The analysis of exemplars of different quality is a potentially powerful tool in enabling students to understand assessment expectations and appreciate academic standards. Through a systematic review methodology, this paper synthesises exemplar-based research designs, exemplar implementation and the educational effects of exemplars. The review of…

The final year dissertation is an important part of an undergraduate degree which delivers a wide range of subject-specific and transferable skills. It plays a significant part in students' learning development and overall experience of university. Finding the right project is emotionally important to students and may underpin their subsequent…

This paper reports on the design of a pilot doctoral study into the online support of pre-service teachers. It highlights the significance of a consequential, rather than deontological, perspective in guiding the development of a study's design. The study initially aimed to explore pre-service teachers' perceptions and use of social media on their…

Educational researchers, like other academic investigators, are expected to carry out research in an ethical manner. This paper draws on the author's experience of conducting a research study related to social justice, which examines intergenerational dynamics and education amongst British Asian families. It discusses the importance of ethical…

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative inquiry into risk in the lives of children and young people. Conducted over a 12-month period in Birmingham and the Black Country in the United Kingdom, the study sought to elicit perceptions of risk from the perspective of children and young people in primary and secondary school…

In the biosciences, a professional placement experience in academia or industry is intended to contribute to a student's personal and professional training. While there is a general acknowledgement that a placement experience is beneficial for students, recent years have seen a decline in the number of students choosing to go on placements. Using…

The opportunity to experience work placements that complement taught and practical courses in higher education has become a central strand of many undergraduate degree programmes. While there is tacit agreement that such placements are a good thing, in recent years the numbers of students opting for work placements has been declining. This paper…

This article explores from a sociological perspective how MA students of Education perceive the quality of their teachers' teaching in higher education. Power relations in the teaching and learning process in the classroom, and the criteria students use to qualify their perception of teaching in higher education, are examined. In this qualitative…

In this article, we argue that educational technology research has spent too long trapped in a paradigm of simplistic comparisons, wherein normal science consists of evaluating a technology-based intervention by contrasting it with some established set of educational practices. Our argument is different in significant ways from the claim that…

Background: Research reveals that the relationship between a student and a supervisor is so crucial that students cannot afford to leave it to chance. It must be managed. Phillips and Pugh (2000, p. 193) maintains that if students are to do this well, they must understand what their supervisors expect of them. Once they have this "inside…

Project work represents a significant component of most Bioscience degrees. Conscious that students are not necessarily given adequate preparation for their final year project, we have investigated two core elements in the 3rd year of a 4-year Honours programme. One element, an investigative project on aspects of insect biology, has run for…

Administered questionnaires to 1,459 secondary social studies students in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands to examine age, gender, and country differences in adolescents' perceptions of classroom climate. Studied relationships between political attitudes and perceived classroom climate and between the use of…