This article, based on a 3 year study in East Anglian schools, draws on a range of evidence pointing to different attitudes of girls and boys to General Certi cate of Secondary Education (GCSE) work. Suggestions are made to account for these differences, with particular emphasis being placed on peer pressure, image and social groupings. Although these are relevant to both sexes, it was found to be more acceptable for girls to work hard and still be part of the 'in crowd', whilst boys were under greater pressure to conform to a 'cool', masculine image, and were more likely to be ridiculed for working hard. The article concludes by suggesting that one approach to closing the current gender gap may be to enable boys in school to move beyond the stereotypical image of the macho male. 8 (online)/00/030393 -15 Ó 2000 British Educationa l Research Association 394 M. Warrington et al. MethodologyThe article is based on a 3-year study of the gender gap in schools in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Lincolnshire, and we draw here mainly on focus group interviews with groups of girls and boys in four comprehensive and four selective schools, and on lesson observations and teacher interviews in four of the schools where the focus group interviews had been carried out (two selectives and two comprehensives). A full discussion of the research framework and focus group methodology can be found in Warrington & Younger (1999).Overall, 41 lessons were observed and each school was visited for a period of 3-4 days. The schools were asked to draw up a convenient timetable that included a mixture of subjects, student ability groupings and male and female teachers of varying ages. Class sizes varied, as did the gender composition of the class and the year groups. Rather than being representative, the lessons sampled maximised the potential sources of variance in terms of school type, different teachers (gender, age, experience), different subjects, different students (gender, ability) and differences in any one student over time. The female observer made both qualitative and quantitative observations (Furlong & Edwards, 1989;Kelly, 1988;Taber, 1992;Boostrom, 1994), and tried to make herself as unobtrusive as possible, although inevitably her presence did have some impact on classroom dynamics.A systematic observation schedule was designed for the observer to record the frequency of pre-speci ed types of public teacher-student interaction in year 11 classrooms. Since the focus of the research was in part to gather data on relative frequencies, a category system was used to ensure that all instances of the pre-speci ed public interaction were recorded (see Wragg, 1994). Event recording was used for the same reason and also for its advantages over other systems (Anderson & Burns, 1989;Wragg, 1994). The following variables were scored: students' responses to questions put to the class; whether the responses were called out; instances when the teacher put a question to a speci c student; teachers' public praise or reprimand of individuals; stud...

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This article focuses upon the developing professionalism and emergent thinking of 36 secondary trainee teachers, in terms of their motivation to teach, their early beliefs about teaching and the teaching-learning process and their views of themselves as trainee teachers. It analyses their perspectives on how they expect to learn to become teachers and how these perspectives match with their early experiences on their training courses. Discussion of these starting points of beginning teachers reveals some understanding of models of outstanding classroom practice, but equally a relatively unsophisticated analysis of the essential characteristics of this practice. The challenge for teacher educators is to frame courses in such a way that beginning teachers are provided with the contexts and the methodologies whereby they can reflect upon their own preconceptions and refine their own understandings as to how they themselves learn as teachers, to enable them to facilitate the learning of pupils and to fulfil their own clearly articulated aspirations to become quality teachers.Cet article se focalise sur les changements du professionnalisme et des idées de 36 professeurs stagiaires de secondaire. Il regarde pourquoi ils veulent enseigner, et leur croyance tô t au sujet de l'enseignement et de l'enseignement -apprentissage. Il considère également leurs propres vues d'eux-mêmes comme professeurs stagiaires. Il analyse comment ils comptent apprendre à devenir des professeurs, et comment ces espérances s'assortissent avec leurs premières expériences sur leurs cours de formation. La discussion des vues de ces professeurs stagiaires suggère qu'ils aient les modèles clairs de la pratique en matière exceptionnelle de salle de classe. Mais ils ont également une compréhension plutô t simple des vraies caractéristiques de cette pratique. Le défi pour des éducateurs de professeur doit concevoir les cours qui fournissent à des professeurs stagiaires les contextes et les méthodologies pour les aider à se refléter sur leurs propres préconceptions. En même temps, ils ont besoin d'aide pour clarifier leurs propres comprehensions quant à la façon dont ils apprennent comme professeurs. Ceci les aidera à soutenir les étudiants apprenant mieux, et à répondre à leurs propres aspirations claires pour devenir de très bons professeurs. 246 M. Younger et al.Dieser Artikel konzentriert sich auf die Ä nderungen im Professionalismus und in den Ideen von 36 Sekundärauszubildendlehrern. Er erwägt, warum sie unterrichten wollen, und ihre frü he Glauben ü ber den Unterricht und den Unterricht -Lernprozeß. Er ü berlegt auch ihre eigenen Ansichten von sich selbst als Auszubildendlehrer. Er analysiert, wie sie erwarten, Lehrer werden zu lernen und wie diese Erwartungen mit ihren frü hen Erfahrungen auf ihren Ausbildungskursen zusammenpassen. Diskussion ü ber die Ansichten dieser Auszubildendlehrer schlägt vor, daß sie klare Modelle der hervorragenden Klassenzimmerpraxis haben. Aber sie haben auch ein ziemlich einfaches Verständnis der wirklichen Eigensch...

Feeling part of one's peer group is of crucial importance for most middle adolescents. Drawing on empirical research in different schools, this paper explores the components of exclusion in relation to gender, the consequences for those excluded by their peers, and the kinds of strategies engaged in by girls and boys in order to attain peer group acceptance.