"Physical Education and Sport at School in Europe" maps the state of play of physical education and sport activities at school in 30 European countries. The report covers primary and lower secondary education and provides an insight into the following topics: national strategies and large-scale initiatives where they exist, the status of…

The focus of this study is to examine to what extent and in what ways science teachers practice assessment during classroom interactions in everyday activities in an upper-secondary school in Sweden. We are science teachers working now with a larger research project on assessment in science education that seeks to examine teachers' assessment…

The current longitudinal study examines the similarities and differences between primary and secondary foreign language curricula and pedagogy along with the development of motivation for language learning and second language proficiency. Data from 26 English learners of French (aged 10-11) were collected across three times points over a 12-month…

The school population in England is linguistically diverse; according to official data, over one million pupils do not speak English as their first language. All teachers are expected to support English as an additional language (EAL) development as part of their professional responsibility. At the same time, there has been little specific…

The Australian Government has recently introduced a national based curriculum, known as The Australian Curriculum. This new curriculum is intended to provide quality education for all students (Australian Curriculum, Reporting and Assessment Authority, [ACARA], 2013). This article considers some of the possible implications of the Australian…

Finland's high test scores have prompted international comparisons of educational policy. This article explores the use of assessment in Finland, particularly the intended use of student assessment and evaluation of schools as described in the National Curriculum. This article explores Finnish educational policy through the lens of formative and…

This article reports the results of research into teachers' practices concerning the assessment of composing at Key Stage 3 in the National Curriculum for Music in England. It finds that many teachers are using NC levels for assessing individual pieces of work, a process for which they were never intended. It also finds that teachers find it…

National curricula need to change drastically to comply with the competences needed for the 21st century. In this paper eight frameworks describing 21st century competences were analysed. A comprehensive search for information about 21st century competences was conducted across the official websites of the selected frameworks, resulting in 32…

Romania's education system has made impressive strides over the past two decades, with an increasing share of students mastering the basic competencies that they need for life and work. But these average improvements mask significant disparities in learning outcomes and attainment, with an increasing share of students leaving education early…

Uganda introduced the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction in primary schools in 2007. This was meant to promote interaction and participation in the learning process and improve children's proficiency in reading and writing. Drawing elements of interaction and participation from the socio-cultural theory, the child-centred pedagogy was…

Families play important roles in children's learning. Yet, teachers' values and beliefs may sway how families may participate in assessment of their child's learning within early childhood education. This paper reports on a qualitative case study in a New Zealand early childhood setting that explored teachers' views about involving families in…

This paper uses a narrative constructed from diary entries made over the course of a year teaching English as a platform for examining some of the political, economic, educational and socio-cultural contexts into which the Digital Education Revolution (DER) was launched as policy. It analyses the underlying imperatives, components and balance of…

With the development of the English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) Teacher Resource, the educational needs and outcomes of refugee and immigrant children have been placed on the national mainstream teaching agenda. This new national resource sits alongside a plethora of other resources, known as scales and standards, which have been…

This paper examines whether the Swedish steering documents for English-language education are ethnically biased, that is, whether Swedish culture and language or "Swedishness" are used as norms when teaching and assessing students. To examine whether such bias exists, the central curricula and syllabi from 1994 and 2000, as well as local…

Existing research shows that house prices respond to local school quality as measured by average test scores. However, higher test scores could signal better quality teaching and academic value-added, or higher ability, sought-after intakes. In our research, we show decisively that value-added drives households' demand for good schooling. However,…