In recent years, there have been concerns in the UK regarding the uptake of particular subjects in post-compulsory education. Whilst entries for Advanced level (A-level) subjects such as media studies have experienced considerable growth, entries for A-level physics have, until recently, been declining, prompting fears of a skills crisis in future…

Ogbu and Simon's (1998) and Ogbu's (2003) cultural-ecological theoretical framework postulates that voluntary immigrants, those who chose to migrate to a new land, would perform well academically because of their perceived beliefs that they could get a good education and could succeed more in their "new" land of opportunity than in their…

Background: Although on-demand testing is being increasingly used in many areas of assessment, it has not been adopted in high stakes examinations like the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and General Certificate of Education Advanced level (GCE A level) offered by awarding organisations (AOs) in the UK. One of the major issues…

This article extends currently reported theory and practice in the use of learning goals or targets with students in secondary and further education. Goal-setting and action-planning constructs are employed in personal development plans (PDPs) and personal learning plans (PLPs) and are advocated as practice within the English national policy…

How do teachers respond to a mathematics curriculum innovation? This paper reports some of the findings from a UK Research Council (ESRC)-funded project investigating how teachers in English secondary schools (students aged 12-16 years) responded to innovation. A Gatsby Foundation funded program implemented new materials; the project investigated…

This research investigated whether features of examination questions influence students with dyslexia differently to others, potentially affecting whether they have a fair opportunity to show their knowledge, understanding and skills. A number of science examination questions were chosen. For some questions two slightly different versions were…

This article details an investigation into the onscreen marking (OSM) of Liberal Studies (LS) in Hong Kong--where paper-based marking (PBM) of public examinations is being phased out and wholly superseded by OSM. The study involved 14 markers who had previously rated Liberal Studies scripts on screen in the 2009 Hong Kong Advanced Level…

Background: Quality of life (QoL) is an important area for research during adolescence, due to its associations with (1) physical and mental health and (2) the emergence of health risk behaviours. A time that poses a particular threat to QoL is the transition from primary to secondary school. Aims: This study aimed to investigate changes in QoL…

The "T-MEDIA" project analysed and documented how teachers exploit the use of projection technologies--data projectors and interactive whiteboards (IWBs)--to support learning in secondary-school subject lessons. The research involved collaboration between university researchers and four pairs of UK teachers (of English, mathematics,…

Background: "Volume & Heaviness" was one of three Piagetian tests used in the CSMS survey in 1975/76. However unlike psychometric tests showing the Flynn effect--that is with students showing steady improvements year by year requiring tests to be restandardized--it appeared that the performance of Y7 students has recently been…

If we intend to teach through educational media, we also have to teach about those media. This article explores the implications of this perspective for the use of computer games in the classroom. It seeks to explain why and how teachers might teach about computer games as a medium in their own right, just as they teach about film or television or…

This paper extends and develops theories of mathematical learning to provide a framework for the analysis of classroom video data of students working at a computer in a task aimed at increasing understanding of multiple representations of quadratic functions. Student interactions are coded using novel software tools in the process of analysis, and…

Examines the 1996 prospectuses of secondary schools, whose 1991 prospectuses were reviewed in earlier research, in order to consider the ways in which schools present themselves in the educational market place. Shows that the business of marketing through prospectuses is taken seriously and can be modeled using game theories. (DSK)

Discusses how the teacher can deal with difficulties pupils of varying ages have in understanding certain chemical ideas. The article does not support using a Piagetian model for science courses in secondary schools. It suggests that Ausubel's learning theory is of much more use to the practicing teacher. (HM)

Discusses alternative theories to evolutionism. Five theories are mentioned, but most attention is given to the steady state theory of species which the author considers the most suitable partner for Darwinism in O- and A-level biology courses in the United Kingdom. (HM)