Education- Relationships and Processes within Schools

Question 1

What is the hidden curriculum?

Answer 1

The school passes on a set of social norms and values to students

Question 2

What is part of the hidden curriculum?

Answer 2

Turning up to lessons on time, dressing smartly in correct uniform, working hard to achieve rewards

Question 3

What is labelling theory?

Answer 3

States that people decide on the characters of others and treat the accordingly

Question 4

How are labels important in teacher-pupil relationships?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 5

When a student internalises the label they’ve been given as part of their identity and acts accordingly

Question 6

What did Gillborn and Youdell find?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is streaming?

Answer 7

Students are sorted into classes according to their ability and they stay in these groups for all or most of their subjects

Question 8

What is setting?

Answer 8

Students are sorted into classes according to ability but varies depending on subject

Question 9

What is mixed ability?

Answer 9

Students are sorted into classes that aren’t based on ability so all students are taught together

Question 10

What is an advantage of setting and streaming?

Answer 10

Students can work at their own level and pace

Question 11

What is a problem with streaming?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What can setting and streaming lead to in lowest ability classes?

Answer 12

Low self esteem

Question 13

What did Ball find?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What is an advantage of mixed ability classes?

Answer 14

They can avoid worsening gaps in pupil achievement

Question 15

What is a disadvantage of mixed ability classes?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is a subculture?

Answer 16

A group who share ideas and behaviour patterns which are different from mainstream culture

Question 17

What did Lacey claim that subcultures were a result of?

Answer 17

Streaming, study of grammar schools showed that bottom stream pupils still formed an anti-school subculture because they were labelled as failures

Question 18

What did Fuller claim that subcultures were a result of?

Answer 18

Ethnicity, a group of black girls were high ability but felt that teachers were racist so formed a subculture (worked alone and succeeded)

Question 19

What did Willis claim that subcultures were a result of?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

How effective is considering a pupil’s identity?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What is a disadvantage of studying pupil’s identities?

Answer 21

They are very complex