This original paper, based on data from the Erasmus+Blurred Lives Project, presents a new multi-dimensional categorisation model to describe negative online experiences, including forms of cyberbullying, based on a study of internet usage among over N = 2,500 adolescents with lower socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds across five European…

Ranking of universities regarding their web-based activities plays a pivotal role in promoting scientific advancement since it motivates the open access accessibility to scientific results. In this study, a new ranking system based on the website quality factors and traffic evaluation was proposed. Since top-ranked universities are usually…

In this paper we consider the issue of formality in learning. Both formal and informal learning appear to be well-defined in educational discourse, in contrast with non-formal learning which is less clearly articulated. This lack of clarity around non-formal learning has consequences for its recognition by teachers and learners. To contribute to…

Career readiness is an important short-term outcome of career guidance activities in England. This research (1) details the development of a career readiness measure and (2) tests the relationship between career guidance interventions and career readiness among secondary school students. The measure was piloted on pupils (Study 1, N = 1508) in…

The aim was to establish which postural and physical activity outcomes are comparable across different accelerometer brands worn on the thigh when processed using open-source methods. Twenty participants wore four accelerometers (Axivity, ActiGraph, activPAL, GENEActiv) for three free-living days. Postural and physical activity outputs (average…

Diversity in Higher Education system has been a central topic for both scholars and policy-makers for decades. Several studies have investigated how to measure diversity and the nature of its determinants so far; however, contradictory empirical evidence has emerged. This paper contributes to this literature by adopting a methodological approach…

This paper evaluates a range of measures commonly used to target and measure the success of efforts to widen access to higher education. We demonstrate empirically that the area-level widening access metrics advocated by England's Office for Students, POLAR and TUNDRA, are unfit for purpose because they yield unacceptably high rates of false…

There is much interest in comparing latent traits, such as teacher job satisfaction, in large international surveys. However, different countries respond to questionnaires in different languages and interpret the questions through different cultural lenses, raising doubts about the psychometric equivalence of the measurements. Making valid…

One of the most commonly identified obstacles in the learning-teaching of quantitative material is statistics anxiety. Of the factors analysed in relation to statistics anxiety, age and gender have received a substantial proportion of the research focus. Yet there is limited work that systematically examines the possibility of an…

In order to expand previous intraindividual studies of student engagement we investigated students' observed engagement (i.e., on- and off-task behaviour), instructional activities (i.e., teacher-led whole class, individual work, pair-work, student-teacher interaction, assessment, and "other"), and self-reported learning experiences…

Previous research indicates that autistic individuals are more likely to be bullied, and that they experience heightened anxiety and diminished self-esteem. These factors are known to predict heightened compliance, which is the tendency to agree with or carry out the requests and demands of others. This has a range of potentially serious…

Measuring ethnic diversity currently amounts simply to counting ethnicities. This makes it impossible to correlate with achievement, to track changes over time or to compare institutions in a meaningful way. It is not clear, for example, whether it is more diverse to have many ethnicities with a large majority in one or two categories, or to have…

In this paper, we set out the first step towards the measurement of learning gain in higher education by putting forward a conceptual framework for understanding learning gain that is relevant across disciplines. We then introduce the operationalisation of this conceptual framework into a new set of measurement tools. With the use of data from a…

There is a large and long-standing gap in education outcomes between pupils from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers in England (EEF, 2018; Hutchinson et al., 2020). Although there is some evidence of improvement since 2011, the gap has widened recently, largely as a result of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic…

Objective: With the increasing prevalence of unhealthy weight status in pre-school children, this study sought to understand pre-school child weight management practices in Blackburn with Darwen, UK, with a view to informing appropriate intervention strategies. Design: Mixed-methods study (semi-structured interviews, quantitative survey). Setting:…