This paper presents a longitudinal mixed methods study tracking 11 children (aged 5-7 on entry), defined as disadvantaged in multiple ways, i.e. social, behavioural and economic. They attended weekly Forest School and outdoor learning sessions over three years. The study investigates the project's impact on the children in terms of their academic…

The aim of this paper was to shed more light on the attitudes and dispositions to mathematics education of secondary school students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools. The data were collected as part of a larger project in England which looked at the relationship between students' learning outcomes (including dispositions)…

This study uses action research intervention to improve students' attendance at seminars. Specifically, the study asks the question: will students' attendance improve if they drive their own learning by running their own seminars? Records of lecture and seminar attendance at a module and comparative ones were used. Focus group interviews provided…

The word "safe" is widely used in everyday education speak in phrases such as "safe learning environment", but how do trainee and experienced teachers interpret, understand and use this word in their everyday teaching? Teachers are acting as observers of pupils' well-being, and one of their roles in the classroom is to offer…

Recently identified as an academic "achievement emotion", boredom has long been implicated as a factor contributing adversely to student attainment across a diverse range of formal educational settings. Despite this, the study of boredom, particularly among students in higher education, remains a relatively neglected and underdeveloped…

The introduction in England of the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) provided a stimulus to ensure that beginning teachers understand the nature of poverty and critically examine strategies used by schools seeking to overcome the barriers to academic achievement that it presents. This article explores the effects of asking student-teachers within a…

Mentoring represents a widely used outreach intervention amongst higher education institutions. It is also judged to be a "particularly effective" approach in widening access, with a significant amount of attention directed at examining its impact on those being mentored. In contrast, less consideration has been given to the benefits…

The principle of schools collaborating to improve is one that has seen growing interest in recent years, and there is emerging evidence that in particular collaboration between high and lower performing schools can be an effective school improvement method. However, this evidence relates primarily to secondary schools, and little research has been…

This article presents initial findings from an empirical study of the effectiveness of mathematics teaching (EMT). The article explores the teaching of mathematics in two very different contexts: England and China. Within each country, the target cohort of pupils were those aged 9-10 and overall, 19 teachers, 10 from England and nine from China,…

School federations are groups of two or more schools operating under a single governance structure. The study reported in this article compared federations designed to raise performance in low-attaining schools against a matched sample of their non-federated counterparts. The findings are based on quantitative analysis of data collected in…

This paper reports on a national study, involving a mixed-method research design comprising a randomised controlled trial (RCT), text analysis, student and teacher interviews and lesson observations. It set out to investigate whether contextualised teaching of grammar, linked to the teaching of writing, would improve student outcomes in writing…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…