This article explores challenges in ensuring effective student transition from school or college to university. It examines the complex liaison needed for students to progress to appropriate courses, settle into university life and succeed as higher education learners. Secondary data (international literature on transition and the formation of learner identity) are analysed to identify underpinning concepts. Primary data are taken from two studies of student transition in England using student and staff surveys, student focus groups, staff interviews and staff-student conferences that discussed selected project data sets. The article goes on to offer a model of the process of transition and the formation of learner identity. It proposes that the development of higher education learner identity is essential to student achievement and is initially encouraged where schools, colleges and universities adopt integrated systems of transition. This has clear implications for practice for higher education administrators, academics and quality officers.

Students involved in the interactive whiteboard (IWB) evaluation, sponsored by the Centre for British Teachers (CfBT), were interviewed in regard to their perceptions about IWBs. Twelve group interviews (72 students) were conducted between January and Easter 2004 with Year 6 students (between 10 and 11 years of age) in six Local Education Authority (LEA) areas located in the North and South of England. Students were very enthusiastic about particular aspects of IWBs, such as their versatility in the classroom, multimedia capabilities and the fun and enjoyment they brought to learning. Students also highlighted, however, technical problems, teacher and students' information and communication technology skills and students' lack of access to the technology as negative aspects.

In recent years, policy-makers in England, Australia and other countries have called for measures to increase male recruitment to the teaching profession, particularly to the primary sector. This policy of targeted recruitment is predicated upon a number of unexamined assumptions about the benefits of matching teachers and pupils by gender. For example, it is held that the dearth of male 'role models' in schools continues to have an adverse effect on boys' academic motivation and engagement. Utilizing data from interviews with more than 300 7-to 8-year-olds attending primary schools in the north-east and south-east of England, the paper sets out to scrutinize these claims. The findings revealed that the gender of teachers had little apparent effect on the academic motivation and engagement of either boys or girls. For the majority of the children, the gender of the teacher was largely immaterial. They valued teachers, whether men or women, who were consistent and even-handed and supportive of them as learners.

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British government policy on teacher recruitment gives a high priority to increasing the number of male teachers, particularly in primary schools. This focus stems from concern to challenge 'boys' underachievement': policy-makers believe that 'matching' teachers and pupils by gender will improve boys' engagement with school. Yet there is little evidence to support such assumptions which, as this article notes, are predicated on out-dated theories of social learning. This article reports findings from a large-scale qualitative study that sought to investigate primary pupils' and teachers' views concerning 'gender match' of teacher and learner. It demonstrates that the substantial majority of pupils and teachers rejected the salience of gender in pupil-teacher relations and learning outcomes, prioritising instead the abilities of the individual teacher. The explanations of those pupils and teachers who did support the notion of 'gender match' are also explored, showing how some pupils drew on stereotypical gender discourses to support their constructions, and how some (usually male) teachers were invested in the notion of male role models.