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The article provides information on the comparative studies regarding the implementation of Research & Development for the educational recommendations in Great Britain and Sweden. Sweden shows that long-term research should execute a systematic way to the democratic political process. On the other hand, Great Britain needs consistency and coordination in educational research and planning.

The article presents a study on the substitution of games performance for academic achievement as a means of achieving status among secondary school children. The present study relates to an inquiry made in 4 schools in North-West England. In an educational system which is highly academic and competitive the rewards for scholastic success enhance a students ego and the regard in which he is held by his contemporaries, his teachers and his social group. When the students scholastic achievement is below average or amounts to failure then this source of reinforcement for his ego and personal status is no longer available. One way the individual can adjust to this situation is to find another acceptable activity by which he can gain the necessary approbation. When another non-academic school activity is held in some regard by staff and pupils, it could be argued that students who failed to achieve success in, and thereby status from their academic attainment might be highly motivated to achieve a high level of performance in this second activity. Across the Great Britain's academically orientated educational system is the traditional high regard for games and sportsmen.

In a much discussed book, sociologist R. Pedley puts forward the view that the sixth forms of maintained grammar schools are the weakest link in the English education system. Their inefficiency is a result of their small size. Sociologist R.C. Oldfield has produced statistical evidence to show that small schools actually do significantly better than big ones. He shows that, although large schools naturally tend to get more awards than small, when the size of school is taken into account there is a significant tendency for small schools to obtain more awards per 1,000 boys than large schools. This article presents a study to examine the relation between educational achievement and school size. Findings of he study seem to show that Pedley is right in his view that the small schools are not producing such good results as the large. They show also that this tendency becomes more marked with higher levels of academic attainment. The better achievements of large schools are most evident in university awards and are markedly present in distinctions at advanced level. In passes and failures at advanced and ordinary levels the differences are less striking. However, it is not at all obvious from the results that Pedley is right in attributing the superiority of the big school to its large sixth form as such.