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The Effective Classroom Practice project aimed to identify key factors that contribute to effective teaching in primary and secondary phases of schooling in different socioeconomic contexts. This article addresses the ways in which qualitative and quantitative approaches were combined within an integrated design to provide a comprehensive methodology for the research purposes. Strategies for the study are discussed, followed by the challenges of combining complex statistics with individual stories, particularly in relation to the ongoing iteration between these different data sets, and issues of validity and reliability. The findings shed new light on the meanings and measurement of teachers’ effective classroom practice and the complex nature of, and relationships with, professional life phase, teacher identities, and school context.

Across the globe, governments, industry and educationalists are in agreement that more needs to be done to increase and broaden participation in post-16 science. Schools, and teachers, are seen as key in this effort. Previous research has found that engagement with science, inclination to study science, and understanding of the value of science strongly relates to a student's science capital. This paper reports on findings from the pilot year of a one-year professional development (PD) programme designed to work with secondary school teachers to build students' science capital. The PD programme introduced teachers to the nature and importance of science capital and thereafter supported them to develop ways of implementing science capital-building pedagogy in their practice.The data comprises interviews with the participating teachers (n=10), observations of classroom practices, and analyses of the teachers' accounts of their practice. Our findings suggest that teachers found the concept of science capital to be compelling and to resonate with their own intuitive understandings and experiences. However, the ways in which the concept was operationalised in terms of the implementation of pedagogical practices varied. The difficulties inherent in the operationalisation are examined and recommendations for future work with teachers around the concept of science capital are developed.

This article reports on students' perspectives of an in-school promotional intervention aimed at challenging traditional methods of teaching science in schools in an effort to inspire interest in school science and increase enrolments. First, the context for the research is discussed before briefly describing the intervention strategy employed and finally, exploring the potential of this innovative pedagogy as a vehicle for addressing participation in science at the classroom level. It is argued that participation depends on engagement with a subject, and the author posits that providing innovative, motivating and fun approaches to learning within the classroom that interest and engage pupils will lead to better connections with school science and to science in society. This article gives some insights into the use of a chemical magic show through the qualitatively different views and attitudes towards the chemical magic show of a sample of Irish students (n = 328). Implications for participation and inclusive and motivational classroom pedagogy are discussed.

Ireland's student participation in the sciences at Leaving Certificate (LC) level (17 years) has fallen considerably in the last fifteen years. We evaluate the opinions and attitudes of students at Junior Certificate (15 years) to science, prior to LC subject choice, as part of an intervention strategy to promote chemistry. This article is concerned with the reasons given by a group of third year students for their like or dislike of science and their reasons for choosing to study chemistry in the future. This case study shows positive views of science; most students would voluntarily choose science and chemistry (in the future) because they find it interesting. Physics was perceived to be less interesting than chemistry. [Chem.

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Internationally, the idea of education takes on many forms and results in differing outcomes. Existing literature highlights differentiated outcomes according to social background and yet this is only one component of educational inequality. Issues of participation arise in relation to (but are not limited to) access, attendance, retention and achievement in school and university, the recruitment of students to 'unpopular' subjects, such as the physical sciences, and widening participation across marginalized and disengaged groups (such as child carers or teenage mums). Whilst intervention strategies that aim to increase participation are generally viewed positively, the area of participation is not entirely unproblematic. These issues impact on the everyday lives and practices of students and teachers and the efforts made to overcome them. This Special Issue aims to publish some of the latest findings on participation, to advance the debate about involvement versus quality of participation, to highlight pupil versus institution perspectives, and to explore the potential of interventions as a vehicle for understanding more general aspects of participation, intervention and learning outcomes. This Special Issue of Improving Schools will thus provide a platform for a critical review of original empirical research leading to an improved understanding of issues relating to participation in a general sense. We welcome contributions that cover participation from the broadest definition and that utilize a disparate range of methodologies. A range of articles are encouraged from all disciplines and subject areas, including theoretical and evidence-based research papers, case studies, reviews, innovative methodologies and personal reflective pieces relating to, but not limited to:• current participation theory and practice research • future trends in participation theory and practice research • current research studies pertaining to participation • identification of enrolment/engagement management and retention problems • descriptions of programmes and services which have contributed to successful student school/FE/HE experiences • application of current theory and practice to national or local problems, to nontraditional students, distance education or special interest groups.