Laboratory practicals in life science subjects are traditionally assessed by written reports that reflect disciplinary norms for documenting experimental activities. However, the exclusive application of this assessment has the potential to engage only a narrow range of competencies. In this study, we explored how multiple modes of laboratory…

This paper explores how messages for health and PE ([H]PE) within English and Welsh curricula are being re-legitimised through distinct performance and competence pedagogic models. Drawing upon Bernstein's sociology of knowledge (Bernstein, 1996. "Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique." Taylor and Francis;…

Utilising new empirical research this study adapts an existing literature-based competency framework into a hierarchy of competencies needed for education middle managers in England to be effective in their role. The study involved a national survey (n = 164) of further education middle managers and is the first quantitative study investigating…

Competency-based training (CBT) is the key training approach used in the vocational education and training sector in Australia. Competency-based training is an approach to vocational education and training (VET) designed to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve competency. It focuses on an individual's mastery of skill, whereby an…

Scraton's [1992. "Shaping up to womanhood: Gender and girls' physical education." Open University Press] ground breaking research highlighted how Physical Education (PE) contributed to the reproduction of gender power relations; more specifically, how three messages around motherhood, sexuality and physicality, reflected through PE's…

By examining on-course pedagogical practices, recent research has sought to inform the development of National Governing Body (NGB) coach education courses. Coach education programmes are, however, social constructs, and are influenced by policies and socio-economic factors. To inform future provision, there is a need to understand the…

Secondary education curricula highlight competence-based learning; although meaningful school-intervention habits have not yet been observed. The initiatives implemented have focused primarily on promoting the combined development of no more than three key competences. This article presents an international study under the Erasmus+ and H2020…

This paper outlines a small-scale Case Study, which took place in England, involving six School Direct Primary teacher trainees acting as participants. Important assessment points, evidencing progress against the Teachers' Standards, are 'Units of Learning'. These contain sequences of lessons, planned and evaluated by the trainees, assessing…

Agency, understood as the capacity to act independently and to make one's own choices, is considered central to children's development. Thus, education, and hence education curricula, have a role in the development of learner agency. While curriculum development is a key focus for educational theory, research, policy, and classroom practice, the…

Drawing upon the work of Foucault and Latour, this article reflects on 25 years of critique of competence-based education and its continuing strength as a way of framing education and training. Using an example from England, it rehearses the argument from Foucault that, despite its student-centred discourse, competence-based education can be…

Predisposing factors of perceived physical education (PE) ability and perceived PE worth within the Youth Physical Activity Promotion Model are positively associated with young people's daily physical activity. The aim of this study was to qualitatively investigate the origins of students' perceived PE ability (perceived competence and…

A geographical education offers more than skills, subject knowledge and generic attributes. It also develops a set of discipline-specific capabilities that contribute to a graduate's future learning and experience, granting them special ways of thinking for lifelong development and for contributing to the welfare of themselves, their community and…

All stake holders in competency based teacher training systems share an interest in the consistency of assessment outcomes and practice. Assessment data from more than 200 trainees participating in Initial Teacher Training/Education (ITT/E) programmes and partnerships at a Higher Education (HE) provider in the Northwest of England were analysed…