The United States and the United Kingdom have used standardized high-stakes testing as a measurement of students' cognitive level to determine success in the 21st century. Standardized tests have given teachers guidance to help them determine what to teach students and how to teach to the test. With such increased emphasis on high-stakes…

Although the importance of mathematical problem solving is now widely recognised, relatively little attention has been given to the conceptualisation of mathematical processes such as representing, analysing, interpreting and communicating. The construct of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (Hill, Ball & Schilling, 2008) is generally…

The use of systems of rewards and sanctions within behaviour policies has now been adopted formally in UK schools. Such systems potentially represent competing theoretical ideas when considered alongside current approaches to teaching and learning. There is also opportunity for inconsistent use of rewards and sanctions resulting from the absence…

In recent years, the numbers of girls in secondary and tertiary education studying Physics have declined. This research sought to investigate Years 10 and 11 female students' views about Physics and their physics teachers and was conducted in an all-girls independent school. While the findings show that in general these students do not relate well…

In October 2010 Perry Beeches school, an 11-16 Local Authority controlled community comprehensive in Birmingham, was widely featured in the national media as the "most improved school in the UK"--Ever. Some of the ways in which this was achieved are explored. Whether the changes undergone by this school reflect a pattern that has become…

In attempting to answer the question "How is disability represented in plays?" two approaches are considered, one semiotic and literary and the other concerned with notions of stereotyping drawn from disability studies. The five plays on which the discussion is based are school examination set texts, raising questions about classroom…

This study examines the extent to which personality traits and intelligence scores predict school level academic performance (AP), (British GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education; America Grade 10) in different disciplines. The participant sample consisted of approximately 250 school pupils from three schools in the South East of…

This paper argues that student voice and the active engagement of students in shaping their own educational experience are integral to the development of effective work-related learning (WRL) programmes. Through accessing the voice of disaffected and marginalised students, insight can be gained into what these students see as being the benefits of…

Polymer Chemistry days run by Bristol ChemLabS at the School of Chemistry, University of Bristol for year 10 (14-15 year olds) school students are described. Pre and post questionnaires were analysed to determine the impact on attitudes to science. There was no change in attitudes to the importance of science or practical work in science, but…

Research within the area of the sociology of physical education (PE) recognises that it is a subject which reinforces dominant ideologies about gender. The gendered nature of PE appears to continue into General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinable PE, as the proportion of boys being examined in GCSE PE compared to girls is nearly…

Kings College replaced a previous school on the same site and was the first privately managed state school in the UK, operating through a ten-year partnership between a not-for-profit company, 3Es Enterprises and Surrey County Council. This article examines the experience of this privatisation through the perspectives of students who had attended…

Background: The reported prevalence of bully-victims and aggressive/provocative victims varies quite considerably in previous research, and only a few studies have reported prevalence rates across grades. There is also a lack of detailed analyses of the extent to which victims are also bullies, and bullies are also victims. Aims: To study the…

This study examined interrelationships between educators' role in teaching values and their responsibility for teaching mandatory curricula and preparing students for formal assessment. It investigated 15 British teachers' values as transmitted to 10th grade science and language arts students, gauging the impact of their values on student…

Examined the foreign-language-learning abilities of 14- to 15-year olds in Britain, Germany, and Greece. Comparison of results from tests of students' foreign vocabulary knowledge indicated that British students had only one-third to one-half of the foreign language vocabulary knowledge of Greek and German students. They also spent less time…