People participate in vocational education and training (VET) for a variety of reasons and at different stages of their life. Some undertake VET to gain the vocational skills necessary to enter the labour market for the first time, while others enter in order to upgrade existing skills, learn new ones, or simply for personal interest. Successful…

Understanding the factors that contribute to an effective teacher has the potential to influence selection and preparation of pre-service teachers and may influence student outcomes. Prior research suggests a relationship between teacher characteristics (academic achievement, verbal ability, gender) and teacher effectiveness, however, these…

Dispositions and motivations toward future adult life are crystalized during adolescence, and one of the key agents in this process is student-teacher relationships in the school. Adolescent students can be very sensitive to the differential treatments of teachers toward them and their fellow students, particularly with respect to fairness and…

There is significant policy interest in the issue of young people's fractured transitions into the labour market. Many scholars and policy-makers believe that changes in the education system and labour market over recent decades have created a complex world for young people; and that this can partly be addressed by enhanced career education while…

This paper tests the hypothesis that stream placement influences teacher judgements of pupils, thus investigating a route through which streaming by "ability" may contribute to inequalities. Regression modelling of data for 800+ 7-year-olds taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study examines whether teachers' reported perceptions of…

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between self-esteem and motivational components and to determine which were the best predictors of academic achievement among Turkish gifted students. Participants in this study were 184 students (76 girls and 108 boys). Sixty-one students were from the fourth grade, 43 from the fifth grade, 34…

In this article, I focus on assessing multicultural competence of helping-profession students. The "Multicultural Competence Scale of Helping-Profession Students" was used for data collection. The aim of the research was to find out the level of students' multicultural competence due to the current lack of this information in Central…

This brief examined the patterns of reading achievement using statewide data from all students (Grades 3-10) in multiple years to examine gaps based on student, school, and district characteristics. Results indicate reading achievement varied most between students within schools and that students' prior achievement was the strongest predictor of…

In this paper, we leverage detailed, individual-level student data to understand the relationships between family finances, merit-based aid, and first-year student retention. With three cohorts of student data that comprise family financial status, institutional merit scholarships, and many of the other known correlates of student retention, we…

Despite being criticized as unrepresentative and misleading, retention and graduation rates are an important part of college-search web sites and accountability systems, and they frequently have been used as indicators of institutional quality and effectiveness in educational research. Retention and graduation rates are often compared over time…

The introduction of a new standards-based secondary school assessment system, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), necessitated significant changes to the admissions processes for New Zealand universities, particularly for competitive-entry programmes such as medicine, engineering and pharmacy. Selection to such programmes…

Can mastery and performance-approach goals predict distance learners' learning and achievement in different learning situations over an academic year? Using a prospective longitudinal design, the current study examined this research question using a cohort of distance learners in Hong Kong. Two hundred and seventy-two distance learners completed…

Background: Older adults experience a high rate of falls when they transition to community-living following discharge from hospital. Objectives: To describe the proportion of older adults who could recall having discussed falls and falls prevention strategies with a health professional within 6 months following discharge from hospital. To describe…

Attrition from Canadian graduate programs is a point of concern on a societal, institutional, and individual level. To improve retention in graduate school, a better understanding of what leads to withdrawal needs to be reached. This paper uses logistic regression and discrete-time survival analysis with time-varying covariates to analyze data…

While there is no dearth of high school students who are interested in becoming physicians, racial/ethnic disparities still exist in the medical profession. This retrospective cohort study examined the influences on students' desire, at the end of high school, for a medical career, and, in particular, how these influences differed by…