Every Thursday afternoon the iPad App Store gets refreshed with new featured apps and content. This week there are also several notable changes to the layout of the Featured area – or at least I’ve only just noticed them this week.

The first change I noticed is that the Education category now has its own featured area. While the main page of the Featured area highlights apps from all categories and shows popover lists for Games, Newsstand and More, if you tap on the Education tab you get another full featured page treatment but filled with just apps from the Education category. This page has its own New and Noteworthy, What’s Hot, app collections (e.g. Reading, Physics, Geography, Astronomy & Earth Science etc), and Quick Links sections.

Another change this week is the inclusion of a ‘Best of Newsstand’ section in the featured area, just below the What’s Hot and app collections sections.

The Quick Links section looks a little different to me as well – I think it has a few more items in it now.

I’m not sure whether these are permanent changes in the iPad App Store, or just a bit of experimentation. I’d be quite happy if the featured area for the Education category is a permanent fixture – as it’s well worth continually highlighting all the great iPad apps in this category.

I also like the inclusion of the Best of Newsstand section – as I have quite a number of Newsstand titles now and I enjoy iPad newspapers and magazines a lot.

What do you think of all the iPad App Store changes this week and in iOS 6?