Science hobbyists engage in self-directed, free-choice science learning and many have considerable expertise in their hobby area. This study focused on astronomy and birding hobbyists and examined how they used organizations to support their hobby engagement. Interviews were conducted with 58 amateur astronomers and 49 birders from the midwestern…

The international comparative studies in 1959 were conducted by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) researchers who recognized that differences in student achievement measures in mathematics across countries could be caused by differences in curricula. The measurements of opportunity to learn (OTL) grew…

"Risky" play is an important component of play, which positively affects the cognitive, social and emotional development of children. However, a growing culture of "risk aversion" may be limiting the degree of risk that children are allowed to encounter. We undertook qualitative interviews with eight schools to examine the…

The objectives of this dissertation include describing and analyzing the patterns of inequality in ALE participation at both the micro and macro levels. Special attention is paid to social origins of individual adults and their association with two groups of macro-level factors, social inequality (income, education, and skill inequality) and…

This report represents a follow-up study to a March 2016 report, "The Future Growth of Degree Apprenticeships" (ED574134), an assessment of university engagement with the very early stages of the development of degree apprenticeships. This follow-up study draws on an extensive survey of what universities are now doing and plan to do. The…

Many children and their families in rural America need better and more equitable educational opportunities. "Leveling the Playing Field" highlights the many and varied opportunities for Congress to act to ensure rural students receive the education they need and are given an equitable chance to succeed. The following policy initiatives…

The 2017 AERA Annual Meeting theme emphasizes Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity. Amongst the most complex issues facing schools is how to provide such opportunity to refugee populations. This paper presents a narrative synthesis (Popay et al., 2006; Rodgers et al., 2009) of empirical literature describing schools educating…

Background: Sustainability is increasingly a vital consideration for engineers. Improved understanding of how attention to sustainability influences student major and career choice could inform efforts to broaden participation in engineering. Purpose: Two related questions guided our research. How do career outcome expectations related to…

This article takes a parsimonious conception of a developed State operating under a minimalist conception of democracy and asks whether such a State must fully resource any tertiary (post-compulsory) education for its citizens A key public policy barrier to arguing an absolute obligation for the State to resource any tertiary education is…

In this article, Felicia Johnson presents a portrait of her daughter Shelby, who was diagnosed as profoundly deaf at the age of 6 months. At ten months, she was diagnosed as an achondroplastic dwarf, and at 18 months old she was discovered to be missing 50 percent of her myelin sheath. Believing in Shelby's independence, Johnson refused to do…

'Equity and Quality' is an emerging terminology that focuses on the quality of education rather than on 'excellence.' The global policy discourse is turning towards levelling up educational quality "for all." The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2012 report entitled "Equity and Quality in Education:…

This research explores the opportunities for incorporating political literacy in science teaching and learning.

Today we know much more about how children learn than ever before, including the types of motivation and support they need to thrive, the ways that digital media and technology enhance their creativity, and the ways that families and educators, both within and outside of school settings, can share responsibility to facilitate new knowledge and…

This study compares rural educational disadvantage across Australia, Canada, and New Zealand using data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Across the three countries, student reading literacy and school learning environments are less positive in rural communities…

School partnerships to manage transition between primary and secondary settings are well developed. However, studies show that some aspects of transition in Modern Languages leave much to be desired, as mentioned in a recently published report on KS3 provision ([Office for Standards in Education. 2015. "KS3: The Wasted Years?"…