Education- Relationships and Processes within Schools Flashcards
What is the hidden curriculum?
The school passes on a set of social norms and values to students
What is part of the hidden curriculum?
Turning up to lessons on time, dressing smartly in correct uniform, working hard to achieve rewards
What is labelling theory?
States that people decide on the characters of others and treat the accordingly
How are labels important in teacher-pupil relationships?
If a student is labelled as a ‘troublemaker’ then they’re disciplined more harshly and if a student is labelled as a ‘bright spark’ then they are given encouragement and it helps them succeed even further
What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
When a student internalises the label they’ve been given as part of their identity and acts accordingly
What did Gillborn and Youdell find?
Black pupils were more likely to be disciplined than their white classmates for the same behaviour and black students felt that their teachers had low expectations of them
What is streaming?
Students are sorted into classes according to their ability and they stay in these groups for all or most of their subjects
What is setting?
Students are sorted into classes according to ability but varies depending on subject
What is mixed ability?
Students are sorted into classes that aren’t based on ability so all students are taught together
What is an advantage of setting and streaming?
Students can work at their own level and pace
What is a problem with streaming?
Students are likely to be better at some subjects than others so some ‘bottom stream’ students aren’t challenged enough in certain subjects whilst some ‘top stream’ students struggle
What can setting and streaming lead to in lowest ability classes?
Low self esteem
What did Ball find?
Teachers had high expectations for highest ability classes so these students received more attention and encouragement and those in lower classes suffered from negative labelling and performed poorly
What is an advantage of mixed ability classes?
They can avoid worsening gaps in pupil achievement
What is a disadvantage of mixed ability classes?
Teachers can still hold low expectations for lower ability students and often lower the level of their teaching to suit them that can mean there isn’t enough challenging work for the higher ability students
What is a subculture?
A group who share ideas and behaviour patterns which are different from mainstream culture
What did Lacey claim that subcultures were a result of?
Streaming, study of grammar schools showed that bottom stream pupils still formed an anti-school subculture because they were labelled as failures
What did Fuller claim that subcultures were a result of?
Ethnicity, a group of black girls were high ability but felt that teachers were racist so formed a subculture (worked alone and succeeded)
What did Willis claim that subcultures were a result of?
Social class, studied a group of boys who had formed an anti-school subculture, they deliberately disrupted lessons to gain respect from others within the subculture
How effective is considering a pupil’s identity?
Can be a way of bringing together all factors (labelling, self-fulfilling prophecies, organisation of teaching, subcultures) and think about them alongside factors outside school can impact achievement
What is a disadvantage of studying pupil’s identities?
They are very complex
