This seminar will focus on the teacher education aspect of the project. It will outline the approaches being implemented to develop the teachers' knowledge and understanding to implement strategies to teach and assess practical science. Project Calibrate addresses a systematic approach to improving practical science at GCSE level. It is a joint project with researchers from Oxford University, AQA and Key Stage 4 teachers and students. This project is striving for curriculum innovation that...

This seminar is the first of a five-part seminar series on 'Student Access to University'. This seminar discusses the relationships between student characteristics and test performances with Oxford University admissions tests data. Selection to higher education typically includes the use of information about students' attainment, or predicted attainment, in school-leaving examinations such as A-levels. For selective universities and competitive undergraduate degree courses this information...

An exploration of equity and quality of education in Hong Kong and Singapore. The highest performing education systems across OECD countries exhibit both high quality and equity. Among them are Hong Kong and Singapore. Yet both systems report huge income disparities between rich and poor. How can educational equity and quality co-exist within a highly unequal society? Employing Bourdieu’s logic of practice, I argue that cultural habitus and structural contexts account for this phenomenon....

This seminar explores some myths about L2 attainment in instructional contexts, drawing on evidence from a five-year longitudinal study conducted in Switzerland and carried out by the speakers themselves. Despite contrary research findings, many lay people still claim that starting second language (L2) instruction early yields linguistic advantages. This assertion is again undermined by a five-year longitudinal study conducted in Switzerland testing English language skills of 636...

In studies in psychology and education it is essential to think clearly about causal mechanisms. In this seminar Professor Hulme will outline the use of path diagrams as tools for representing, reasoning about, and testing causal models. The examples used will come from studies of children’s reading and language disorders. In studies of such disorders we can probably never practically or ethically manipulate the ultimate causes (genes and environments) of a disorder. Professor Hulme will...

This seminar will provide an assessment of the development of research in subject-based education, and of its future prospects. Using geography education as an exemplar, it will offer a challenging critique of this field of research. The intention of the seminar is to help us further understand the unsteady, sporadic and increasingly insecure development of subject-based education research. However, despite the obvious challenges, the aim is to outline realistic ways forward for geography...

A look at the role of research in developing the work of Ofsted as 'an intelligent inspectorate'. In this seminar Professor Daniel Muijs will look at the role of research in developing the work of Ofsted as 'an intelligent inspectorate', including looking at the way research is done as a co-construction between researchers and inspectors at Ofsted, and at the role of research and evaluation as part of organisational strategy. In particular, he will discuss how research is informing the...

This seminar will explore the relationship between the needs, services received and outcomes for children and families supported by children’s social care (CSC) services. Drawing on evidence from a programme of research, the presentation will explore the development of a standardised, nationally applicable conceptual framework to follow a child’s journey through different parts of the CSC system, as well as an examination of how practitioners use their time, and whether this should, and can...

This seminar will present findings of an exploratory study of the Intercultural University of Veracruz, one of a number of institutions created in Mexico to ensure access for indigenous populations, promote local development and to provide... In the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, higher education has been given a key role in addressing societal challenges, reducing poverty, ensuring sustainable livelihoods and protecting the natural environment. Yet there has been a singular...

The seminar will explore the transformative potential of 'work' (ranging from paid employment to internships to volunteering) for marginalised young people. With Robbie Gilligan (School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin). Using evidence from the Care to Work Pathways Study and wider literature, the presentation will identify different ways in which early and later positive work experience can benefit the social and/or educational progress of young people in care. It...

Professor Peter Tymms (Durham University) delivers a seminar on the iPIPS project; an international study of children starting school around the world and the progress that they make in their first year at school.

Professor Claire Cameron from UCL Institute of Education gives a talk hosted by the Rees Centre for Fostering and Education

Professor Ewart Keep, Director of SKOPE Department of Education, gives a talk for the public seminar series Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Emeritus Professor Terezinha Nunes, Department of Education, gives a talk for the public seminar series hosted by the department's Subject Pedagogy Research Group Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Dr Joshua McGrane, Department of Education, gives a talk for the public seminar series hosted by the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment

Dr Sonali Nag, Oxford Departmant of Education, gives a talk for the public seminar series hosted by the department's Families, Effecrive Learning and Literacy Research Group

Professor Professor Courtenay Norbury, University College London, gives a talk for the public seminar series hosted by the Department of Education's Applied Linguistics Research Group.

Professor Stephen G Parker, University of Worcester, gives a talk for the public seminar series hosted by Department of Education's Philosophy, Religion and Education Forum.

Sue Maguire is Honorary Professor at the Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath, gives a talk for the public seminar series hosted by SKOPE, Department of Education.

Professor Art Graesser, Psychology and the Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, gives a talk for the public seminar series hosted by OUCEA, Department of Education.

Ernesto Macaro, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford, gives a talk for the Department of Education public seminar series. The exponential growth of English Medium Instruction (EMI) both in Higher and Secondary Education globally has resulted in a similar growth of empirical research on the subject. Of necessity this research to date has been exploratory, single institution-oriented and lacking a clear research agenda that a more established community of practice might...

Professor Elizabeth Fernandez, University of New South Wales Sydney, gives a public seminar hosted by the Rees Centre, Department of Education This presentation reports research which examines the in-care and post-care experience of people who lived in Australian child welfare institutions and other substitute care as children between 1930‒1989. This presentation looks specifically at the experience of the former Child Migrant cohort within the study. The study’s key findings indicate...

Neil Wade Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR) and Stella Paes Formerly AQA, give a seminar for the Department of Education seminar series. This public seminar will be given by representatives from two awarding bodies for A-levels and GCSEs in England: OCR and AQA. Each will give their perspective on the following: - the challenges of assessing practical work, - the opportunities afforded by the current system and some of the remaining difficulties, - how they would choose to assess practical...

This seminar will present recent research on the relationship between economic inequality and educational achievement as measured by large scale assessments. We begin by identifying a debate within the literature between those who advocate a "skills premium" for achievement and those who warn against the harmful consequences of inequality for achievement. We use a more extensive empirical dataset and more robust statistical models to show that the relationship between achievement and...

Professor Julie Selwyn, University of Bristol, gives a talk for the Education Department public seminar series. It is increasingly recognised that understanding subjective well­being (SWB) – or asking people how they feel about their own lives ­ is key to developing policy that supports our quality of life. The Measuring What Matters programme (Office of National Statistics, 2011) concluded that people’s objective circumstances can improve but this does not necessarily translate into feeling...