With the aim of engaging more students in meaningful thinking in mathematics, a cohort of Year 7 students were introduced to a 'Building Thinking Classrooms' framework for learning in mathematics. In this paper, the authors outline the key features of the implemented framework and share reflections on challenges and benefits.

Many schools are embracing improvement planning as a deliberate endeavor to enhance their educational practices and increase equitable access to high-quality learning for all students. Schools that are committed to continuous improvement and providing a high-quality education to their students are more likely to engage in comprehensive school…

Collaboration is an underused teaching strategy despite its benefits and the call for curriculums worldwide to increase its use. To aid in discovering why the strategy is underused, more information was needed about the implementation of collaboration in the mathematics classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate mathematics teachers'…

This study explored leadership perceptions around grade configuration and student achievement. Grade configuration is the grade level present within a school. The metric used to determine student achievement is ninth-grade GPA. This multi-method study began to determine if grade configuration had a significant impact on student achievement for the…

Purpose: This conceptual paper explores the relationship between school structure, organisation, and home-school collaboration. It argues that the traditional and dominant secondary school model based on same-age organisation acts in ways that constrain home-school collaboration while claiming to value it. The paper proposes an alternative model…

Formative assessment is an evaluative practice developed in the classroom for the improvement of learning using evidence on student progression. The objective of this research is to compare sample groups from multigrade and single-grade classrooms on the theme of formative assessment based on the students' opinion of the teacher's performance. The…

Background/purpose: The characteristics of each subject allow for adjustments to the learning model and the role that will be carried out by the teacher. One of them is Islamic education lessons with a diversity of student abilities and abstract and complex characteristics of Islamic education with its application. This research aiming to…

The question of grouping students into homogeneous and heterogeneous groups is not new, but it does not find an unambiguous answer in the literature, especially in mathematics. In this paper, we address the question of whether grouping students into homogeneous and heterogeneous groups in mathematics improves their knowledge. The quasi-experiment…

Recognizing the need to center equity-oriented practices within professional learning--and the challenges of doing so in traditional approaches to professional development--this study traced the experiences of teacher participants in a reimagined design of a teacher learning space. Drawing from narrative inquiry and case study methodologies, this…

Purpose: The study seeks to understand what teachers know about students' friend networks and how they use that information for instruction. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative study relied on interviews and sociograms that teachers drew of students' friend networks. Findings: Our data suggest that teachers' awareness of their students'…

This research draws on evidence from three qualifications taken in autumn 2020, when comparative judgement (CJ) was used as a key source of data in setting grade boundaries. In these cases, a separate CJ exercise was completed for each individual paper in the qualification so that standards could be maintained from a previous series. In this…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to explain the link between traditional same-age school structure and the impact this has on a school's capacity for individual and organisational learning; second, to explain why attempts to develop schools as learning organisations (LOs) invariably reify existing structures and practice,…

In the United Kingdom (UK) particularly, grouping strategies in secondary education have attracted considerable political attention. While setting students by ability is frequently adopted in mathematics, English and science, mixed-ability grouping is common in other subjects, including physical education (PE). Educational research exploring…

As part of a wider study into the educational attitudes and experiences of white, working-class male pupils in the north of England, this paper explored the ways that male pupils in years 10 and 11 navigated and experienced the six-level (A-F) academic banding system present in their British mainstream secondary school (Ayrefield Community…

Purpose: This study investigates how the practice of dividing students and coursework into leveled categories persists in science education despite decades of efforts aimed at reducing inequities. This study makes underlying logics visible through an empirical analysis of how science educators attempt to reconcile an egalitarian vision of science…