In this paper, I analyze the theoretical and empirical foundations for how class composition affects gifted students' academic outcomes. First, I define the term composition effect and distinguish it from other context effects. Based on this definition, I present the mechanisms behind composition effects while drawing distinctions between…

Educational opportunity is unequally distributed in the United States, most notably by race and economic status. Commonly practiced in K-12 schools across the country, tracking and ability grouping serve to exacerbate those existing inequities. Recent renewed activism for racial and economic justice, coupled with concerns over learning loss due to…

In turning a spotlight on students in physical education, this paper seeks to extend applications of policy enactment theory, and particularly, the policy actor framework. Following the lead of Stephen Ball and colleagues, the research that this paper draws on examined the various dimensions of context shaping policy enactment in different…

Fitting vocational training into the Spanish education system has been challenging and problematic because two objectives are trying to be fulfilled; the first to supply skills for the productive system and the second to be an alternative option for the young people who do not follow the academic track. Moreover, the political vicissitudes of…

This article focuses on the unintended consequences of within-class ability grouping on primary students of mathematics. I review relevant research, including promising approaches to teaching in mixed ability settings. I then outline four ways in which these groupings are typically structured, discussing some of the issues that arise with each of…

We propose a novel model, Wide & Deep Item Response Theory (Wide & Deep IRT), to predict the correctness of students' responses to questions using historical clickstream data. This model combines the strengths of conventional Item Response Theory (IRT) models and Wide & Deep Learning for Recommender Systems. By leveraging clickstream…

Many studies have explored the effect of grouping and task distribution strategies in collaborative learning in the conventional condition, for example, grouping based on student's learning style, gender diversity, and motivation, but few studies have investigated the impact of heterogeneous grouping with mixed gender and ability factors and the…

This study considers how class composition, in terms of between-student variability and the average level of achievement, is related to the academic development of students, and how these relationships can be explained by features of the class learning environment. At the start of secondary education, Flemish schools can decide autonomously how to…

Von Hippel & Cañedo (2021) reported that US kindergarten teachers placed girls, Asian-Americans, and children from families of high socioeconomic status (SES) into higher ability groups than their test scores alone would warrant. The results fit the view that teachers were biased. This comment asks whether parents' lobbying for higher…

Persistent inequities in mathematics teaching and learning for specific groups of learners are a key challenge for researchers and educators. The use of ability grouping has been common practice in New Zealand mathematics classrooms. However, many researchers (e.g. Boaler and Wiliam 2001; Zevenbergen in 2003) highlight the negative effects of…

Teacher expectations influence how children fare in education. However, we know little about how 4- and 5-year-old children in Aotearoa New Zealand perceive their curriculum experiences. This qualitative study utilised interviews to explore the perceptions of 12 children (attending kindergarten and school) regarding their teachers' expectations of…

This paper extends the theorization of identity grafting (Lee 2017), developed to understand individual cultural identity processes that buttress repression, born-again, integrated, and situational strategies to reconcile identity tensions that arise from change in a Chinese context. A qualitative case study approach is employed to examine two…

Students' critical thinking is often researched using quantitative tests designed to measure critical thinking. In contrast, this study qualitatively analyses group and whole-class dialogues in an interdisciplinary SSI project by focusing on students' critical thinking practices. As such, the study provides an in-depth example of an immersion…

The present article investigates the relationship between the degree of tracking and inequalities in reading literacy of second-generation and non-immigrant students in 28 Western countries. The article takes into account that next to between-school tracking, there are also more subtle forms of tracking, such as tracking within schools or classes.…

Since there has been no clear overview of educational practices that benefit high-ability students in mixed-ability classrooms in grades one to six, this review aims to provide insight into the effects of educational practices on the cognitive and affective-motivational learning outcomes of high-ability students. In order to identify these…