Changes over time in social-class inequality of educational attainment have been shown by previous research to depend on whether attainment is measured absolutely or relatively. The pioneering work in this respect by Bukodi and Goldthorpe found that inequality has fallen when attainment is measured absolutely (for example, as the percentage…

This article explores 11-year-old children's connections to prior knowledge and experiences while reading a wordless version of "Little Red Riding Hood." The study extends pre-existing research on reader response theories by focusing on images instead of written text. The approach taken places emphasis on the reader's active engagement,…

In most OECD countries, more women than men enrol in undergraduate degrees. I analyse this gap in enrolment using the elicited subjective beliefs of a sample of 240 17-18-year-olds living in England. I use these beliefs to estimate a discrete choice model. The results from this model can explain the majority of the gender gap in enrolment. Gender…

Previous research on historical trends in the UK in social-class and sex inequality in educational attainment and in occupational opportunity is extended well into the present century by means of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, with a particular focus on variation among England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England, Wales and…

Previous research has shown that a growth mindset can alter the way we think and learn. With teachers' retention being a problem in the United Kingdom, this article presents the findings of a study examining student teachers' mindset and resilience. The participants included student teachers across seven different Post Graduate Certificate of…

Traditionally, undergraduates study several 'long thin' modules at the same time. Under 'immersive scheduling', students complete a 'short fat' module (i.e. a single subject studied over a compressed period), before moving onto other modules. This piece of social research capitalised on the introduction of immersive scheduling to the first year of…

There is growing concern across Advanced-Level (A-Level) providers and universities that many students are experiencing high levels of stress and physical illness, related to academic and/or social aspects of student life. The impact of academic pressure to 'succeed' is increasingly evident. There is an urgent need to provide appropriate student…

Objective: There is recent evidence that exercise referral schemes (ERSs) are beginning to permit self-referral access. Notwithstanding this, to date it is unknown whether key referral characteristics, such as age, gender and socioeconomic status are associated with a greater likelihood of self-referring to an ERS, and whether self-referral…

This paper investigates the phenomena of overclaiming -- the propensity for individuals to claim more knowledge about an issue or topic than they really (or could possibly) do. Using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from nine Anglophone countries and over 40,000 young people, we examine teenagers' propensity to claim…

Increasing and diversifying participation in science remains a key educational policy concern for governments across the world. "Science capital" has been proposed as a useful theoretical lens that can explain patterns in science aspirations among young people aged 11-16 -- but to date it has not been explored in relation to educational…

This study presents a case for decolonising the life sciences curriculum to improve representation of the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) scholars--a step in eliminating the race "awarding gap". Here, we investigated diversity among authors in terms of ethnicity and gender of reading lists at the School of Life Sciences,…

In order to gain insight into which children aspire towards science-related careers and how these aspirations change over time, 7820 children in England from the nationally representative Millennium Cohort Study were considered. Few children (8.6% of the cohort) consistently expressed science-related career aspirations at age 11 and again at age…

The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is available for students to take in Key Stage 5 (KS5) alongside other qualifications, such as A levels. It differs from most other academic qualifications at KS5 in that it is not examined, but instead involves students undertaking an in-depth project in an area of their choosing. Students are required to…

The goal of the present study is to examine mainly the associations of contextual variables with stress and teachers' psychological well-being across organizational cultures. The responses (N= 51,782) of a population of primary school teachers from 15 different educational cultures were analyzed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was implemented…

The last twenty years have seen an increased emphasis around the world on the quality and quantity of research in response to national research assessments, international league tables, and changes in government funding. The prevailing attitude in higher education embeds research as the 'gold standard' in the context of academic activity. However,…