Background: The Teacher-Student relationship (TSR) is instrumental for young children and adolescents' socio-emotional development and wellbeing as well as academic engagement and progress. Aims: The primary aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties, including reliability and factorial, convergent, and predictive validity, of the…

As part of an investigation into the relationship between classroom dialogue and student outcome, a test of reasoning has been developed that is suitable for preadolescents (i.e. c.10-13-year-olds). Building on previous work but expanding this considerably, the test focuses upon four areas of reasoning: differentiation of facts from opinions,…

In this study we aim to characterize a way of proving which can be produced in a primary mathematics classroom and explore the factors that influence these processes and lead to changes in the way of proving. Assuming proving as a socially embedded activity, we conceptualize it as the interplay between 'construction' and 'substantiation' based on…

In this article, I report on examiners' views and experiences of using Pairwise Comparative Judgement (PCJ) and Rank Ordering (RO) as alternatives to traditional analytical marking for GCSE English Language essays. Fifteen GCSE English Language examiners took part in the study. After each had judged 100 pairs of essays using PCJ and eight packs of…

Recruiting and retaining excellent teachers remains a pressing policy issue in education systems worldwide. According to UNESCO estimates, 68.8 million teachers will need to be recruited globally to meet Sustainable Development Goal 4. However, simply recruiting more teachers will not be enough to meet this challenge: we need to recruit…

Comparative interrupted time series (CITS) designs evaluate impact by modeling the relative deviation from trends among a treatment and comparison group after an intervention. The broad applicability of the design means it is widely used in education research. Like all non-experimental evaluation methods however, the internal validity of a given…

Forty years ago, leading communist educationalist and "FORUM" editor Brian Simon wrote a chapter entitled 'Why No Pedagogy in England?' In it, he argued that English education had failed to develop a science of learning, due to its class-divided history, and that the time was ripe for the development of such a science. This article…

Writing assessment is a key feature of most education systems, yet there are limitations with traditional methods of assessing writing involving rubrics. In contrast, comparative judgement appears to overcome the reliability issues that beset the assessment of performance assessment tasks. The approach presented here extends previous work on…

Comparative education scholars are often sceptical of teaching effectiveness research that compares 'teaching quality' using systematic classroom observation systems across nations. This article investigates how three international observation systems designed for comparative use, and studies that apply them, attend to three concerns intrinsic to…

Teacher summative judgements of children's attainment in science, which are statutory at age 11 in England, require consideration of both valid sampling of the construct and reliable comparison of outcomes. In order to develop understanding of the enacted 'trade off' between validity and reliability, this three-year case study, within the Teacher…

Established in 1992, Ofsted is championed by government ministers as the guardian of educational standards in schools and colleges. Ofsted has never produced any research on the validity of its inspection judgements. Ofsted has no evidence, other than rising percentages of schools being awarded positive Ofsted grades, to support its assertion that…

This paper presents the outcomes of an empirical investigation into the validity of Bryan Cunningham's thesis that the effectiveness of teacher mentoring is enhanced by a supportive institutional framework comprising eight 'architectural design features'. It draws upon analyses of data from a mixed methods study of mentoring in the English Further…

Evidence suggests that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) offer the potential for addressing a wide range of both teacher and pupil stressors, yet there is very little evidence in examining teacher's perceptions of MBIs, as important stakeholders in this context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 10 primary and…

The significance of a process evaluation for understanding randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of complex teaching interventions in a classroom setting is discussed in relation to the evaluation of the Integrated Group Reading (IGR) programme trial. This process evaluation is based on realist principles and draws on different data sources. The…

Hermeneutic phenomenologists propose that researchers inescapably bring themselves into their research because interpretation must inevitably be influenced by their contexts and pre-understandings. They propose that interpretation is a dynamic and active part of the construction of a text's meaning, and involvement in this construction process…