Experiments in Education

Question 1

In Harvey & Slatin’s study, how were the teachers asked to rate the children in photographs?

Answer 1

Performance, parental attitudes and aspirations.

Question 2

What was the main finding of Charkin et al’s study regarding teacher expectations?

Answer 2

Teachers’ body language was more encouraging in the high expectancy group.

Question 3

What did Mason find to have a greater impact on teachers’ expectations?

Answer 3

Negative reports

Question 4

What was a significant ethical concern raised by using real pupils in laboratory experiments, such as in Charkin et al’s study?

Question 5

What issues do sociologists use experiments to study?

Answer 5

-teacher expectations
-classroom interactions
-labelling
-pupil’s self-concepts
-the self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 6

What is an example of a lab experiment about teacher expectations?

Answer 6

-Harvey and Slatin’s experiment about whether teachers had preconceived ideas of pupils from different social classes
-they found that lower-classed pupils were rated less favourable, so people did have preconceived ideas of certain pupils

Question 7

What are some other examples of a lab experiments on teacher expectations?

Answer 7

-Charkin et al, where those who had a higher expectations of a pupil and were given a better impression of them, gave better eye contact and more encouraging body language
-Mason, looked at whether negative or positive expectations had an effect, he found negative reports had a greater effect