There are substantial and ongoing concerns in the Australian and international secondary and tertiary education sectors about students' transition from secondary to tertiary mathematics. Of recent concern is the number of students choosing Advanced Mathematics (AM) in the last two years of secondary school. Declining enrolments in AM in secondary…

This paper presents results from research that investigated the participation and attrition rate of male and female candidates in two post-secondary mathematics courses (Pure Mathematics and Applied Mathematics). The data for this study consisted of the course results over five years from 2013-2017 for 15,220 candidates (N = 19,585) from 71…

Supply of students to 'the science pipeline' remains an important imperative for economic policy, and for individual life chances. In England, Science courses from age 14-16 have been divided into 'Double' and (extended) 'Triple' Science. This article draws on data from 6,053 students to investigate the effects of science course designation on…

There is a body of research which highlights the importance of students studying mathematics at an advanced level, hence policy-makers worldwide look for ways to increase the uptake of advanced mathematics. In Ireland, the Government announced the introduction of a Bonus Points Initiative which came into effect in 2012, in an attempt to increase…

Addressing the participation rates in senior secondary mathematics courses in Australian schools remains a critically important issue. In this paper, the authors report on quantitative findings from a study in which all year 11 and year 12 (aged 17-18 years) Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR) students in Western Australia were invited…

This study examined how high school students' attitudes toward advanced physics were predicted by their sense of school belonging, and how gender moderated this relationship. The Trends in International Math and Science (TIMSS) 2015 Advanced data, consisting of responses from 12th grade students enrolled in advanced physics courses among nine…

This essay explores the way that the social interactions of the classroom play a role in shaping sign production. It examines the talk of one second year Advanced Level English literature class in North London during their study of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" through the lens of Volosinov's theories of language. It seeks to…

Students in many jurisdictions can study Mathematics at different levels in their final 2 years of secondary education. The levels of Mathematics range from standard (not involving calculus), through basic calculus, to more advanced treatments of calculus and algebra. In this context, some students can elect to study Mathematics at a level below…

In higher education, engineering students have to be prepared for their future jobs, with knowledge but also with several soft skills, among them creativity. In this paper, we present a study carried on with 128 engineering undergraduate students on their understanding of mathematical creativity. The students were in the first year of different…

We present an analysis of A-level subject choices at around age 16 for a cohort of students in English schools who completed their studies in 2014. We examined both the National Pupil Database and a unique rich dataset on the subject preferences and subsequent choices between the ages of 16 and 18 (i.e. GCSE and A-level). We found substantive…

School subjects divided into compulsory and elective courses. Compulsory courses are the basic courses that students must take to graduate, while elective courses give freedom for students. In Turkey, Biology courses taught as compulsory under the required courses in high schools. But, it is also instructed as elective courses called…

In recent years, education-occupation mismatch has become an important area of social research. However, little is known about its impact on the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. This study investigates the possible negative consequences of a specific aspect of parental education-occupation mismatch, also known as…

I study the effect of coeducation on academic performance and science course enrollment using student-level data from a South Korean high school that, at the beginning of each academic year, quasi-randomly assigned students to either single-sex or coeducation classrooms. This paper presents two main findings. First, among girls with high…

Despite the global decline in the number of girls who study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects, in Israel, gender differences of physics students are especially worrying. Although girls and boys in junior high school reach similar achievements in physics, the number of girls who study physics in high school is…

Declining enrolments in advanced level mathematics at the school level are noted with concern. Whether school type (single-sex school or co-education) affects participation in mathematics continues to be debated. In this article we examine, by school type and gender, statistical data from 2001 to 2015 on Victorian Certificate of Education…