interpretivist views of education

Question 1

what does Becker 1971 say about the ‘ideal pupil’?

Answer 1

• high school teachers had perceptions of an ‘ideal pupil’ - one that resembled m/c values
• judgements made upon presentation of work, appearance, conduct in classroom, language skills and personality traits

Question 2

what was Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson’s study in 1968?

Answer 2

• used an interpretivist approach to uncover power of teachers labelling their students
• used a single Californian elementary school and all students given IQ test
• results not disclosed to teachers and instead were told that around 20% of their students were ‘spurters’ likely to perform better than classmates
• at end of experiment an IQ test was given again and those who had been labelled as ‘spurters’ had indeed made progress

Question 3

what did Rosenthal and Jacobson conclude in their study?

Answer 3

• concluded that teacher expectation plays a significant role in shaping student performance

Question 4

how could the Rosenthal and Jacobson theory be criticised?

Answer 4

• for ethical reasons as the impact on children involved in this study could be long term
• was only carried out in one school so the results cannot be generalised

Question 5

how can the interpretivist view on education be criticised?

Answer 5

• focuses more on individuals but may ignore bigger social structure like class and capitalism