Writing skills are important for educational achievement, employment and social and civic participation. This quasi-experimental study aimed to improve essay writing skills with an evidence-based intervention in two schools of mainstream P6 (grade 5) students (N = 44) in a largely rural local authority in Scotland. The intervention included peer…

This article provides some of the key findings of a comparative study commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which attempted to understand more about the impact and implementation of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs). Sixteen case studies were produced, on qualifications frameworks in Australia; Bangladesh; Botswana;…

From 2001 to 2006, following a request from the Scottish Executive, HMIE gathered evidence about the implementation of "A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century", the tri-partite agreement prepared in 2001 by Scottish Executive, COSLA and the teachers' unions. This "teachers' agreement" had been drawn up in response to the…

This paper describes an action research, school situated project conducted with partnership funding from Learning and Teaching Scotland, Scottish Qualifications Authority and Becta, the UK government's agency for communications technology in education. Based on "e-scape" (e-solutions for creative assessment in portfolio environments),…

This report examines the current position in Scottish further education colleges regarding professional development for those staff whose roles include teaching and the management of teaching and learning. The report: (1) identifies general categories of professional development in which it is appropriate for these staff to participate; (2)…

This is a report on the progress that has been made since HMIE published "Student Teacher Placements within Initial Teacher Education" in October 2005 in response to a request by the Minister for Education and Young People. The report was based on extensive fieldwork and consultation over session 2004/2005, activity which itself…