigated the efficacy of instructor-led MT. However, little is known about the benefits of using self-taught formats, nor what the key mechanisms of change are that contribute to enhanced teacher well-being. This study compared…

This article reports on a study examining second language (L2) teachers' understanding of speech fluency and their self-reported classroom practices for promoting it. Qualitative and quantitative data collected from 84 L2 teachers in England were analysed to answer the research questions. In addition to the descriptive statistics and lexical…

The drivers of learning for mid-career workers with few initial qualifications from the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy and Poland are examined. The focus in this article is upon the learning pathways and experience of the low-qualified drawn from empirical research which gathered and analysed the strategic career and…

The success of witness interviews in the criminal justice system depends on the accuracy of information obtained, which is a function of both amount and quality of information. Attempts to enhance witness retrieval such as mental reinstatement of context have been designed with typically developed adults in mind. In this article, the relative…

The small-scale research presented in this paper was conducted as part of the GeoCapabilities project. Though originating in the Anglophone world, the project attempts to address the purposes and values of geography education internationally. Using the idea of "powerful disciplinary knowledge" the project asks what geography has to offer…

This study looks at student peer assessment as a learning tool and a way of enhancing student learning at a university in England. Peer assessment is a formative process and has the aim of improving student understanding of learning as it happens, through assessing each other's work against set marking criteria. In addition, the aim is to improve…