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This paper offers a comprehensive account of Irish teachers' perspectives on life inside schools in England, as reported in empirical studies. The research literature shows that Irish teachers report experiencing intense pressure from the inspectorate, but also internally as a consequence of the demands placed on English schools. Within these low-trust environments they experience what they feel to be unsustainable and time-consuming workloads which compound and perpetuate the pressure and stress they feel. Of most significance are Irish teachers' views on the motives of English schools, which they interpret and perceive to be dictated by and for the inspectorate as opposed to serving the best interests of students. Overall, Irish teachers' experiences in English schools are shaped by the overarching and inescapable pressures of high-stakes accountability and are far from positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constitutes a practitioner-focused response to categorisation issues raised by the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) topic briefing on developing widening participation interventions for white British students from low socioeconomic status groups. The briefing aims to share examples of effective practice and resources to support universities in developing increasingly evidence-led policy and practice, primarily in relation to male students. We audited access agreements to explore how this target group was understood by institutions, highlighting diverse and sometimes inconsistent definitions. We then reviewed relevant academic and policy literature, and the evidence underpinning the OFFA guidance, to explore the extent to which an explicit focus on this group is appropriate or possible, and to consider the implications for widening participation practice. The paper seeks to highlight issues relevant to developing access targets relating to this group, as well as exploring issues around intersectionality, the use of data proxies for disadvantage and the use of large administrative datasets in widening participation practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores difficulties students may experience in giving opinions in class, drawing on data gleaned from the administration of questionnaires and interviews to Japanese and British students. The results show that the students from both groups regard highly of giving and exchanging opinions in class; however, there is a marked difference in their confidence in doing so, more Japanese students stating that they have difficulties even in their mother tongue situations than the British. The paper examines the background to these difficulties, drawing from detailed studies of the students' own accounts, comparing and contrasting them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Status or value in sport and physical education (PE) contexts is often associated with performances of highly proficient sporting bodies, which produce hierarchies of privileged and marginalised gendered and racialised positions. This may be communicated through text and images shared within school, physical cultures and media that young people consume. Understanding how students make sense of constructions of valued bodies in PE, and how this affects their sense of self, can assist in creating spaces for young people to experience alternative narratives. Focus: The paper's aims are to explore varying ways British Asian girls visualise and make sense of themselves as active or sporting bodies, and what this means for their (dis)engagement in physical activity. Theoretical framework: This study draws on a feminist poststructuralist approach concerning the ways in which young people create multiple subject positions through negotiating or rejecting verbal and visual narratives about physical activity and girlhood. Methods: The data draws from a one-year collaborative visual ethnography conducted with 25 students aged 13–14 in a predominantly British Asian urban secondary school in the UK. In this research, student-participants were included in the data production through being asked to create photographs over a two-week period that represented their views of valued bodies in physical activity contexts in and out of school. Focus group interviews used participant-driven photo elicitation techniques to talk through the images. Findings: In this paper, two British Asian girls’ photos enabled them to talk about, analyse, and reflect on valued or sporting bodies that they saw in visual media. The girls illustrated their performances of constrained or empowered physicalities, within a physical culture that values, among girls, racialised performances of active but feminised bodies. Many girls placed their physical activity significantly in school, and saw sporting bodies as male and elite. Where students do not associate people like themselves as sporting bodies, there may be implications for their continued involvement in physical activity. At the same time, girls were physically activity outside of school despite not seeing themselves as sporty. Reflecting on the invisibility of minority ethnic women in sports media, this research suggests that greater representation may enable young minority women to see themselves and people like them as valued bodies in sport and physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, scholarship on international students has generally focused on flows from non-western economies to the main English-speaking destination countries (such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia). In contrast, we draw on a qualitative study of 85 UK students who have either completed or are considering undertaking a degree programme overseas. We found that, in opposition to a common image of 'international students', UK students are not overtly motivated by 'strategic' concerns. Instead, they are seeking 'excitement' and 'adventure' from overseas study and often use the opportunity to delay the onset of a career and prolong a relatively carefree student lifestyle. Despite these ostensibly 'disinterested' objectives, however, UK students remain a highly privileged group and their experiences serve only to facilitate the reproduction of their privilege. The paper calls for a more critical analysis of the spatially uneven and socially exclusive nature of international higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the travel behaviour and attitudes of two different nationalities of undergraduate students from the United Kingdom and China. The survey did find some similarities between the two. Both groups enjoyed beach holidays, and placed importance on having fun and relaxing after their studies. Both were motivated to discover somewhere new and both preferred to eat the local food of the destination. In other ways, the two groups showed significant differences. The Chinese students thought it more important to see the famous sights and learn about other cultures and history, while the British were more concerned to have fun, to socialise and enjoy the challenges of outdoor adventure. These differences were found to exist in both male and female groups. The paper discusses the extent to which these differences could be explained by cultural factors as opposed to market factors or the students' previous experience in their travel career. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embarking upon a pre‐university gap year is an increasingly popular option among British students. Drawing on Brown et al.’s work on positional conflict theory and the increased importance of the ‘economy of experience’, this paper seeks to explore this growing popularity and argues that the gap year’s enhanced profile raises important questions concerning the processes by which certain groups of young people are able to gain advantage over others during a period of educational expansion. Indeed, it is arguably no coincidence that the gap year’s popularity has taken off in parallel with this expansion, as the gap year emerges as an important means of ‘gaining the edge’ over other students in the context of increased competition for entry to elite institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial stringency and neo-liberal influences in higher education are impacting upon relationships and academic values in higher education. The aim of the present paper was to analyse how these forces operate differentially in the UK and Germany. The British students were significantly more satisfied than were their German counterparts with the intellectual and personal relationships that they had with their university teachers; this could, however, be attributed more to country-specific factors, predating marketization, than to the effects of globalisation. Students in both countries clamoured for more practical experience during their university courses; but a number of UK students and almost half the UK staff thought that that insufficient justice was being done to theory in the HE programmes. Though ‘the market’ might be assumed conducive to efficiency, the British respondents (both staff and students) were especially dissatisfied with organisational aspects of their institutions. Many of the German staff believed that the old order of the university as they had known it was passing away and this awareness was painful to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese and Greek students are among the many international groups now studying at UK universities. While the written English of these groups has been extensively explored through the short argumentative essays comprising learner corpora, little research has been conducted on their assessed writing at undergraduate and Masters level. This paper reports on a study of Chinese, Greek and British student writing within the discipline of Engineering in five UK universities. Data is extracted primarily from the 6.5 million-word British Academic Written English corpus, supplemented by assignments from additional UK universities. The main aim of the study is to explore texts from students with different L1s and cultural backgrounds but within the same discipline and current educational system. First person pronouns were selected as a contained aspect of student writing for comparison, since these are a highly visible feature of a writer's identity construction (e.g. Hyland, 2002b), yet it is often claimed that L2 English students 'over use' these pronouns to the detriment of their writing (Lee & Chen, 2009). Findings indicate that the Chinese and Greek students make greater use of we in their writing within Engineering than British students and the paper explores the various functions of both we and I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just five British students of chemistry studied with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-1899) at Marburg in the 1840s, and over a hundred with him at Heidelberg between 1852 and 1888. These pupils were largely responsible for transmitting knowledge of Bunsen's instrumental innovations such as gasometry and spectroscopy to Britain. They also voiced Bunsen's merits as an outstanding teacher. The paper traces (where possible) their careers as researchers, teachers, and industrialists. A list of Bunsen's students is included in the form of a Biographical Register. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely claimed that UK students from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds but nevertheless having the potential to benefit from a degree programme are being denied higher education places because of their relatively poor paper qualifications. As a consequence, the claim continues, students from independent schools have an advantage in the competition for such places. Universities have responded to such claims, and incentives from the government to do so, by introducing widening participation programmes, but very little research has been done which explores whether students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are admitted to elite universities perform as well as their counterparts with better entry qualifications. Using a large data set from one university, this article explores performance by students at A-level and their first and final university years. Students from independent schools performed better at A-level than those from state schools, but not at their university examinations, other things being equal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the chemistry research conducted by students aged 16-17 at Westminster School in London, England. First research paper of the students that has been published.

The Smith Report has generated central questions about the mathematics education of UK adolescents. This paper highlights the close match between the goals of school mathematics, adolescence and exploratory pedagogy. This is contrasted with the prescriptive nature of current regimes. In particular, without careful attention to pedagogy it is possible that the introduction of different pathways may lead to a failure to achieve the outcomes desired by employers and universities, and to inequity in provision for students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the collective memory of British and Russian youth. We used the results of a comparative survey conducted among Russian and British students. The study focuses primarily on pride in the collective memory of young people with the aim of analyzing the category of pride among young people across several dimensions. First, we look at the qualitative content of national pride: pride in the realization of tasks related to "soft power" (for example, culture, education, sports), and pride in manifestations of "hard power" (for example, pride in military victories or power politics). Second, we analyze the temporal localization of national pride: where are the main events, personalities, and phenomena study participants take pride in, both in the past and in the present. Third, an important element of understanding pride in a country is the relationship between pride and shame: what events are mentioned more often: shameful or pride-inspiring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I present some of the results of a three-year case study of a mathematics department in a UK school that taught in setted` groups. Interviews, observations, questionnaires, and assessment data are used to show the way in which high ability students, particularly girls, underachieved and became disaffected as a result of being in the top set`. Various qualitative and quantitative results of the case study are used to show the way in which top sets can diminish, rather than enhance, achievement for high ability students. It is also suggested that the gender inequalities in mathematics achievement that continue to prevail among the top five per cent of students may partly be caused by features of top set` learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to attend non-selective state schools and are therefore more likely to take a wider variety of A-level subjects including applied disciplines such as Accounting. This is attributed to the performative pressure subjected by school league tables that incentivise schools to encourage students to select subjects that will yield the highest grades. However, many leading universities have restricted the chances of applicants holding particular combinations of A-level subjects that, in some cases, include Accounting. Interviews held within a large English university reveal that few students are aware of such restrictions, whilst corresponding quantitative data indicates that students who enter university with two or more restricted A-level subjects perform no differently on average than other students. Those entering university with an Accounting A-level, however, perform, better in their first year but exhibit lower degree performance, on average, by the end of their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keyboarding (typing) is a ubiquitous skill for most UK students, and most coursework essays must be word processed. However, few examinations, other than for students with disabilities, permit the use of a word processor. It is not known how students would respond given a free choice between handwriting and word processing in an essay examination. This study reports the findings when students were encouraged to choose between these methods of composition for an examination. Few opted to word process; the students’ reactions immediately after the examination were obtained. The demands of essay examinations compared with assignments are identified and discussed, and implications for future enquiries are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the hegemonic masculinity theory within the social hierarchy of boys attending a secondary school in Great Britain. The author discusses ways in which 16 to 18 year-old boys ascribed to the principles of inclusive masculinity within the school and attests that their masculinities are predicated in opposition to the values of misogyny, aggressiveness, and homophobia. This paper urges that the practices of subordination and marginalization detailed in hegemonic masculinity theory are not used to obtain dominance in this setting. Rather, popularity is allegedly obtained through attributes such as charisma and social fluidity.

This article reports on productive vocabulary development by instructed British learners of French over a five-year period (from age 13 to 18). Lexical diversity development was investigated through a semi-guided oral picture-based task. Results show that the students' lexical diversity (as measured by D) did significantly improve throughout the five years showing little sign of slower periods. Overall more noun types were observed than verb types in the composition of the lexicon throughout the study but with a consistent decrease in its proportion after Year 10. Further results using the Limiting Relative Diversity measure indicate that learners vary their use of nouns to a much larger extent than verbs. The discussion focuses on the noun-bias hypothesis and the use of different elicitation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Norwegian study explores the learning style preferences of first, second and third year students in Tourism and Hospitality Programmes. Comparing the findings with an UK/Australian study, this study uncovers interesting differences in learning style preferences amongst UK/Australian students and Norwegian students. In addition, the importance of the curricula content is discussed in relation to the findings of changing learning style preferences between first, second and third year students, which indicates that learning styles can change. An approach to explain this phenomenon is to consider the theoretical content of curricula, in relation to the goal of developing students to become philosophical practioners (PP). The study concludes that if the aim is to develop PP the content of the curriculum has to be modified accordingly, and that even though learning styles are important for how and what students learn, the content of the curriculum is also of importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation of the hospitality industry has resulted in continuously increasing numbers of international student sojourners whose desire to experience and learn about new cultures is frequently accompanied by an aim to develop their linguistic and professional skills. This paper focuses predominantly on United Kingdom students' perceptions of their international placement experiences in the United States of America. Issues pertaining to cultural diversity, cross-cultural adjustment, culture shock, culture surprise and acculturation are discussed. A deductive approach was adopted, with cluster sampling. Quantitative and qualitative evidence pertaining to perceptions of the phases of adjustment, culture shock, culture surprise and preparation material received from the university placement office was collected. Data from academic placement tutor interviews (n=2) then student questionnaires (n=38), focus groups (n=2) and in-depth interviews (n=4) were triangulated employing SPSS and network analysis. The findings showed that the majority of students suffered culture shock due to their changed circumstances, yet the experience was not deemed wholly negative. Culture shock was linked to language problems, lack of preparation, cultural differences and frustration at work. Culture surprise was evident in feelings of comfort, belonging and security. Cross-cultural adjustment focused on peers, hosts and work-related stress; an alternative model for cross-cultural adjustment emerged. Key recommendations include education and training to raise levels of awareness of culture shock in preparation for cross-cultural change. It is concluded that culture shock may be moderated by culture surprise, hence accelerating cross-cultural adjustment, particularly when cultural distance is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an ongoing research project exploring the perceptions of finance held by undergraduate students and how these perceptions modify over time. It examines changing government policy on student finance in an historical context before moving on to provide a critique of contributions made to the sociology of the student experience thus far. The rationale underpinning the case for a new economic sociology of the undergraduate financial experience of higher education is presented and then augmented by way of empirical data. The final section then examines some of the implications of the research findings for the new and arguably still evolving government policy on student finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The move from elite to mass systems of higher education has been accompanied by concerns relating to the quality of provision and standards, particularly in relation to the increasing proportion of higher grades awarded to students. Bayesian multilevel models were used to investigate the temporal trend of grade attainment in 101 higher education providers across the UK, between the 2009/10 and 2018/19 academic years, to understand if rising grades are due to inflation or a consequence of improvements across the higher education system. The results suggest a much more positive and proactive picture of a higher education system that is engaged in a process of continuous enhancement. The unexplained variables, rather than automatically being labelled as grade inflation, should instead point to a need to investigate further the local institutional contextual factors that inform grade distribution. The deficit lens through which 'grade inflation' is often perceived is a damaging and unhelpful distraction. Measures, such as improved assessment literacy, are suggested as approaches that the sector could adopt to further develop its understanding of grade improvement as opposed to grade inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the impact that the dynamics of cooperation and competition of collective action had over the political trajectory of the wave of student protests in the UK between 2009 and 2011. Using an exploratory qualitative case study design, the research describes the political trajectory of the student conflict, analysing the relationships of alliance and competition between the main social movement organisations during the conflict. The study suggests that the presence of multiple factionalisms and a predominant competitive relationship between the leading organisations produced a fragmented social movement, which reduced the political impacts of the wave and extension of the protests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specificity of students' technological training in Finland and Great Britain has been considered. It has been found that the state policy of foreign countries is aimed at providing students with professional knowledge, work skills and combining comprehensive and professional training. Specific attention has been paid to the subjects and courses in foreign countries, which are equivalent to the course on technological training. It has been indicated that establishing connections between school, industry and production is one of the important conditions for improving technological training. The specificity of students' technological training in Finnish schools at different levels of education has been characterized. Indeed, the level of education defines the character of technological operations differentiation based on the materials of manufactured products; gradual introduction of professional and polytechnical optional and specialized courses, whose volume corresponds to regional conditions; organization of visits to production, agricultural and forestry enterprises; active participation of students in professional production, which contributes to acquiring practical experience in the chosen production area. It has been revealed that Finnish schools pay particular attention to the importance of proper facilities and resources and fully equipped workshops, namely joiner's shops, locksmith shops, tailor's shops, fully equipped teaching kitchens and canteens. It has been revealed that technological training of students in Great Britain is characterized by their active involvement into field experience; establishment of mini-enterprises based on comprehensive schools; centralization in solving the main objectives in the field of students' technological training. It has been stated that the mini-enterprises in schools contribute to strengthening the relations between school and the labour market. The common form of students' technological training is industrial placement and the main method is project-based learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of English Studies is the property of Universidad de la Rioja, Servicio de Publicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the late 1950s and early 1960s a number of British “scholarship boys” traveled to America sponsored by British and American foundations. Their experiences in the United States qualify and complicate existing narratives about upwardly mobile meritocrats. First, Americans regarded these figures in a manner that helped alter their view of themselves. Distinctions that mattered in Britain became less significant in America, though scholarship boys remained shrewd enough to penetrate the veneer of a superficial egalitarianism. National identity became a marker that sidelined residual anxieties about social hierarchy. Second, American prosperity affected the bias against consumerism shared by many British intellectuals during the mid-twentieth century. As professionals supported by government or educational institutions, these visitors differentiated themselves from those in the private sector, which pursued other goals. America exposed scholarship boys to a system that assimilated consumerism without sacrificing professionalism and a commitment to social progress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) offers a means for university students to receive timely updates from virtual learning environments. However, despite its utility, only 21% of home students surveyed at a university in Lebanon claim to have ever used the technology. To investigate whether national culture could be an influence on intention to use RSS, the survey was extended to British students in the UK. Using the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) as a research framework, 437 students responded to a questionnaire containing four constructs: behavioural intention to use; attitude towards benefit; perceived usefulness; and perceived ease of use. Principle components analysis and structural equation modelling were used to explore the psychometric qualities and utility of TAM in both contexts. The results show that adoption was significantly higher, but also modest, in the British context at 36%. Configural and metric invariance were fully supported, while scalar and factorial invariance were partially supported. Further analysis shows significant differences between perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use across the two contexts studied. Therefore, it is recommended that faculty demonstrate to students how educational RSS feeds can be used effectively to increase awareness and emphasise usefulness in both contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports findings from a collaborative study of UK student learning in Malaysia. We analyze the concept ofliminalityas a means of understanding the transitional process between states and statuses that social work students experience in practice learning. Here, in specific reference to immersion in new cultural contexts represented by international placements, the development and learning of students are explored in relation to the overlapping domains of familiar and unfamiliar ‘cultures’ and disciplinary practice. These findings carry implications in terms of the increasing popularity of international placements and the potential imposition of hegemonies of values and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on some aspects of a doctoral ethnographic study of young people disaffected from schooling in a post-industrial space of ruin in a former coal-mining community in England. It considers how their experiences of resistance and refusal of schooling can, in the relational ethos of non-school support settings, come to speak back to hegemonic policy, particularly around ‘aspiration’. Focusing on the example of a young people's film project, data are assembled showing how a local culture of ‘resistant aspiration’ – itself affectively linked to sedimented traditions of insubordination – forms a site of activist possibility. In this site, the ground-level resistance of the young people and the more strategically informed interventions of a group of locally originating staff come together in a moment of policy activism that displays both scope and limitation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article the authors argue that L1 transfer from English is not only important in the early stages of L2 acquisition of Spanish, but remains influential in later stages if there is not enough positive evidence for the learners to progress in their development (Lefebvre, White, & Jourdan, 2006). The findings are based on analyses of path and manner of movement in stories told by British students of Spanish (N = 68) of three different proficiency levels. Verbs that conflate motion and path, on the one hand, are mastered early, possibly because the existence of Latinate path verbs, such as enter and ascend in English, facilitate their early acquisition by British learners of Spanish. Contrary to the findings of Cadierno (2004) and Cadierno and Ruiz (2006), the encoding of manner, in particular in boundary crossing contexts, seems to pose enormous difficulties, even among students who had been abroad on a placement in a Spanish-speaking country prior to the data collection. An analysis of the frequency of manner verbs in Spanish corpora shows that one of the key reasons why students struggle with manner is that manner verbs are so infrequent in Spanish. The authors claim that scarce positive evidence in the language exposed to and little or no negative evidence are responsible for the long-lasting effect of transfer on the expression of manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successive studies of the international student experience have documented a lack of contact between host and visitor despite its value for language and cultural learning as well as satisfaction with the stay. In spite of the rise in international education, there is a lack of literature on the domestic student perspective. This article redresses the balance somewhat and reports on findings from a qualitative study of British student attitudes to the presence in large numbers of international students on their programme of postgraduate study. Contrary to previous research findings, domestic students are revealed to be empathetic, flexible and open to new cultures. This mindset was attributed by participants to their desire to work in an international industry. Nevertheless, a phenomenon of segregation is observed in both the home and international student communities, suggesting that cultural identification is the response to cultural diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study was conducted to compare Pakistani British and White British students on study habits and their academic performance. The sample comprised of 200 science students of 10th class recruited from four multiethnic schools of England, UK. Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (Brown & Holtzman, 1955) was used to assess students' study habits and their last year academic grades were used to assess academic performance. Statistical analysis revealed that although White British students had significantly better study habits than the Pakistani British but no significant difference was found in their academic performance. Country of origin and schools had significant interactive effect on study habits of students but did not have an interactive effect on academic performance of the students. The study has important implication for the educationists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies were conducted investigating the relationship between the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) scales and well-being measures in British (N = 179) and Russian (N = 289) student samples. On the basis of person-oriented approach, a cluster-analysis operationalization of Balanced Time Perspective (BTP) using ZTPI was proposed and validated, demonstrating more evidence for its validity than the previously suggested cut-off-point approach. Four distinct time perspective patterns were discovered in both samples: future-oriented, present-oriented, balanced and negative. The clusters revealed significant differences in well-being, with members of the BTP cluster demonstrating the highest scores in both samples. The relationship between ZTPI and Temporal Life Satisfaction Scale in the British sample was found to be non-uniform for past, present and future. Based on these findings, a distinction between three aspects of time perspective is theoretically proposed, and its implications for the future development of the ZTPI are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research reported here is from the first national survey of British undergraduate attitudes to the methodological character of the discipline and specifically to quantitative methods.The study found that most sociology students saw their subject as closer to the humanities than the sciences. However, whilst as anticipated many students expressed anxiety about quantitative methods and 'number', a slight majority nevertheless expressed no such anxiety. The methodological issue for sociology is perhaps less to do with a numeric deficit and more to do with a lack of student interest in the use of quantitative methods. It may be concluded that the views held by present undergraduates do not augur well for a methodologically pluralist discipline in the future, or more generally for key numeric and analytic skills sociology graduates can bring to other professions and occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surveys were carried out to assess the UK government's anti-bullying pack Don't suffer in silence in 1996 (after the first edition) and 2002 (after the second edition), to investigate what schools are doing about bullying, and the effect of anti-bullying policies becoming a legal requirement. Schools in England were approached, randomly but within the constraint of having a spread across geographical regions. In 1996 109 schools and in 2002 148 schools were asked about school policy, interventions, and bullying frequency. Most schools moved from having a bullying policy as part of a broader policy on behaviour and discipline, to having a separate anti-bullying policy. More schools attempted to survey the extent of bullying and there were changes in the use of particular interventions. Most interventions were rated as moderately useful. Some variations in use and satisfaction between different school levels were found. The implications of anti-bullying work at schools and its success are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in the UK has shown that students start their university career with the goal of mastering their subject, but this focus shifts as they progress through their degree program. Studies have suggested that unlike students in the UK, Russian students continue to take a strong mastery approach to their work. The main aim of this study was to assess whether the effects observed in UK studies could be found in a Russian context. In a cross-sectional study, 618 students across four years of a degree program in a Russian university completed an achievement-goal questionnaire. Results revealed patterns similar to the studies in the UK; Russian students' levels of mastery were significantly lower after Year 1. The results are discussed in terms of potential changes in Russian culture. Methodological issues relating to the relative failure of some questionnaire items to validate fully within their hypothesised constructs are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, parents make "choices" (in reality, "preferences") for the state-maintained secondary schools they wish their child to attend. If there are more applicants than places, the school's published admissions criteria are used to give priority to applicants. This article examines how school composition in London varies by first comparing schools that are overtly academically selective with those that are nominally "comprehensive" ("all ability"); second, comparing "comprehensive" schools that control their own admissions with those that do not; third, comparing schools with and without selective admissions criteria; and fourth, comparing schools that use religious criteria with those that do not. We find that school compositions vary. Academically selective schools have fewer students from poor households than comprehensive schools in the same area and have fewer Black and more Indian and Chinese/Other Asian students. Comprehensive schools with autonomy over admissions admit higher attaining students and have fewer students from poor households and with special educational needs, and those with selective admissions criteria admit higher performing children. There are fewer Bangladeshi/Pakistani students and more Black students in schools with a religious character than in those without. Although a range of factors are likely to play a role in explaining the variation in school composition, the evidence suggests that there is "selecting in" and "selecting out" of more desirable students by some schools. Implications for policy are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the educational difference between British and American students around theological matters. A short report on teaching a course on late medieval and early renaissance art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire is provided. The initial proposal for the course offers a comparison of religious traditions and theological conjectures.

For over a decade, practice-based research degrees in art and design have formed part of the United Kingdom research degree education portfolio, with a relatively rapid expansion in recent years. This route to the PhD still constitutes an innovative, and on occasion a disputed, form of research study and students embarking upon the practice-based doctorate find themselves in many ways undertaking pioneering work. To date there has been a dearth of empirical studies of the actual experiences of such students. This article, based upon qualitative interviews with 50 students based at 25 institutions, represents an attempt to begin to fill this lacuna. The article charts the biographical change which students undergo as they pursue their doctorates. It examines the ways in which they construct, maintain, and modify their identities whilst in the role of 'creator/maker,' and seek to manage and combine the different modes of being required of a 'creator' and a researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two experiments, participants evaluated other individuals who deviated in either an anti- or pro-normative direction relative to normative members of the same group. We predicted that individuals would prefer group members who contributed to the validity of in-group norms. In Study 1, anti-norm deviants in an organization attracted more negative evaluations than did pronorm deviants, even though both were dissimilar to the in-group prototype. Consistent with our model of 'subjective group dynamics', evaluations of such deviants were related to perceivers' identification with their own group. In Study 2, British and Overseas students were more positive toward in-group and out-group members who deviated in the in-group normative direction with respect to university policies for Overseas students. These findings complement the results from laboratory experiments by Abrams, Marques, Bown, and Henson (2000). Reactions to deviance reflect more than just the magnitude of deviance; they are also affected by the group membership of the deviant, and the direction in which that person deviates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that was participated by 127 students from Great Britain who worked in Spain as English language monitors. The study provides the opportunity for children to improve their English skills through recreational activities. The attitudes of monitors were evaluated toward Spain and its people, motivation to learn Spanish, adjustment to Spanish culture and self-ratings of Spanish proficiency. The results indicated significant changes in the monitors' attitudes and ratings of proficiency in Spanish throughout the period of the program. These changes defined four dimensions which include integrativeness, motivation, adjustment and self-confidence with Spanish.

There is a growing interest in helping students to become better learners, and this article describes how the team designing an Open University distance-learning course set out to create a course that would explicitly attempt to help students acquire the learning characteristics of mature and capable practitioners in the field. The article discusses how the course team went about this task in ways that turned out to be consistent with both experiential and constructivist perspectives of learning. It explains how the learning-to-learn goals of the course were explicitly articulated to students and how the course structure and the assessment policy sought to 'impel' students to acquire and deploy learning skills that would stand them in good stead after graduation. The article ends by reviewing the evidence, available from students' marked assignments and from surveys, of how well students actually did 'learn how to learn'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on 18 months of action research that monitored British pupils' learning about the nature of science, using some aspects of history of science for the purpose. The action research took place within five classrooms and involved practicing teachers who used a set of historical materials specially written for this study. Preliminary findings about the common perceptions of the nature of science held by middle school pupils guided the work, which was carried out using a variety of methodologies. The results obtained show some areas of substantial progress in the pupils' understanding of the nature of science, and others where little change seems to have been effected. The data cast some light on arguments about whether learning some history of science can lead to a better understanding of school science. In the first place it was the unanimous view of the teachers that their pupils had learned some concepts better through studying them in the controversial situations in which they first arose.

Presents a study which compares and contrasts British and American students' cultural sensitivity in teacher preparation programmes. Details on the subjects used in the study; Method in which the study was conducted; Results of the study; Conclusions reached.