This article offers one teacher's thoughts about how the experience of having to teach students who had been labelled and grouped by 'ability' unsettled her practice. Such 'ability' thinking runs counter to her beliefs as a teacher. The article sheds light on ways in which practice can be re-fashioned in the light of principles associated with…

Educational opportunity is unequally distributed in the United States, most notably by race and economic status. Commonly practiced in K-12 schools across the country, tracking and ability grouping serve to exacerbate those existing inequities. Recent renewed activism for racial and economic justice, coupled with concerns over learning loss due to…

Facilitating a more responsive style of teaching in primary mathematics has implications for not only teaching practice, but also for how we plan for our learners. Grouping decisions, task selection and teacher confidence in mathematical content are important considerations when developing inquiring mathematical communities. This article…

With the rise of accountability policies since the early nineties, the daily operation of English schools has profoundly changed. Through the in-depth analysis of ability grouping practices in one English secondary school, this paper aims to explore how the accountability shift and datafication impacted the practice of student grouping and…

The author, a reception/year 1 teacher at Maesycwmmer Primary School in South Wales, considers the holistic learning experience and his reflections on grouping and its impact. He says if primary science practitioners want science to be open and available to all, they need to think about how they make the subject accessible and subsequently…

This paper describes the development of the BE COOL! learning environment that gives all children, gifted and non-gifted, the opportunity to learn at a level matching their specific needs and abilities within the social context of regular education. BE COOL! uses the ability-adjusted jigsaw method, in which children of varying ability levels work…

This essay briefly describes some of the early AERA presidents who were empiricists, several of them directors of research, and how their work connects with some of the issues of design, measurement, analysis, and interpretation today. Beginning with the first president of AERA, a number of presidents through the late 1940s are highlighted, as…

Recent scientific evidence demonstrates both the incredible potential of the brain to grow and change and the powerful impact of growth mindset messages upon students' attainment. Schooling practices, however, particularly in England, are based upon notions of fixed ability thinking which limits students' attainment and increases inequality. This…

Teachers learn a lot about learning and teaching from dialogue with each other. Association for Science Education (ASE) meetings and other science conferences are ideal ways of coming into contact with other professionals to engage in dialogue. One special dimension of that contact is encountering overseas colleagues. Authors Brenda Keogh and…

"Re-forming Gifted Education" (Rogers, 2002) offers "best practices" for gifted students. The book also includes a procedure for developing a child's education plan with a variety of choices. Nevertheless, in recent years, the author has often been asked "how" one can ensure that the "best" matches are made for a child. A parent or teacher may…

Teaching in a regular classroom has become more complicated than ever with increased student diversity and pressure to connect learning experiences to educational standards and test preparation. Although teaching to the middle is often what occurs in traditional classrooms to meet required standards, it is neither an appropriate nor meaningful…

This paper quotes the qualitative data from one author's recent research (Feng, 2006, 2007) in China and the other author's ongoing PhD research in India. Both studies used multi-methods of data collection in mainstream school settings. This paper discusses the relatively under-researched topic of "quiet disaffection" of pupils with…

The monitorial system of education was the most promising device in the field of primary education at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its astonishing spread across the five continents represents one of the earliest processes of internationalization in the field of elementary schooling, which has rarely been analysed from the point of view…

This paper addresses the discussion regarding whether or not cooperative learning methods are good for gifted students by considering the processes of task-related interaction within different cooperative structures. Differences and similarities in the nature and type of task-related interactions that are promoted by different cooperative learning…

Describes the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) project which can be used for all ability level students. Explains the Thinking Science activity, "The Behavior of Woodlice". (Author/YDS)