Other Reviews

This is the first edition of the Development Education Digest. It has been produced by the Development Education Research Centre (DERC) at the Institute of Education, London, to provide a focal point for researchers, policy makers and practitioners. It includes research and policy summaries alongside details of recent publications.

This report is a literature review and summary of two decades of international research into school effectiveness. The review introduces notions of school effectiveness, and presents the types of research usually found under the guise of school effectiveness research (SER). It then goes on to draw out major themes and trends in the literature reviewed.

One of the proposals within the recent white paper, 'Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system', is the introduction of a School Report Card to measure school progress. This resource is a report of a small research project conducted by NFER into how these are used in other countries, and is intended to complement the work already undertaken in this area by the...

This ‘Framework for Discussion’ originated from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project whose remit was to examine in a critical and informed fashion the different definitions of and approaches to applied and practice-based research. The authors seek to clarify the concepts and models currently employed in order to enable a review of recent governmental and other initiatives...

This is a systematic review of research into the effect of good nutrition on the behaviour, learning and performance of school-aged children. Conducted by the Centre for Food, Physical Activity and Obesity Research at the University of Teesside between November 2005 and April 2006, it was updated in June of that year.

This report is a literature review by CFBT of published studies on school effectiveness research (SER) and school improvement research that have ‘contributed to our understanding of school performance and the main implications for school improvement’ (p.6)

‘Feeling the Strain’ is a review of published literature on stress in teaching, its impact, and its comparison with other professions.

Learning style instruments are widely used, particularly in Further Education, but are they reliable and valid? Do they have an impact on pedagogy? This research review from the Learning and Skills Reasearch Centre examines 13 models of learning style and concludes that it matters fundamentally which model is chosen. Positive recommendations are made for students, teachers and trainers, managers,...