Internal Factors: Streaming and Setting

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

Streaming involves separating children into different ability groups or classes called ‘streams’ based on a pupils average ability across core subjects.

Each ability group is then taught separately from the others for all subjects & studies show that the self-fulfilling prophecy is particularly likely to occur when children are streamed.

Setting involves separating children into different ability groups or classes for each subject – e.g. a pupil could be in the highest set for English but a middle set for Maths.

Question 2

Ball, Hargreaves & Lacey

Answer 2

Looked at the effects of ability grouping in secondary schools. In general, they found a tendency for middle class students to be placed in higher groups & for working class students to be placed in the lower groups (lower streams & sets). Many argue that this is in part due to teacher labelling & comparisons to the ‘ideal pupil’, which contributes to widening the achievement gap between the classes.

Question 3

Keddie

Answer 3

found that teachers often have lower expectations of working-class students, & Keddie found that these pupils were then often denied access to higher level knowledge & that teachers tended to enter them for lower level examination tiers.

This all contributes to the underachievement of working-class pupils, while middle-class pupils tend to benefit from streaming by developing a more positive self-concept & the confidence to work harder to improve their grades in higher streams.

Question 4

A-C Economy

Answer 4

Gillborn & Youdell link streaming to the policy of publishing exam league tables. These rank each school according to its exam performance – e.g. in terms of the percentages of pupils gaining 5 or more A*-C

Schools need to achieve a good league table position if they are to attract pupils & funding. League tables create what Gillborn & Youdell call an ‘A-to-C economy’ in schools. This is a system in which schools focus their time, effort & resources on those pupils they see as having the potential to get five grade Cs/Level 4s at GCSE & so boost the school’s league table position. This can put many working-class and certain ethnic minority children at a big disadvantage.

Question 5

A03

Answer 5

Marxists also criticise labelling theory for ignoring the wider structures of power within which labelling takes place. They argue that labels are not merely the result of teachers’ individual prejudices, but stem from the fact that teachers work in a system that reproduces class divisions & teachers are made to conform to this system.