Educational scholars have argued for fair pedagogical practices in response to the learning needs of diverse students. While pedagogical fairness has been widely advocated, few studies have systematically assessed its impact on student learning, and even fewer have examined pedagogical fairness from a school organisational perspective. To narrow…

Higher academic performance is almost universally considered a good thing, and most quantitative studies show that performance is positively, although weakly, related to mental health. Simultaneously, however, qualitative studies consistently find that high-performing students and students attending high-performing schools report high levels of…

In this article, a study of combined discursive emphasis on the concepts "culture for learning" and "learning outcomes" in recent education policy messages is presented. These concepts have been individually examined but seldom as parallel or converging policy messages. Inspired by discursive institutionalism, we address the…

Crucial skills for early adolescents to develop include respecting people from different backgrounds, showing empathy and compassion, and making ethical decisions in challenging situations. This exploratory study aims to understand the extent to which "students' perceptions of teacher caring and belonging related to changes in their…

This article will, from the point of view of cultural theory, discuss the polarization that is frequently found between playful learning at the kindergarten and serious learning at school. Planning of the time in the German-speaking Swiss kindergarten is strongly influenced by the portent of preparation for school, which is combined with a…

One of the goals of education systems is to equip all students, irrespective of their individual characteristics, with market-relevant skills. Poor or inadequate skills limit access to better-paying and more rewarding jobs and, ultimately, to better living and health conditions, and higher social and political participation. Yet, inequalities in…

Recent national and international evidence suggests that the wellbeing of young people in the UK has decreased. In 2018, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) asked participating pupils a number of questions about their wellbeing, and some of the measures can be tracked over time. Based on PISA 2015 and 2018, this report…

Researchers, school personnel and parents are concerned with students' academic motivation. However, research on the topic yields ambiguous results. While adolescents in Western societies report a decline in achievement drive over the school years, adolescents in some Eastern societies may avoid this negative trend. In addition to personal…

Why do some students learn more in some schools than others? One consideration receiving growing attention is school management. To study this, researchers need to be able to measure school management accurately and cheaply at scale, and also explain any observed relationship between school management and student learning. This paper introduces a…

Recent national and international evidence suggests that the wellbeing of young people in the UK has decreased. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 national reports for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Sizmur et al., 2019a; Sizmur et al., 2019b; Sizmur et al., 2019c) identified cause for concern for 15-year-old…

Stage-environment fit theory posits that the interpersonal dynamics and structural (i.e. school-level) resources afforded by a student's academic environment can either support or thwart student thriving (e.g. achievement). Thus, it is important to examine how these factors impact student achievement at the student- and school-level. This…

A post-structural approach to exploring identity is taken in this paper in that identity is considered here as being socially constructed through discourse, which has deep implications for the shaping of subjectivity and practice. Given both the potential academisation and Anglicisation of Irish schools, and the additional re-drawing of what…

Despite being ranked highly, the 2012 PISA result shows that the M-shape distribution of Taiwanese students is top of the 65 participating countries. This shows that the gap between high and low achievers in Taiwanese schools is the biggest. This paper aims at exploring Taipei's responses to this M-shape phenomenon. It starts from mapping out the…

Finland and Shanghai are strong performers in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The current study explored the similarities and differences in educational effectiveness between these 2 strong performers. To this end, 14 predictors representing student background and school process characteristics were selected from the PISA…

Background/Context: Two key uses of international assessments of achievement have been (a) comparing country performances for identifying the countries with the best education systems and (2) generating insights about effective policy and practice strategies that are associated with higher learning outcomes. Do country rankings really reflect the…