A mixed methods approach was applied to examine the effects of a naturally occurring teamwork intervention supported with training. The first objective was to integrate qualitative process evaluation and quantitative effect evaluation to examine "how" and "why" the training influence intervention outcomes. The intervention (N =…

Over the past decade, the field of teacher professional learning has coalesced around core characteristics of high quality professional development experiences (e.g. Borko, Jacobs, & Koellner, 2010. Contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. In P. L. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.), "International encyclopedia…

Young people in Irish schools are required to choose whether to sit secondary exam subjects at higher or ordinary level. This paper draws on a mixed methods longitudinal study of students in 12 case-study schools to trace the factors influencing take-up of higher level subjects within lower secondary education. School organisation and process are…

Students' engagement with science and the numbers pursuing further study of science continue to be a concern among policy-makers, particularly in Western countries. Previous research reflects that most children have positive attitudes to science at age 10 but that, by age 14, attitudes towards and interest in further pursuit of science have…

Context: The desire to provide useful, research-based information to policy makers and teachers poses a series of challenges for education researchers. These challenges include striking a balance between complexity and simplicity in the portrayal of teaching, addressing the potential conditional nature of what constitutes quality teaching, and…

This multi-method, longitudinal study examines the role of teacher attunement (teacher accuracy in identifying the peer group memberships of individual students) in children's peer experiences in early elementary classrooms (1st-3rd grades). Social cognitive mapping (SCM) procedures assessed and compared students' and teachers'…