Processes within schools

Overview

Streaming, setting and mixed-ability teaching, labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy, Becker's ideal pupil, Rosenthal and Jacobson, Ball's Beachside, and Willis's counter-school culture.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is the difference between streaming and setting?

   Model answer

   Streaming is placing pupils in one ability group for all their subjects. Setting is grouping pupils by ability separately for each subject. A pupil can be in a top set for maths but a lower set for English.

2. 2

   What is mixed-ability teaching, and what are its advantages and disadvantages?

   Model answer

   Mixed-ability teaching puts pupils of all abilities in the same class. Supporters argue it avoids labelling pupils as failures, while critics argue it can hold back the most able.

3. 3

   How does labelling operate in the classroom?

   Model answer

   Teachers may judge pupils on class, gender, ethnicity or behaviour as well as ability, and treat them accordingly. A label such as troublemaker can become a master status that overrides everything else about the pupil.

4. 4

   What did Howard Becker find about teachers' idea of the ideal pupil?

   Model answer

   Howard Becker interviewed Chicago teachers and found they judged pupils against an image of the ideal pupil. Middle-class pupils came closest to that ideal and were seen most favourably.

5. 5

   What are teacher expectations, and how can they create a self-fulfilling prophecy?

   Model answer

   Teacher expectations are teachers' beliefs about how well a pupil will do. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true because people believe it and act on it. A pupil expected to fail may get less encouragement, lose confidence and underachieve.

6. 6

   What did Rosenthal and Jacobson's classroom experiment suggest?

   Model answer

   Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson told a Californian school that randomly chosen pupils were about to spurt ahead. A year later many of those pupils had made greater gains in IQ scores. The experiment suggested that teachers' expectations alone can change pupils' progress.

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