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Teacher self-efficacy and pupil achievement: much ado about nothing? International evidence from TIMSS (2023)
Journal Article
Jerrim, J., Sims, S., & Oliver, M. (2023). Teacher self-efficacy and pupil achievement: much ado about nothing? International evidence from TIMSS. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 29(2), 220-240. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2022.2159365

Bandura’s influential theory has been used to argue that teachers with high self-efficacy will be more effective at increasing pupil achievement—and a voluminous empirical literature has repeatedly documented associations consistent with this claim.... Read More about Teacher self-efficacy and pupil achievement: much ado about nothing? International evidence from TIMSS.

Evaluation of an enhanced training package to support clinical trials training in low and middle income countries (LMICs): experiences from the Born Too Soon Optimising Nutrition study (2021)
Working Paper
Mitchell, E. J., Aluvaala, J., Bradshaw, L., Daniels, J., Kumar, A., Opira, J., …Ojha, S. Evaluation of an enhanced training package to support clinical trials training in low and middle income countries (LMICs): experiences from the Born Too Soon Optimising Nutrition study

Training is essential before working on a clinical trial, yet there is limited evidence on effective training methods. In low and middle income countries (LMICs), training of research staff was considered the second highest priority in a global healt... Read More about Evaluation of an enhanced training package to support clinical trials training in low and middle income countries (LMICs): experiences from the Born Too Soon Optimising Nutrition study.

PISA: Engagement, Attainment and interest in Science (PEAS) (2021)
Report
Oliver, M., Jerrim, J., & Adkins, M. J. (2021). PISA: Engagement, Attainment and interest in Science (PEAS). London: Nuffield Foundation

The way in which science is taught can influence how interested, engaged and informed students are. Teachers are responsible for the delivery of curriculum content as well as shaping views towards, beliefs about and ‘trust’ in science. Different inst... Read More about PISA: Engagement, Attainment and interest in Science (PEAS).

Parents, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders’ experiences of caring for babies born too soon in a low resource setting: A qualitative study of essential newborn care for preterm infants in Kenya (2021)
Journal Article
Mitchell, E. J., Pallotti, P., Qureshi, Z., Daniels, J. P., Oliver, M., Were, F., …Ojha, S. (2021). Parents, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders’ experiences of caring for babies born too soon in a low resource setting: A qualitative study of essential newborn care for preterm infants in Kenya. BMJ Open, 11(6), Article e043802. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043802

Objectives: Prematurity is the leading cause of global neonatal and infant mortality. Many babies could survive by the provision of essential newborn care. This qualitative study was conducted in order to understand, from a family and professional pe... Read More about Parents, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders’ experiences of caring for babies born too soon in a low resource setting: A qualitative study of essential newborn care for preterm infants in Kenya.

Using dialogic interventions to decrease children’s use of inappropriate teleological explanations (2021)
Journal Article
Halls, J. G., Ainsworth, S. E., & Oliver, M. C. (2021). Using dialogic interventions to decrease children’s use of inappropriate teleological explanations. International Journal of Science Education, 43(11), 1817-1836. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2021.1936271

A belief in teleology is often suggested to be a barrier in children’s science education. Many studies have catalogued children’s use of teleological explanations, but fewer have developed approaches to tackle children’s use in scientific contexts. T... Read More about Using dialogic interventions to decrease children’s use of inappropriate teleological explanations.

Feasibility of using an Early Warning Score for preterm or low birthweight infants in a low-resource setting: Results of a mixed-methods study at a national referral hospital in Kenya (2020)
Journal Article
Mitchell, E. J., Qureshi, Z., Were, F., Daniels, J., Gwako, G., Osoti, A., …Ojha, S. (2020). Feasibility of using an Early Warning Score for preterm or low birthweight infants in a low-resource setting: Results of a mixed-methods study at a national referral hospital in Kenya. BMJ Open, 10(10), Article e039061. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039061

© 2020 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Introduction Fifteen million babies are born prematurely, before 37 weeks gestational age, globally. More than 80% of these are in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. 35% of all deaths in the first month o... Read More about Feasibility of using an Early Warning Score for preterm or low birthweight infants in a low-resource setting: Results of a mixed-methods study at a national referral hospital in Kenya.

“Hot-headed” students? Scientific literacy, perceptions and awareness of climate change in 15-year olds across 54 countries (2020)
Journal Article
Oliver, M., & Adkins, M. (2020). “Hot-headed” students? Scientific literacy, perceptions and awareness of climate change in 15-year olds across 54 countries. Energy Research and Social Science, 70, Article 101641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101641

The growth in global climate protests by students challenge the status quo of policy makers and political leaders in mitigating the effects of climate change. These events suggest that young people are increasingly well-informed and aware of environm... Read More about “Hot-headed” students? Scientific literacy, perceptions and awareness of climate change in 15-year olds across 54 countries.

Pedagogical devices as children’s social care levers: A study of social care workers’ attitudes towards boarding schools to care for and educate children in need (2020)
Journal Article
Murphy, D., Oliver, M., Pourhabib, S., Adkins, M., & Hodgen, J. (2020). Pedagogical devices as children’s social care levers: A study of social care workers’ attitudes towards boarding schools to care for and educate children in need. British Educational Research Journal, 46(6), 1300-1320. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3633

It has been proposed that boarding schools in England can be used to provide a stable education and care environment for vulnerable children in need and the government is expanding their use. However, for vulnerable children to be placed in boarding... Read More about Pedagogical devices as children’s social care levers: A study of social care workers’ attitudes towards boarding schools to care for and educate children in need.

The Efficacy of Inquiry-Based Instruction in Science: a Comparative Analysis of Six Countries Using PISA 2015 (2019)
Journal Article
Oliver, M., McConney, A., & Woods-McConney, A. (2021). The Efficacy of Inquiry-Based Instruction in Science: a Comparative Analysis of Six Countries Using PISA 2015. Research in Science Education, 51, 595-616 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-019-09901-0

© 2019, The Author(s). This study is a comparative analysis of 15-year-old students’ scientific literacy, and its association with the instructional strategies that students experience, across six OECD countries that participated in PISA 2015. Across... Read More about The Efficacy of Inquiry-Based Instruction in Science: a Comparative Analysis of Six Countries Using PISA 2015.

Highly Recommended and Poorly Used: English and Spanish Science Teachers' Views of Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) and its Enactment (2019)
Journal Article
Romero-Ariza, M., Quesada, A., Abril, A. M., Sorensen, P., & Oliver, M. C. (2019). Highly Recommended and Poorly Used: English and Spanish Science Teachers' Views of Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) and its Enactment. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/109658

Inquiry pedagogies provide opportunities to meet learning outcomes linked to developing scientific literacy. Within a European project intended at promoting Inquiry Based Learning (IBL), this paper presents quantitative and qualitative data about tea... Read More about Highly Recommended and Poorly Used: English and Spanish Science Teachers' Views of Inquiry-based Learning (IBL) and its Enactment.

Young children’s impressionable use of teleology: the influence of question wording and questioned topic on teleological explanations for natural phenomena (2018)
Journal Article
Halls, J., Ainsworth, S. E., & Oliver, M. (2018). Young children’s impressionable use of teleology: the influence of question wording and questioned topic on teleological explanations for natural phenomena. International Journal of Science Education, 40(7), 808-826. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2018.1451008

There is a significant body of research on children's preconceptions concerning scientific concepts and the impact this has upon their science education. One active issue concerns the extent to which young children's explanations for the existence of... Read More about Young children’s impressionable use of teleology: the influence of question wording and questioned topic on teleological explanations for natural phenomena.

Learning and engagement through natural history museums (2018)
Journal Article
Mujtaba, T., Lawrence, M., Oliver, M., & Reiss, M. (in press). Learning and engagement through natural history museums. Studies in Science Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2018.1442820

This review examines how natural history museums (NHMs) can enhance learning and engagement in science, particularly for school-age students. First, we describe the learning potential of informal science learning institutions in general, then we focu... Read More about Learning and engagement through natural history museums.

Female senior secondary physics students’ engagement in science: a qualitative study of constructive influences (2017)
Journal Article
Oliver, M. C., Woods-McConney, A., Maor, D., & McConney, A. (2017). Female senior secondary physics students’ engagement in science: a qualitative study of constructive influences. International Journal of STEM Education, 4(4), https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-017-0060-9

Background: Prompted by fewer females compared to males enrolling in physics and advanced mathematics at both secondary and university levels, our research investigated the views and experiences of female students currently studying upper secondary s... Read More about Female senior secondary physics students’ engagement in science: a qualitative study of constructive influences.

Bringing CASE in from the cold: the teaching and learning of thinking (2016)
Journal Article
Oliver, M., & Venville, G. (2016). Bringing CASE in from the cold: the teaching and learning of thinking. Research in Science Education, 47(1), 49-66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-015-9489-3

Thinking Science is a two-year program of professional development for teachers and thinking lessons for students in junior high school science classes. This paper presents research on the effects of Thinking Science on students’ levels of cognition... Read More about Bringing CASE in from the cold: the teaching and learning of thinking.

What's working memory to do with it? A case study on teenagers (2015)
Journal Article
Price, A., Oliver, M., & Joshua, M. (2015). What's working memory to do with it? A case study on teenagers

Effective teachers recognise that as their students grow, the way in which their students learn changes. This is related to different developmental stages of the brain that occur as a child becomes an adult. This article discusses the concept of work... Read More about What's working memory to do with it? A case study on teenagers.

Inquiry, engagement, and literacy in science: a retrospective, cross-national analysis of PISA 2006 (2014)
Journal Article
McConney, A., Oliver, M. C., Woods-McConney, A., Schibeci, R., & Maor, D. (2014). Inquiry, engagement, and literacy in science: a retrospective, cross-national analysis of PISA 2006. Science Education, 98(6), https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21135

In this study, we examine patterns of students’ literacy and engagement in science associated with different levels of ‘inquiry-oriented’ learning reported by students in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. To achieve this we analysed data from the O... Read More about Inquiry, engagement, and literacy in science: a retrospective, cross-national analysis of PISA 2006.

Science engagement and literacy: a retrospective analysis for students in Canada and Australia (2014)
Journal Article
Woods-McConney, A., Oliver, M., McConney, A., Schibeci, R., & Maor, D. (2014). Science engagement and literacy: a retrospective analysis for students in Canada and Australia. International Journal of Science Education, 36(10), https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2013.871658

Given international concerns about students’ pursuit (or more correctly, non-pursuit) of courses and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), this study is about achieving a better understanding of factors related to high s... Read More about Science engagement and literacy: a retrospective analysis for students in Canada and Australia.

A comparison of approaches to the teaching and learning of science in Chinese and Australian elementary classrooms: cultural and socioeconomic complexities (2013)
Journal Article
Tao, Y., Oliver, M., & Venville, G. (2013). A comparison of approaches to the teaching and learning of science in Chinese and Australian elementary classrooms: cultural and socioeconomic complexities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 50(1), https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21064

Set in the context of today’s globalized approaches to curriculum reform, the purpose of this study was to compare the teaching and learning of science in Chinese and Australian Grade 6 classrooms. A conceptual framework based on notions of culture a... Read More about A comparison of approaches to the teaching and learning of science in Chinese and Australian elementary classrooms: cultural and socioeconomic complexities.

Long-term outcomes of early childhood science education: insight from a cross-national comparative case study on conceptual understanding of science (2012)
Journal Article
Tao, Y., Oliver, M., & Venville, G. (2012). Long-term outcomes of early childhood science education: insight from a cross-national comparative case study on conceptual understanding of science. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 10(6), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-012-9335-2

The purpose of this research was to explore the long term outcomes of either participating or not participating in early childhood science education on Grade 6 students’ conceptual understanding of science. The research is situated in a conceptual fr... Read More about Long-term outcomes of early childhood science education: insight from a cross-national comparative case study on conceptual understanding of science.