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The impact of self-fulfilling prophecy in education, and of attainment grouping on pupil self-perception, remain topics of longstanding debate, with important consequences for social in/justice. Focusing on self-confidence, this article draws on survey responses from 9,059 12-13 year olds who were tracked by subject ('setting'). They provided survey responses when placed in 'ability' sets at the start of their secondary schooling, and again late the following year; enabling analysis of impact over time. After controlling for prior attainment, the gap in general self-confidence between students in the top and bottom sets for mathematics is shown to widen over time, and high set students' self-confidence in English had also grown significantly; although there was not further widening in the cases of self-confidence in mathematics or in general self-confidence between students in the top and bottom sets for English. Implications of these findings for interventions directed at addressing educational disadvantage are discussed.

Over recent years the findings of a number of quantitative research studies have been published in the UK on gender and achievement. Much of this work has emanated from Stephen Gorard and his colleagues and has not only been highly critical of existing approaches to handling quantitative data but has also suggested a number of alternative and, what they claim to be, more valid ways of measuring differential patterns of achievement and underachievement between groups. This article shows how much of this work has been based upon rather under-developed measures of achievement and underachievement that tend, in turn, to generate a number of misleading findings that have questionable implications for practice. It will be argued that this body of work provides a useful case study in the problems of quantitative research that fails to engage adequately with the substantive theoretical and empirical literature and considers some of the implications of this for future research in this area. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

This article provides a brief rejoinder to Gorard and Smith's reply to an article I published in a previous issue of British Journal of Sociology of Education. In that original article I provided a critical review of their quantitative research on gender and education in the United Kingdom. In their reply to this article, Gorard and Smith seem to agree with many of the points I made. However, they appear to be particularly perplexed by why I had written this review given that they feel they have already addressed most of my points elsewhere. In this brief rejoinder I explain very clearly my motivations for writing my original article and refer readers to a more detailed and comprehensive paper where I have responded fully to each and every point raised by Gorard and Smith.

Due to the continuous growth of online interaction, social media is becoming increasingly useful in understanding trends in human behavior both locally and globally. On average there are approximately 6,000 tweets posted on Twitter every second, equating to approximately 500 million tweets per day. This wealth of information shared publicly can be hugely beneficial in gaining insights into reactions and implications caused by social, environmental, or financial events. The information has the potential to be particularly useful to retailers in terms of market research and sales forecasting when used along with some of the latest data analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. The goal of this study is to utilize data from the Twitter platform, shared by the public, to extract what benefits and insights can be gained by analyzing the correlation between external KPIs, extracted from non-UK based geographical social media data, and sales recorded in a UK based luxury retailer at the corresponding time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents Paul Connolly's response to commentary by Stephen Gorard concerning the author's research. The author identifies a number of areas in which he argues that Gorard created "red herring" arguments. The author discusses his desire to encourage debate in the area of educational inequalities. The author has written on the idea of using phi as a way to analyze educational inequalities. The author discusses the importance of evaluating the gaps in achievement among students over time. The article also examines disparities between boys and girls in academic achievement.

This article reports the findings of a mixed‐method evaluation of a pilot educational programme undertaken with six to seven year olds in a sample of primary schools in England with the aim of increasing their awareness of and respect for diversity through theatre, workshops and related teacher‐led classroom activities. The qualitative feedback from the teachers involved was extremely positive and encouraging and an analysis of the actual impact of the pilot programme on the children’s attitudes and awareness, using an experimental design, demonstrated some positive effects. In particular, the programme was found to increase the children’s general awareness of diversity and their ability to recognize instances of exclusion. While not a planned objective of the pilot programme, the evaluation also examined whether it had any effects on the children’s attitudes to specific differences, in this particular case racial differences. Interestingly, however, no evidence was found of any change in the children’s racial attitudes. With this in mind the article suggests that there is a need to distinguish between the general and specific effects of such educational programmes. The article considers the implications of this for future work in the area and also stresses the need to begin undertaking more thorough and rigorous evaluations of such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based upon a secondary analysis of three successive cohorts of the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales and examines the effects of social class and ethnicity on gender differences in General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment for those who left school in 1997, 1999 and 2001 respectively. The article shows that both social class and ethnicity exert a far greater influence on the GCSE performance of boys and girls than gender. Within this it assesses whether there is an interaction effect between gender and social class and also gender and ethnicity in terms of their impact on educational attainment. The article shows that, across all three cohorts, there is no evidence of any systematic variation in the size of the gender differences in educational attainment that exist across either social class or ethnic groups. Simply in terms of the effects of social class, ethnicity and gender on educational attainment, therefore, it is argued that these can actually be understood in terms of a simple ‘additive model’. The implications of this for initiatives aimed at addressing gender differences in educational attainment are considered briefly in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patient safety is a fundamental requirement of modern health-care systems and the application of information technology (IT) to this activity should have improvements in the area as one of its goals. Indeed, ensuring that the diagnostic IT strategy is optimized, for example, the use of IT in service redesign or data analysis, forms one of the main platforms for the National Framework for Service Improvement in Radiology. This paper presents both the concept behind and the results of a project that has been under way in the UK involving St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust and IRS Ltd concerned with implementing effective IT-driven scientific support in the field of medical radiation protection. Locally developed software is employed in assessing, managing, and analysing patient dose data arising from X-ray examinations performed in the busy department of a large district general hospital (DGH). Such data are analysed in a variety of ways, for example, over time and according to location (department or X-ray room). This analysis not only provides a measure of performance against nationally agreed dose reference levels (DRLs) but also enables a detailed analysis of any variations as well as the establishment of local DRLs (performance indicators). This process provides quantitative input to management strategies aimed at service improvement. Such strategies are geared towards the support of the Ionizing Radiations (Medical Exposures) Regulations 2000 as well as implementation of quality-management principles at the heart of radiology practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people choose energy-dense, nutrient-poor diets, yet understanding of potential determinants is limited. Associations between food choices, mental wellbeing, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and family affluence were explored to identify targets for intervention to promote dietary health and wellbeing in young people. Adolescents were recruited via post-primary schools in the UK and surveyed at two time-points when aged 13-14 years and 15-16 years. The questionnaire enquired about mental wellbeing using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, HRQoL using the KIDSCREEN-10, socio-economic status using the Family Affluence Scale and food choice by Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). With missing and anomalous cases excluded, the sample comprised 1208 cases. Factor analysis on the FFQ indicated five food choice factors: 'Junk Food'; 'Meat'; 'Healthy Protein'; 'Fruit/Vegetables'; 'Bread/Dairy'. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that frequent consumption of Junk Food was associated with being male and lower mental wellbeing. Frequent Meat intake was associated with being male and with lower HRQoL. Frequent choice of Bread/Dairy foods was more common among males and associated with higher wellbeing and greater affluence. Those who consumed Fruit/Vegetables frequently were more likely to be female, have higher HRQoL, higher mental wellbeing, and greater family affluence. These direct associations endured between time points. The dietary factors were not mutually exclusive. Those who frequently chose Junk Food were less likely to choose Fruit/Vegetables. Frequent choice of Meat was associated with more frequent choice of Junk Food and Healthy Protein. Intervention to improve dietary and psychological health in young people should target males, those in less affluent households, seek to reduce consumption of 'junk' food, and increase fruit and vegetable intake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]