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There is strong evidence that peer tutoring, as a form of cooperative learning, has a positive impact on tutor and tutee outcomes. However, little previous research has been reported as to the differential effects of engaging in cooperative learning in dyads for peer tutors and peer tutees, respectively. A randomised controlled experimental study was undertaken involving 295, 11- to 13-year-old students, drawn from 12 classrooms, across three secondary/high schools situated in areas of low-socio-economic status, in the north east of England. In total, 146 students engaged in cooperative learning for a period of 12 weeks, and 149 students served as a comparison group. Gains were significantly greater on independent standardised reading comprehension tests for those engaged in cooperative learning than those in comparison classes, and greater for tutors than tutees. The results are explored by critically reflecting on the underlying theories of education that may be at play in classrooms using this form of cooperative learning.

There continue to be challenges of transfer from research evidence to practice in education. This paper reports on the implementation of a well-evidenced Reciprocal Reading approach in 35 schools across a high poverty region in England, working cooperatively at transition between primary and secondary. The purpose of the research reported here was not to test children to establish whether Reciprocal Reading improves student outcomes, as randomised controlled trial evidence from studies in England has already established the positive impact of this approach in primary and secondary schools. Instead, a process evaluation was undertaken using naturally occurring data and staff survey data, to understand whether it is possible to implement this approach across a region with high fidelity. The theory of change exemplified in previous randomised controlled trial evaluations was used to interrogate the data in respect of teacher behaviours and attitudes, and student behaviours as reported by school staff during implementation. Findings suggest high levels of adherence to programme design and resources by schools was present across the sample during implementation, together with staff competence and positive relational factors during programme delivery. These findings are in line with health-based research where high fidelity of implementation is used as an indicator of transfer to practice.

Peer tutoring is a structured process of co-operative learning, supported by social interdependence theory shown to have cognitive and affective level benefits. During a RCT, this study explores teacher perceptions (n=62) of effects of co-operative learning, including implementation issues, using a mixed methods approach during a 16-week peer tutoring intervention in 58 classes (10 secondary/high schools) in England. Data suggested strengthened peer relationships enhanced student learning. Teacher perceptions remained consistent and are congruent with social interdependence theory and research validating the theory. Implications for research, theory, practice and policy are discussed. Research was supported by Educational Endowment Foundation grant: Spring2012-105.

This is the protocol for a Campbell review. The primary objective for this review is summarising the effectiveness of video-based interventions (VBI) in promoting prosocial behaviours in a population of young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The research questions employed to fulfil this objective include: (1) Do VBI improve prosocial behaviours in children with ASD? (2) Which social skills and interactive behaviours are most successful? (3) Do VBI generally have successful rates of skill generalisation and response maintenance? (4) Do demographic characteristics (age, gender) of participants influence the effectiveness of VBI's?

Despite the growth and popularity of Irish-medium Education (IME) in Northern Ireland, the sector has not received the same levels of state support and funding as has heritage language education in the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Educating children in an immersive language setting, particularly in a minority or endangered language, is still regarded as disadvantageous to the learner, and that bilingual language education will hinder academic attainment, including maths. We present findings from thematic interviews with 11 primary teachers' perceptions on the challenges of teaching maths in Irish, and how to help the sector develop language skills in, and resources for, teaching maths in the primary curriculum in Northern Ireland. The challenges that emerged from the thematic interviews, include finding teachers with the requisite language skills to teach maths, training and support for Irish-speaking maths teachers, and how children can acquire the right kind of fluency to engage in maths learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This narrative systematic review examined relationships between school attainment, socio-economic status and gender in the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2012. The influence of socio-economic status was considered at the individual and school level, while gender was examined at the individual level. To ensure consistency among included studies, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was selected as the attainment measure. Following screening and the application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, 23 studies were included in this review. The most common measures of socio-economic status were parental occupation, parental education and individual/school mean of economic, social and cultural status. This review found that individual and school level factors of socio-economic status were consistent in the magnitude and direction of their influence over time. Gender was also a statistically significant indicator of attainment. However, variation was evident in the effects of gender according to the PISA cycle, UK country and subject. This review also provided a critical discussion on the quality of included studies, questioning study reliability owing to variation in reporting sample sizes, data manipulation and summary statistics. The review concluded greater consistency in reporting PISA results, especially descriptive and summary statistics would improve comparability of studies within and between PISA cycles, transparency of methodological approaches and the overall reliability of studies.

Drawing on the code theory of Basil Bernstein, this study set out to examine how primary school teachers operationalize and experience their teaching practice with respect to the weak framing that may underpin teacher-pupil interaction, and how this practice is regulated by certain variables. Questionnaires were completed by 2,238 primary school teachers in China. The findings revealed that the teachers performed weak framing mainly through an invisible pedagogy in interactions with students, which was significantly affected by an interplay between student-based authority, students' linguistic codes and use of textbooks. An elaborated code generates two crucial advantages: it reduces the impact of the constraints of textbooks and traditional pedagogy on student-based teacher authority, and facilitates the teachers in implementing weak framing. Therefore, providing scaffolding resources to underachieving students to assist them in acquiring an elaborated code could be the key to ameliorating the phenomenon of cultural reproduction.

Background: Video‐based interventions (VBIs) are an approach that can be used to promote social behavioural skills for autistic children and young people. Despite an abundance of literature in this area, previous evidence syntheses are limited by their exclusive search strategies and eligibility criteria. Therefore, there is a lack of comprehensive evidence syntheses to provide insight on whether these interventions work, for whom, and in what circumstances. Evidence and Gap Maps (EGMs) are used to collate vast literature on a broad topic area such as this, highlighting areas for synthesis, and identifying gaps for future research. Objectives: To identify, map and synthesise existing primary research on VBIs promoting social behavioural skills for autistic children and young people, creating a live, searchable and publicly available EGM. Search Methods: Searches were conducted in electronic databases (n = 8), web search engines, and other repositories including published papers and grey literature. The search strategy was developed around two concepts including (1) terms related to autism, and (2) terms related to VBIs. Searches were conducted in May 2021. Selection Criteria: All primary studies evaluating the effectiveness of VBIs in promoting social behaviours for autistic children and young people aged 3–18 were included in the EGM. Data Collection and Analysis: Search results were imported into Eppi‐Reviewer where duplicates of identical studies were removed. Titles and abstracts were then screened by two independent reviewers. Potentially eligible full texts were located and also screened by two reviewers. Data were then extracted on study design, participant characteristics, type of intervention, type of outcome, and country of study, by one of three reviewers. EPPI‐Mapper was used to create the interactive EGM. Main Results: The current EGM contains 438 studies reporting on 394 single subject research designs, 25 randomised controlled trials, 15 non‐randomised group designs, and 8 pretest–posttest designs. Included studies evaluated VBIs in all male (n = 238), mixed gender (n = 172) or all female (n = 17) samples. VBIs employed included video modelling (n = 273), video self‐modelling (n = 82), point‐of‐view modelling (n = 61), video prompting (n = 57), video feedback (n = 12) and computer‐based video instruction (n = 4). The most frequently used models were adults (n = 191) and peers (n = 135). In relation to social outcomes, almost half evaluated social engagement (n = 199) with limited studies looking at safety (n = 9) and community (n = 7) skills. Authors' Conclusions: This EGM provides a valuable resource for policy‐makers, practitioners, researchers, funders and members of the public to access evidence on VBIs promoting social behavioural skills in autistic children and young people. The map has identified areas of sufficient research where evidence can undergo synthesis. In addition, important gaps in the evidence were highlighted and suggest further research is warranted in all female samples and less frequently evaluated types of VBIs and social outcomes. Evidence included in this EGM will be further explored via systematic review and meta‐analysis on control group designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberal governmentality highlights that the mode of governing technologies has moved from government toward governance in modern society. Accordingly, as the self becomes the nexus between social control and self-regulation, configuring self-knowledge is mainly achieved through subjectivation, as argued by M. Foucault. The OECD's PISA program implicitly carries out this technique by holding teachers responsible for national prospects through its assumption of a close linkage between teaching quality and human capital. More importantly, PISA data facilitates international comparisons and rankings by which the international competitiveness of its participants can be identified and categorized. Unsurprisingly, those member countries/regions classified in the first tier are confident of their prospects for future economic growth in contrast with those ranked below the average, which are unable to escape from a state of fear engendered by their assumed lack of economic prospects. Teachers thus become the subject and object of educational reforms. Teachers need to improve their teaching quality through professional development to eliminate the stigma of being viewed as social burdens. The discourses of hope and fear set in motion by PISA thus turn lifelong learning into a powerful means of facilitating the government to fabricate teachers' subjectivity. This is the art of subjectivation, commanding teachers to perform as enterprising subjects who are dedicated to contributing to social progression through good teaching quality, which is perceived as the gateway for them to bring honor upon themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a critical review of the literature surrounding the potential impact of undiagnosed and untreated vision impairment on reading development in the early years of primary school. Despite pre-school screening programmes, it is still possible for children to enter school with undiagnosed, uncorrected vision impairments. This can be due to healthcare access issues for children. Data reviewed indicated correlations between hyperopic vision impairment and poor reading development. However, the relationships reported remain complex, with myopic vision impairment being reported to correlate with high reading ability in some studies. In addition, correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Previous research in the field is reported. Deficiencies in the current literature base are discussed. Finally, recommendations for teaching practice and the nature of research that explores whether vision impairment is the cause of poor reading development for some children in school are suggested.

Districts are an important unit for administrative purposes, but they vary little in their impact on students' attainment, at least in the UK. Further, government attempts to raise attainment are often disappointing. The project described in this article aimed to engage schools in reform to change students' attainment and attitudes in schools across a whole district. The intervention, peer tutoring, has a good research pedigree in small-scale studies, but scaling it up to district-level implementation has not been rigorously evaluated. Over 2 years, 129 elementary schools in 1 Scottish district were randomly assigned to different interventions. The implementation was not perfect, but the results were positive with respect to cross-age tutoring, which had effect sizes of about 0.2. Despite limitations, the study demonstrates that it is possible to carry out a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT) on a large scale working with districts and suggests that peer tutoring has promise when scaled up. (Contains 10 tables and 1 figure.)

Background: Paired reading (PR) is an application of peer tutoring. It has been extensively researched, and its efficacy across a range of outcomes has been established. Benefits include improvements in key reading skills, and also in affective aspects of learning. Several studies have shown gains in self-esteem, although measurement methods have varied, and the model of self-esteem has rarely been clearly articulated. Aims: To investigate the changes in self-esteem of children participating in a randomized trial of PR over a 15-week treatment period. To investigate the relative contribution of self-worth and self-competence to any gains in self-esteem. To investigate whether the pattern of change differs in children who take on different roles in the PR process. Participants: The participants comprised a subset of a large-scale randomized trial of peer learning (The Fife Peer Learning Project). Four schools were randomly selected from schools allocated to the same-age PR condition, and four schools from those allocated to the cross-age PR condition. The same-age group consisted of 87 primary 6 children (10-11 years old). The cross-age group consisted of 81 primary 6 children. The controls, from schools randomly selected from a neighbouring authority, consisted of 92 primary 6 children. Method: A pre-post design employing self-report measures of self-esteem. Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale was used, with scores analysed for worth and competence. The treatment period was 15 weeks, with the participants following a prescribed PR process. Results: Significant pre-post gains were noted in self-esteem, driven predominantly by improved beliefs about competence, in both same-age and cross-age conditions, but not for controls. Gains were also seen in self-worth in the cross-age condition. Further analyses of the influence of organizational condition (same-age or cross-age) and role played (tutor vs. tutee) showed significant differences between same-age tutors and cross-age tutors in relation to self-worth. Effect sizes were generally small or moderate. Conclusions: The findings provide further support for the belief that PR can enhance self-esteem. Importantly, the use of a two-dimensional model provides extra information about self-perceptions in PR contexts: first, the central role of self-competence; and second, the gains in self-worth which are associated with tutoring younger children (but not same-age peers). This new information has educational significance for schools considering the potential of peer tutoring and the benefits of different organizational conditions.

This paper reports a two-year longitudinal study of the effects of cooperative learning on science attainment, attitudes towards science, and social connectedness during transition from primary to high school. A previous project on cooperative learning in primary schools observed gains in science understanding and in social aspects of school life. This project followed 204 children involved in the previous project and 440 comparison children who were not as they undertook transition from 24 primary schools to 16 high schools. Cognitive, affective, and social gains observed in the original project survived transition. The implications improving the effectiveness of school transition by using cooperative learning initiatives are explored. Possibilities for future research and the implications for practice and policy are discussed. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)