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Objectives: This literature review seeks to identify based on the current literature how the burden of disease for IBD patients manifests itself as this cohort transitions simultaneously from pediatric to adult care and from secondary to post-secondary education. Methods: This paper reviews the current literature regarding postsecondary students with IBD and provides a summary of research regarding key factors in their quality of experience. The research was conducted through databases including Taylor & Francis, PubMed, as well as searches via Google Scholar. Results: Over the course of this search, thirty-three relevant studies were identified. These studies addressed the themes outlined in this paper, including academic performance, social adaptation, transition of care, as well as overall transition to a postsecondary institution. Each of these is further broken down to identify specific determinants of IBD student experience. Conclusions: Although students with IBD can demonstrate resilience and adaptive behavior, the evidence suggests there are significant limitations impacting their perceived experience. The barriers IBD students face impact their ability to experience postsecondary education as they intend to, forcing them to adjust in adaptive or maladaptive manners. This review also attempts to generate possible solutions to specific barriers identified from current research, generating directions of action for students, physicians, and academic supports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Owing to the exponential growth of three‐dimensional (3D) environments amongst researchers and educators to create simulation games (SGs) in primary education, there is a growing interest to examine their potential support in computer science courses instead of visual programming environments. Objectives: This study explores the relationships between students' learning performance, focusing on computational thinking (CT) and programming skills development, in association with their cognitive load (mental load and mental effort) and emotions (happiness, anger, anxiety, sadness) by playing SGs. Methods: A total of two hundred and ninety participants (n = 290) in fifth‐grade classes (10–11 years old) of Greek primary schools completed all pre‐and post‐intervention tests. A quasi‐experimental study was conducted over a 14‐week timetable course and in two comparison conditions, in which a SG was created by using OpenSimulator&Scratch4SL and Scratch for the experimental group (n = 145) and the control group (n = 145), respectively. To further investigate the effectiveness of the proposed SG in each teaching intervention, an exploration of relationships between students' learning performance, cognitive load, and emotions through multiple analyses, depending on correlation, t‐tests, correlation, and hierarchal regression was delivered. Results and Conclusions: The findings indicate that the proposed SG created by using OpenSimulator&Scratch4SL positively affected students' emotions and cognitive load, whereas there was no significant difference in learning gain between the two groups. Implications: The study provides empirical evidence on the effects of SGs on students' knowledge acquisition, highlighting the importance of considering both cognitive and emotional components in the design of these games. The findings also offer valuable insights for implications policy and practice. Lay Description: What is already known: Interactive environments can support the development of students' computational thinking (CT) and programming skills due to a wide range of digital elements/features that expand the boundaries where learning can happen.CT is a 21st‐century skill to be on top with others, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic for future generations of students to tackle real‐life problems.Despite a broad consensus on the increasing number of interactive environments, there is no dedicated measurement of their effects on students' performance and their possible association with psychological constructs. What this paper adds: This study explores any possible relationships amongst students' CT skills, emotions, and cognitive load for programming courses in fifth‐grade (10–11 years old) classes of primary education by playing a simulation game (SG).The proposed SG was created by using two interactive environments that project different 2D/3D user interface and game elements (e.g., special effects, scenes, animations, feedback, challenges, goal clarity, and scripted interaction).A quasi‐experimental study was conducted over a 14‐week timetable course and in two comparison conditions, in which the proposed SG was created by using OpenSimulator&Scratch4SL and Scratch for the experimental group (n = 145) and the control group (n = 145), respectively. Implications for practice and/or policy: In‐game scenario and students' embodied experiences can increase CT vocabulary acquisition, understanding, and expression of solution plans via visual coding.A practical roadmap for practitioners and instructors proposed how to purposefully integrate elements/features into interactive environments.Problem‐solving exercises in a simulated reality can become interesting and reduce students' cognitive load, when they are taking part in enjoyable and playful settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Considerable evidence suggests that students' achievement emotions are important contributors to their learning and success online. It is, therefore, essential to understand and support students' emotional experiences to enhance online education, especially under the COVID‐19 context. However, to date, very few studies have investigated how students' achievement emotions might be affected by teaching and learning factors in online learning environments. Objectives: Based on Pekrun's (2006) control‐value theory of achievement emotions, this study examined the influence of students' perceived online teaching quality and appraisals of control and value on their achievement emotions in an online second language (L2) learning context instigated by the COVID‐19. Methods: Data were collected using an online survey of 1503 undergraduates from ten universities across different regions of China. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed to test the validity of the instruments and structural equation modelling were conducted to examine the relations between L2 teaching and learning variables. Results and Conclusions: Results revealed that perceived teacher internet and communication technology competence had positive effects on enjoyment, but negative effects on anxiety and boredom, and these effects were fully mediated by perceived control and/or value. Perceived chaotic teaching structure (CTS) had reverse effects for the three emotions. Perceived CTS effects on enjoyment and anxiety were fully and partially mediated by perceived control, respectively. Takeaways: Online teaching quality is critical for students' appraisals and emotions towards L2 learning. Teachers should strive to improve online teaching quality and design interventions targeting students' perceived control and value to temper their affective experiences associated with the crisis‐prompted online teaching practices. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Teachers' internet and communication technology (ICT) competence and pedagogical design can enhance students' e‐learning efficacy, motivation and interests.Students' perceived control and value can influence their achievement emotions in online learning.Teacher's ICT competence and pedagogical design can impact students' emotions in online learning. What this paper adds: Perceived teacher ICT competence and chaotic teaching structures can have differential impact on students' perceived control and value for e‐learning.Perceived control and intrinsic value differently mediated the effects of the two teaching factors on students' emotions for e‐learning.Perceived teacher ICT competence and chaotic teaching structures can have both direct and indirect effects on students' e‐learning emotions via perceived control and value. Implications for practice and/or policy: Teacher training and development programs should prepare teachers for varying teaching formats including unplanned online teaching due to a forced switch to remote teaching.Teachers should acquaint themselves with using various online platforms and software to communicate the goals, expectations, structures and requirements of their language lessons to students' in a clear manner.Online language teaching interventions aiming to increase or decrease a specific emotion could directly target specific combinations of teaching characteristics and appraisals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The skills and attitudes acquired in the classes allow the student to get to know and understand the world around him better, to learn more easily in the natural and social environment and to make decisions about personal prosperity. This research includes 300 students, emphasizes the issue of the quality of education in secondary schools, with a focus on the acquisition of knowledge through innovative methods, as well as the issue of the quality of students' acquired knowledge, the impact on student achievements. Interactions between students and lecturers. Quality knowledge belongs to the level of recognition and reproduction. However, the test results so far show serious deficiencies and failures in teaching in the Republic of Kosovo, indicating the necessity of applying modern techniques and methods of the teaching process in order to improve the quality of teaching, which, among other things, requires personal creativity and engagement of teachers. In order for the aforementioned methods and techniques of curriculum implementation to be applicable, teachers need to be additionally educated and provided with appropriate contemporary literature in these areas. The paper presents the results of the statistical software package SPSS version 25, about students' attitudes about developing the ability to use modern methods and techniques in teaching based on age, gender in relation to the program of attendance. Researchers suggest the use of innovative methods that have proven to be useful in the teaching and learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the physical activity levels and experiences of students enrolled in a service-learning dog walking class. Participants: College students (N = 10) from a rural university in the Eastern United States (age = 20.8 years ±1.2; 80% female; 90% White). Method: Students wore NL-1000 pedometers twice a week for 50 minutes for ten weeks. They also completed reflection papers at the end of the class. Pedometer data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and the papers were analyzed through inductive coding. Results: Students obtained approximately 40% of their recommended daily physical activity requirements during class time. Reflection papers revealed that student beliefs about shelter dogs were challenged and that their primary motivations for attending class involved the physical activity needs of the dogs. Conclusions: Incorporating a service component into a physical activity course whereby the physical activity needs of others are the focus can be beneficial for all involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful understudies are understudies who perform much preferable scholastically over their companions. While advantages to are being a successful understudy, for example, getting additional help from instructors, they likewise experience interesting difficulties like expanded recurrence of harassing. A large part of the exploration on this gathering of understudies depends on quantitative investigations led on members of Caucasian plummet. It is proposed that getting a superior comprehension of these successful understudies could be accomplished by figuring out their encounters through a subjective methodology. A singular's encounters and discernments can be impacted by social factors and directing examination with an Asian populace would assist better with understanding how factors which are all the more unequivocally accentuated in Asian culture, for example, obedient devotion and acquiescence to guardians add to the encounters of Asian successful understudies Education is viewed as basic for the advancement of the people, yet additionally for the improvement of local area and country. To achieve upgrades in all perspectives, and use present day and creative procedures and techniques, people need to produce mindfulness and improve their instructive abilities. The primary reason for this examination paper is to figure out the elements that impact the scholarly presentation of the understudies in auxiliary schools in India. In optional schools, there are various variables inside school and outside school that impact the scholastic presentation of the understudies. The fundamental regions that have been considered incorporate, factors impacting the scholarly exhibition of the understudies, scholastic execution and huge number of understudies in class, parental and related factors connecting with scholastic accomplishment, commitment of school factors towards the scholastic presentation of understudies, impact of destitution on scholastic accomplishment of understudies and different reasons for low scholarly accomplishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Virtual reality can be a useful substitute to improve nursing education outside of the hospital setting. In the wake of COVID‐19, an opportunity to compare a virtual reality activity for nursing students in the traditional classroom and in an online environment took place. Objectives: The goal of this study was to examine the effects of incorporating a virtual reality activity into the traditional classroom and in an online environment to enhance nursing education. Methods: Fifty nursing students participated in an exploratory descriptive study. Twenty‐five students participated face‐to‐face while in the traditional classroom setting and 25‐students participated in an online environment using a communication platform. Through a virtual reality activity, nursing students successfully created a tour which demonstrated identifying infectious sites in a hospital room setting. Results and Conclusions: Results of the pre‐and post‐test showed students' positive perceptions and performances in both traditional classroom and online settings. However, the study revealed a statistical difference between the two group perceptions towards the use of the virtual reality tour creator. Nursing students who were in the traditional classroom group found that the use the virtual reality tour creator was easier. Implications: Designing a meaningful virtual reality activity has a positive impact of the student learning experience. Students may benefit from a more through orientation to the technology prior to engaging in the activity. A carefully constructed activity can enhance student learning outside of the hospital room. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic?: Virtual reality can be applied to nursing education with a positive impact on the student learning experience.Nursing students perceived the virtual reality learning activity useful to substitute for in‐hospital training. What this paper adds?: Virtual reality learning activities can help promote nursing performance in both the traditional classroom and online settings.Students can have similar academic performance between the classroom and online modes despite having different experiences. Implications for practice and/or policy: Virtual reality integration might be implemented by pre‐training to make sure students are comfortable with the technology before jumping into course activities.The instructional design and delivery of a virtual reality learning activity greatly influenced the students' learning experiences, rather than the use of virtual reality technology itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We provide some guidelines for practitioners combining data from TALIS and PISA in empirical analyses. • We stress that teacherś data need to be aggregated, thus finding causal relationships is complex. • We find that students whose teachers focus on a few instructional practices obtain better results. Abstract This paper focuses on the potential uses and misuses that can be made with the so-called TALIS-PISA link created by the OECD. This is a recently developed instrument that allows for connecting data about teachers collected in TALIS with studentś data available in PISA. However, the statistical and technical aspects regarding this link between both surveys are far from straightforward. In this paper we explore the main problematic issues of the data fusion process and provide some guidelines for researchers interested in performing empirical analyses using the resulting dataset. Likewise, we illustrate some potential utilities of this dataset through the estimation of different models with the aim of exploring the relationships between teaching practices and student achievement in Spain. Our results indicate that students whose teachers concentrate on a few instructional practices obtain better results than those who have teachers using many different activities within the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data walls are a data use practice increasingly being adopted in western, Anglophone countries to display student academic achievement data. The purpose of data walls is to improve teaching and learning by helping teachers and/or students to identify patterns of growth and achievement, set goals, and plan instructional interventions or self-regulate. This paper presents a systematic review of 30 empirical studies to explore how data wall use affectively impacts students and teachers, as well as related effects on their privacy and motivation. The review found that data wall displays elicited a range of positive and negative emotional responses, depending on variables such as the display's location, contents, and associated social practices. Data walls were reported as enhancing motivation by helping stakeholders to sustain focus on and track progress towards goals, or by fostering comparison and competition. Data walls where class and/or individual students' data could be identified, for example, through names, pictures, or small sample size, also generated concerns around privacy. These issues highlight the need to consider how data wall use aligns not only with relevant legislation, but also community expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate whether the institution attended or type of course taken in further education, by students who are classified as low achievers at age 16, influences the probability of their subsequent educational success. Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate the probability of educational success of this subsample of young people, a probit model with sample selection is estimated, using the Youth Cohort Survey data for England and Wales and covering the period 1982 to 2004. Findings – The results suggest that the best route to educational success for "lower achievers" is through further education colleges. There are further significant gains in the probability of educational success for young men who take vocational courses at the FE college. Furthermore, the students taking this route into post-compulsory education are subsequently most likely to enter higher education; a result relevant to policy, since the aim of the Education Act (2008) is to increase the educational attainment of all young people up to the age of 18. Originality/value – The paper provides an analysis of the educational decisions and outcomes of young people who were considered of low ability at age 16. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve the present study’s goal – to understand better the phenomenon of mathematical giftedness – we performed a multidimensional examination of the mental processing in students who exhibited mathematical expertise (EM) at the secondary school level. The study included participants from the three groups: students who excelled in school mathematics but were not identified as generally gifted (NG-EM), generally gifted excelling in mathematics (G-EM) students, and students with superior performance in mathematics (S-MG). The research integrated three salient dimensions of mental processing: domain-general cognitive traits, domain-specific (mathematical) creativity, and neuro-cognitive functioning expressed in event-related potentials (ERPs) when solving mathematical problems. In the three study dimensions, we found four types of characteristics of S-MG students: accumulative, G-related, unique and unraveling. This paper defines and exemplifies the characteristics of the four types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper contributes to the important but small body of research on the role of private schools in Indian education. It uses a household dataset from India with a rich set of household covariates and student performance data on reading, writing, and mathematics. For both rural and urban India the results from regression analyses indicate that private school students perform better on tests controlling for covariates. In both contexts, however, the private school benefit becomes largely, statistically, insignificant after conducting multivariate analysis on data balanced using the propensity score matching technique. The paper also makes an initial attempt to identify ‘low-fee’ private schools; within the regression framework it finds that children in such schools may perform no better than their public school counterparts. The data and methods used in this paper are not without limitations; however these analyses call into question the claim that private school effect may be unequivocally positive and highlights the potential heterogeneity in private school performance in the Indian context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The low educational attainment of children in care is of widespread international concern. This paper reconsiders major UK research on this topic. It also highlights research gaps and what are felt to be theoretical limitations. The paper argues that we need to take account of wider educational research on the ‘attainment gap’ and apply these messages to our understanding, organisation and operation of the care system. Previous research has failed to acknowledge sufficiently the socio-economic background and context of the problem. A wide range of UK policy initiatives have been introduced and we await to see how these can ameliorate the problem in the context of these broader influences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Research on educational quality has been scarce in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, whereas the debates over educational quality date from 1966 in the USA with the Coleman Report. Fortunately TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) starts to fill this gap by providing data on students' achievement and for many MENA countries this is the first time that such data are available. The paper gives an overview of the quality of education in MENA using TIMSS' 2007 data. The research questions addressed here are why is achievement low? And why is the gap between the top-performing countries and MENA countries large? In order to answer these questions, the paper focuses on several aspects: the first is the inefficiency of acquiring the language, the second is the inefficiency of time devoted to homework, the third is the meagre intended curriculum which is translated into a weaker implemented curriculum, the fourth aspect deals with the inefficiency of public resources devoted to the education sector. Finally, the paper highlights two other factors believed to affect students' achievement: family background and students' attitudes towards mathematics and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises our research into the relationship between pupil assessment at age 14 (Key Stage 3) and participation in age 16+ education. We question whether a systematic gap between teacher-based assessment and externally marked tests indicates assessment bias or uncertainty, either in testing procedures or through teachers' perceptions of pupils' skills. We explore whether these errors have consequences for pupils' subsequent educational attainment and participation. We find that teacher and test assessments diverge slightly along lines of pupil characteristics, especially prior achievement, clearly observable to the teacher but less so to external assessors, but this does not conform to notions of teacher stereotyping. Moreover, the divergence between the assessments at age 14 has almost no bearing on pupil qualifications or participation in education after age 16, and is unlikely to influence participation rates in higher education (HE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the effect of school and student characteristics on academic performance. Using data for 2002, the paper applies stochastic frontier techniques to estimate the level of technical efficiency of a sample of 4,542 public and private schools. Our findings indicate that both school and student characteristics have a positive and significant effect on academic performance. It appears that private schools are more efficient due to a more favourable environment since, on average, they receive students from higher income families. However, assuming a similar environment, differences in effi- ciency levels between private and public schools tend to disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the paper written by P. Black and D. William titled "Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment." The author believes that the paper has advanced a certain kind of assessment by teachers and students in their own classroom, as one of the most effective ways to improve educational achievement.

In this paper, we argue that education and the possibility of becoming educated are in tension with sexuality in schools and that, consequently, students tend either to suppress all kinds of knowledges—embodied and otherwise—that are neither welcome nor recognised within the formal contexts of schooling or debar themselves from success in terms of educational achievement. Students embody identities both as learners and as sexual subjects. Discourses of sexuality and education, therefore, come together in embodied ways. The difficulty for students arises from the discursive and semiotic construction of schools as being on the “rational”, “mind” side of the “mind–body” split, which typifies modernist, Enlightenment thinking. The paper examines specific ways in which four girls produce themselves in dialogue with, on the one hand, official (Governmental and school) discourses of “standards” and “achievement” and, on the other, particular powerful constructions of sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closing the educational achievement gap has been a schooling issue since Brown v. Board of Topeka, Kansas decision. Generally, the learning achievement of elementary and secondary African-American student has been an issue in majority school populations across the United States. And evidence of performance of these students appears to be more dismal than ever before. A becoming challenge to contemporary educators is manifested in the need for classroom instructional processes that can serve as solutions for decreasing the achievement gap which plagues segments of the African-American Student population. The term "educators" used herein is inclusive of administrators and counselors, as well as instructional personnel. The purpose of this paper is to identify and examine research-based findings on effective instructional practices in the context of their applicability for classroom teaching-learning situations. Such information can be valuable to the student learning-achievement work of teachers and instructional support personnel. Particularly, this knowledge can be valuable to teachers in the decisions they make about their students, content, and their teaching. This paper addresses the interrelationship of these decisions and teachers' instructional plan regarding teaching methods and strategies. Teacher decision-making is a critical component of the instructional planning process. Additional to the research on effective teaching, this paper presents teacher development outcomes from workshops settings and best practice instructional strategies for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last five years, maritime education in Croatia underwent changes in programmes, possible educational paths and students' structure. This paper analyses the recent trends in maritime education in Croatia with particular references to enrolment and graduation processes at higher Maritime Education and Training (MET) institutions. The aim was to examine the students' structure developments and the correlation between recent economical fluctuations in Croatia and attractiveness of seafaring among young people. The authors have examined data gathered from two higher MET institutions in Zadar and Rijeka from 2010 to 2014. The results of the research have shown that GDP fluctuations i.e. the economic situation in the state has an influence on the enrolment at higher MET institutions. Furthermore, the results have shown that grammar school graduates and those from other four-year vocational schools are starting to choose seafaring as their profession increasingly. Today, in both cities, traditionally oriented to seafaring, students enrolled at higher MET institutions who graduated from maritime schools are significantly in the minority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nursing profession has experienced significant change over the last 100 years. Consequently, the work-force of the 21st century is a diverse entity that is edging toward the specialization of nurses in a specific clinical setting. In such an environment, a common knowledge base is demanded of nurses - a factor that has affected the development of second level, or enrolled nurses (ENs). The forces at play raise questions about nursing roles and scopes of practice. The establishment of education pathways that promote career development has been the stimulus for conversations about the effectiveness of the transition of EN to registered nurse (RN). This paper presents a review of the literature that identifies and explores common emerging themes (making the move from EN; adapting to Bachelor of Nursing; transitioning to RN) associated with this transition through the process of undertaking baccalaureate studies in nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a Gini-type index for measuring ‘attainment equity’ in schools; that is to say, how far a school (or group of schools) is from having a ‘fair’ proportion of its examination success attributable to a fair proportion of its student population. Using data from the National Pupil Database, the Index is applied to more than 20,000 students with matched attainment records at KS2 and KS4 in two ‘statistical-neighbour’ local authorities in England, capturing the extent to which they are meeting a public policy notion of equity. It is then combined with existing contextual value added measures to analyse school and local authority performance in terms of both attainment equity and context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Attendance at cram schools is an experience that the majority of Taiwanese have while growing up. However, the incidence and impact of cram schooling are still understudied and have yet received much attention. In this paper, I first illustrate the development of cram schools in Taiwan, and demonstrate the important changes on institutional factors and legitimacy of cram schools. Then I use data collected by Taiwan Education Panel Survey to investigate the net effect of cram schooling on students’ academic performance, and to test whether the opportunity of cram school participation reflects specific patterns of stratification. Empirical results indicate that cram schooling does matter: attending cram schools has a significantly positive effect on a student''s analytical ability and mathematical performance. However, cram school participation does not reflect specific patterns of social stratification: the opportunity of going to a cram school for a male student is not significantly different from that of a female; the effects of family background on students’ cram school participation are not as critical as they were in the past. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

University students, nationally as well as internationally, engage in employment to supplement income while studying. Social work students are no different in this respect. There have long been questions about whether such part-time work has an adverse impact on student academic performance. This paper explored the experiences of social work students enrolled on-campus across three Australian universities as reported through a survey and focus groups. The research found that social work students did engage in significant amounts of paid employment while studying, that there were both positives and negatives for students depending on the nature of their employment, and that compromises needed to be made in juggling competing responsibilities. Accessing and living on inadequate government benefits imposed particular stressors. The findings have implications for the ways in which social work education is structured, especially in terms of flexibility, and demonstrated that part-time work also offers opportunities for student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six online postings and six one-minute papers were added to an introductory first-year class, forming 5 percent of the final grade, but represented significant intervention in class functioning and amount of active learning. Active learning produced results in student performance beyond the percentage of the final grade it constituted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present paper is to investigate the inner workings of a North American summer enrichment programme named Freedom School. More specifically this research explores how participants of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom School programme experience 'the Freedom School way', an amalgam of ideologies, discourses, and behaviours endorsed by the CDF. First, observations are analysed which forward a picture of the research context. In addition, survey data are gathered from 36 youth participants of the programme. Data also are generated from interviews with Freedom School interns. Using Michel Foucault's regimes of truth as a unit of analysis, results from this research highlight: (1) the process by which various Freedom School activities bolster CDF ideology; (2) the ways in which CDF ideologies are part of Freedom School discourse; and (3) how CDF ideology and Freedom School discourse perpetuate a regime of truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper synthesized studies of professional development for middle school content area teachers and the teachers' subsequent implementation of literacy strategies. Four studies were identified as having a majority of participants teaching English/reading, mathematics, science, and social studies in grades 6 through 8. Articles meeting the criteria included two qualitative studies of the impact of professional development on implementation of literacy strategies, one ethnographic study of the characteristics of content area teachers with strong implementation of literacy strategies, and one quasi-experimental study of the impact of professional development on student reading performance. Findings indicate that ongoing schoolwide initiatives that are responsive to teachers' perceived needs hold promise for increasing literacy instruction across the curriculum and improving some student reading skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voucher system in Denmark combines unrestricted generous subsidies with substantial autonomy of private schools as to schedule and teaching methods. This has produced a private school sector with a wide variety of school types. This paper uses data on eight cohorts of students (over 510,000 individuals) to compare educational attainment in public and private voucher schools, including religious schools (Catholic and Protestant) and various types of non-religious schools. The findings suggest that, after controlling for individual and peer characteristics, the average public student would attain moderately higher levels of education if he/she attended grammar or Catholic school, relative to the public alternative. Attainment of students at Protestant, international and German minority schools is not different from public schools. However, attending free, boarding and, particularly, little and Waldorf schools is associated with substantially lower completion rates at the upper secondary level, which is probably at least partly due to the clustering of special education students in these school types, which cannot be controlled for. At the tertiary level, differences between private and public schools generally vanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the findings of a collaborative research project between the National University of Samoa (NUS) and Unitec New Zealand, which examined the concept of 'Samoan pedagogy' and the learning processes of Samoan students. The study is based on the experiences of 24 Samoan students (Samoan and New Zealand born) who had been studying for education qualifications. It concludes that Samoan students learn in a variety of diverse ways, and that there are no differences between Island born and New Zealand born Samoans, other than in the use of the English language. This study also emphasises the significant roles of families (socialisation) and lecturers, and the impact on achievement at tertiary level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We use a rich administrative dataset from North Carolina to explore questions related to the relationship between teacher characteristics and credentials on the one hand and student achievement on the other. Though the basic questions underlying this research are not new—and, indeed, have been explored in many papers over the years within the rubric of the “education production function”—the availability of data on all teachers and students in North Carolina over a 10-year period allows us to explore them in more detail than has been possible in previous studies. We conclude that a teacher''s experience, test scores and regular licensure all have positive effects on student achievement, with larger effects for math than for reading. Taken together the various teacher credentials exhibit quite large effects on math achievement, whether compared to the effects of changes in class size or to the socio-economic characteristics of students. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper reports research into the effect on 11-year-old pupils of introducing more cognitively challenging, practical, and interactive science lessons. Our hypothesis was that such lessons would increase the children's enthusiasm for science and their engagement with the scientific process, thereby improving educational performance. Schools in England are under pressure to raise achievement, as measured by the results of national tests. This has an impact on teaching, where revision of subject knowledge often dominates and can be particularly detrimental to more able pupils. The research was a controlled trial which took place in thirty-two English primary schools as part of a project "Conceptual Challenge in Primary Science". Teachers from 16 intervention schools participated in continuing professional development (CPD) and developed science lessons that had more practical work, more discussion, more thinking and less (but more focused) writing. The proportion of pupils achieving the highest level (level 5) in the national science tests at age 11 was compared in the matched-school pairs before and after the intervention. Focus group interviews were also held with a group of pupils in each intervention school. There was a 10% (95% Confidence Interval 2-17%) increase in the proportion of children achieving the top score in the intervention schools. The pupils and teachers reported greater engagement and motivation. These findings suggest that moving from rote revision to cognitively challenging, interactive science could help improve science education. They merit replication in other international settings to test their generalisability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the quasi-marketised environment of the new, mass higher education (HE), centralised policy continues to dictate conditions, and traditionally stable sources of income are being made increasingly unreliable. An increasing emphasis on student support within HE institutions (HEIs) has been made necessary by targets for student numbers and the funding that rests on these numbers. These tensions have been added to for 'post-1992' universities, by the Widening Participation initiative that brings with it particular issues around recruitment and retention. Rather than focusing on the models and systems of support that are being developed in different HE settings and their effectiveness, the aim of this paper is to theorise the imperatives behind these, to look again at the context that informs their inception and how the various support structures position and identify students. Through this, the tensions that exist between financial incentives, 'bums on seats', Widening Participation and academic achievement rates will be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the key findings of a DfES-funded study that explored the relationship between achievement and inclusion in mainstream schools in England. The methodology involved a statistical analysis of nationally held data on all pupils at the end of key stages 1-4, together with a series of site visits to 'inclusive' mainstream schools. These were carried out in order to explore school processes that might explain how some schools can manage to be both highly achieving and inclusive. Findings indicate that there is a small, but for all practical purposes, insubstantial relationship between inclusion and academic achievement at the school level although there is also a large degree of variation suggesting strongly there are other factors within a school's make up, rather than its degree of inclusivity, that impact on the average academic achievements of its pupils. This was confirmed from the analysis of the school site visits. The overall conclusion, therefore, is that mainstream schools need not be concerned about the potentially negative impact on the overall academic achievements of their pupils of including pupils with SEN in their schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social justice matters in education and it matters most when students struggle to complete and succeed at school. The central role of teachers' pedagogical practice in this process is well established, but what is less clear is how to support the kind of professional learning that contributes to students' success at school - the pedagogy of disrupting the default modes of schooling. This paper describes some existing structures in four schools working under challenging circumstances and how these structures function in ways to support different kinds of learning. Initiating and sustaining change requires fundamental disruptions to these modes of operation. In order for teachers to do new things, they need to be able to learn new things, but the difficulty is ensuring that teachers learn the kinds of practices and develop the kinds of beliefs that support students' success at school. We draw insights from our research into how this may be understood and achieved, and relate our findings to attempts to bridge the gap between the literature on learning organization and that of organizational learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the predictive validity of traditional academic and personal screening criteria used for admitting students into a Statewide Cooperative Doctoral Programme in Educational Leadership on student performance in the programme. This research examined the relationships among traditional admission criteria which included GRE scores (verbal, analytic, and quantitative), undergraduate and graduate GPA, and personal admissions criteria including an on-site problem-solving writing activity, a writing sample, and an interview. These measures were compared to student performance on selected programme measures that included comprehensive exam scores, time to degree completion, and an online writing score for a large group of students in a cohort-based doctorate of education programme (N > 300). Findings from the study suggest that personal screening measures such as interviews, on-site and real-time problem solving activities, and on-site and timed writing activities are more accurate predictors of student performance in an Ed.D. leadership programme than are traditional screening measures such as GRE scores, undergraduate GPAs, and graduate GPAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common outcome of entering post-compulsory education as a mature aged learner appears to be development and growth of the self. However, this is often only viewed as an outcome or considered an added benefit, rather than an integral part of the academic process itself. This paper explores the relationship between academic growth and personal growth, arguing that they are not mutually exclusive categories, but inter-related ones. Using a grounded theory approach it is suggested that a 're-negotiation' of the self was evident amongst a group of 31 mature students at different stages of their further and higher education courses. The reasons why this might be such a salient issue for mature aged cohorts is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment theorists and academics alike espouse the importance of feedback on performance assessment tasks for supporting improvement and progress in student learning achievement. Despite these espoused ideals, students claim a lack of adequate, timely feedback and their teachers claim that students fail to heed the advice given. This paper reports observations of experienced academics’ thinking while they assess their students’ learning products. It focuses in particular academics’ written feedback on their students’ written assignments, and compares this ‘actual practice’ with the same academics’ personal practical ‘espoused theories and practice’ about feedback. This snapshot of ‘everyday’ academic practice is considered in the theoretical context of what constitutes feedback that promotes learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the family education received by a sample of students who obtained Premio Extraordinario de Bachillerato (PEB- Extraordinary Award for Baccalaureate). It searches near and remote factors which appear to be linked to high achievement. It is structured in two parts. The first or theoretical framework considers two interdependent axis: why and in which aspects family education is important, and why schools should face the diversity of high achievers. The second part gathers the characteristics of the kind of family education received by the PEB sample, turning to data from questionnaires answered by the students themselves, by their parents and by a group of their teachers. These data were collected at two different points: year 2001 and year 2004, respectively. The starting hypothesis is that a coherent, demanding and rich family education seems to be related to high achievement. The hypothesis is confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act requires that schools make “annual yearly progress” in raising student achievement, or face possible sanctions. The No Child Left Behind Act places added emphasis on test scores, such as scores from the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), to evaluate the performance of schools. In this paper, we investigate school performance in Missouri by measuring the efficiency with which schools provide their education services using a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. We simulate the effects of two sanctions (school transfer, and supplemental tutoring services) under the No Child Left Behind Act on the performance of failing schools. We find that the two sanctions differ in their impact on the failing school districts’ managerial efficiency. If student performance improves as a result of the sanctions, the transfer of students sanction is more likely to improve managerial efficiency than is the tutoring services sanction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Such questions require educators to rethink the literacy assessment practices of the past. Teachers need to collect a range of information in order to make informed, consistent and on-balanced judgements regarding students' literacy achievements. The use of one-off, single testing instruments is not appropriate. Building a portfolio (Fehring, 2003; Fehring & Wilson, 1996) of students' work from a range of multimodal and multidimensional assessment techniques provides the rich data from which teachers and students themselves can build up a profile of a learner's literacy competence. This paper will explore a range of innovative literacy assessment data gathering techniques such as: • Personalised literacy assessment matrices • Rubrics • Digital accumulative literacy assessment portfolios • Online assessment. However, it is still important to keep in mind that all literacy assessment strategies highlight the importance of teacher judgement as being fundamental to efficient and effective literacy assessment and reporting practices in the classroom. Professionally informed teachers who are articulate, knowledgeable and reflective practitioners are the change agents of the future (Fehring, 2003; Fehring, 1999). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a model of educational production that tries to make sense of recent evidence on effects of institutional arrangements on student performance. In a simple principal-agent framework, students choose their learning effort to maximize net benefits, while the government chooses educational spending to maximize its net benefits. In the jointly determined equilibrium, schooling quality is shown to depend on several institutionally determined parameters. The impact on student performance of institutions such as central examinations, centralization versus school autonomy, teachers' influence, parental influence, and competition from private schools is analyzed. Furthermore, the model can rationalize why positive resource effects may be lacking in educational production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to uncover the mechanisms through which stratification in schools differentiates student achievement. Two types of mechanisms are considered: (1) technical conditions of differentially allocated instruction, and (2) institutional processes operating through symbolically defined categories. Using data from twelve first-grade classrooms, I isolated the instructional effects and found that they are both large and stable. Institutional processes account at most for a small grouping effect, which occurs early in the year but fades as the year progresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emphasizes the importance of clearly stated criteria that identify and describe the expected performance levels of undergraduate social work students at the termination of their practicum course. These criteria should he an integral part of the fieldwork program and reflect the social work program goals anti objectives, the needs of the community social service delivery systems, anti tile Council on Social Work Education standards on accreditation. They should be a helpfuI tool to both students and field instructors in assuming mutual responsibilities for learning/teaching and in reaching their respective goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been renewed emphasis on the vocational in recent policy documents concerning provision for the 14-19 age group. More open acknowledgement of the vocational/academic divide within English education has appeared alongside the creation of increased vocational opportunities for young people. Research undertaken for the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education project has, however, raised questions concerning the provision of vocational options for 14- to 16-year-olds that are not being fully addressed by policy-makers. This article aims to provide an answer to two linked questions: why might it be important to offer vocational options to students of this age in a further education college? And, under what conditions might students benefit most from such provision? Our research revealed that students can value highly such vocational experiences, but that the extent to which young people actually benefit from the opportunity to engage in vocational learning depends crucially upon the way in which such opportunities are experienced as different from 'normal' schooling. It has also revealed that the opportunities for such experiences are potentially fragile, vulnerable to the effects of change within the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis considers two key questions relating to pupil progress. First, whether the 'route' or pattern of 'steps' a pupil takes between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 matters in terms of their performance in the Key Stage 2 assessments. Secondly, whether such progress is influenced by the primary school a pupil attends. The research draws on a unique data-set with data on the performance of over 3000 pupils in over 300 primary schools at Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, and in optional tests at the end of Years 3, 4, and 5. The analysis identifies four broad patterns of pupil progress between the two key stages--equal-sized, increasing or decreasing, and variable steps. Pupils taking the 'equal-sized' route made most progress in terms of Reading, but the differences between this route and the least successful one were comparatively modest, amounting to not more than 3 months progress. In Maths, by contrast, the differences were more substantial with pupils on the 'decreasing' steps route making most progress and those on the 'increasing' steps route lagging increasingly behind, eventually by around half a level. The research confirmed, in line with previous studies, that the primary school attended was a substantial influence on pupil progress. Multi-level modelling suggested that some schools were boosting pupil progress by as much as half a level (roughly 1 year of nominal progress) in comparison with others. However, when schools were characterized according to the main 'routes' their pupils had taken, the differences between routes were neither substantively nor statistically significant. Additionally, it was found that primary schools varied quite substantially in terms of their relative 'effectiveness' from one cohort to the next and the main routes their pupils took between the two Key Stage assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]