Careful analysis of where school leavers go reveals that many who have the ability to benefit from a university education do not get one. They are mainly children from lower-class backgrounds. Recent government policies are likely to make the situation worse.

Children from homes with little money do not always fail, but it is usual! This careful study of three groups of high school pupils and their families compares and contrasts incomes, circumstances, lives, aspirations, and successes; and the ways poverty and performance are linked become much clearer.

That poor speller in your class may be neither lazy nor dull: it is possibly his or her genes. Nevertheless all poor spellers must be taught to the best of our ability. Genetic studies plus advice.

Using a new research approach reveals a good way of getting better self control of the different types of moment-to-moment decisions every teacher makes in the classroom.

How many children do their homework with the TV on? Does it help or hinder? This research from audience surveys in the UK makes us pause before automatically condemning homework with TV. Reprinted from the Journal of Educational Television, Vol. 16, No. 2, 1950.

Getting help from peers can make up for individual attention the teacher wishes she could give but just cannot manage. And giving help also improves the young tutor's work.

How you assess partly depends on your notion of what writing is for. But the accuracy of the assessment depends on clearly distinguishing different characteristics, from planning to sensitivity.

Western Australia is introducing a programme called Managing Student Behaviour, with inservice courses included. Questionnaires revealed levels of moral judgement before and after. Do they matter?

Creativity in poetry can be measured, and reliably. But encouraging creative poetry is a subtle business easily upset by asking the wrong questions, making inappropriate demands, setting the wrong atmosphere.

Australian and New Zealand research on poetry teaching is very scarce. Robin McConnell extends it by asking poets as well as teachers for their comments, and winds up with many clear bits of advice.