School organisation, school processes and teaching and learning context

Question 1

The interactionist perspective

Answer 1

• use qualitative research methods (unstructured interviews or participant/non-participant observation)
• seek to discover how, through interactions with others, teachers or pupils experience education and come to interpret and define situations and develop meanings and pupils form identities which influence their behaviour and academic progress
• shown by issues like teacher expectations and stereotyping, streaming, labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy, how students react to these and how they affect their learning and academic progress

Question 2

The ethos of a school refers to the character, atmosphere or ‘climate’ of a school. This might include things like

Answer 2

• whether all pupils, regardless of ability, are valued, rewarded, praised and encouraged to fulfil their potential
• if there’s an emphasis on academic success/ artistic/ sporting achievements
• if there’s an emphasis on social, moral and spiritual/religious development of students
• if there’s an emphasis on equal opportunities, with intolerance of racism/sexism, promotion of multiculturalism and support for special needs students
• if parents are actively encouraged to be involved in students’ learning, through PTAs or as voluntary helpers in classrooms and on trips
• if a school keeps in close touch with parents through newsletters and school reports
• if a school has happy, helpful and respectful relationships between students and between staff and students
• if a school participates in cultural activities like school recreational/ cultural trips and involvement in local community activities
• if a school encourages students to participate in school life, like decision-making school councils

Question 3

The ethos of a school is normally reflected in and supported by

Answer 3

the hidden curriculum (as well as the overt curriculum, which a school designs to promote the educational achievements of students)

Question 4

Students learn the school’s ethos and hidden curriculum through

Answer 4

participating in daily routines of school life, eg a school with sports specialism might display athletic trophies, or a catholic school might display religious artefacts
the values, attitudes and behaviour of a school are instilled through things underpinning the ethos like punctuality, respect for authority, school rules, uniforms, assemblies, prize givings, emphasis on success, students standing in line, raising hands for questions, giving way to teachers, and the organisation of students by ability (banding/setting)

Question 5

Many parents will access a school’s suitability in terms of

Answer 5

it’s ethos (put into practice through the hidden curriculum), educational standards, quality of teaching, good discipline and past results

Question 6

Rutter et al - good schools can make a difference to the life chances of all pupils, through the features of the school’s organisation, when

Answer 6

• teachers are well prepared for lessons
• teachers have high expectations and mark work regularly
• teachers set examples for behaviour (being on time, using approved forms of disciplines)
• teachers emphasise praise/reward over blame and punishment
• teachers treat pupils as responsible
• teachers are interested in pupils and encourage them
• the school ethos reflects these things and all teachers share a commitment to them
• there’s a mixture of abilities in the school, as the presence of high-ability pupils benefits the performance and behaviour of all pupils

Question 7

Labelling definition

Answer 7

the process of defining a person or group in a certain way - as a particular ‘type’ of person or group

Question 8

Stereotype definiton

Answer 8

a generalised oversimplified view of the features of a social group, allowing for few individuals differences between members of the group

Question 9

Halo effect definition

Answer 9

when pupils become stereotyped, either favourably or unfavourably, on the basis of earlier impressions

Question 10

Self-fulfilling prophecy definition

Answer 10

where people act in response to predictions which have been made regarding their behaviour, thereby making the prediction come true

Question 11

Teacher labelling

Answer 11

through interactions with students, classifying and judging pupils, interpreting their behaviour, forming impressions of them and their likelihood of success
these labels can contribute to forming student identities and have been shown to affect academic performance/classroom behaviour

Question 12

Teacher stereotypes can create a halo effect

Answer 12

meaning that a teacher who has formed a good impression of a student in one way (eg as polite) may see that student more favourably in other ways (eg as hardworking or clever, even if they’re not) and therefore encourage and support them.
The opposite halo effect can also exist.

Question 13

Waterhouse (2004) study of 4 primary and secondary schools suggests that teacher labels of pupils affect how teachers interact with students.

Answer 13

Once these labels become the dominant categories for students, they can become a “pivotal identity” (a core identity providing the ways teachers interpret classroom events and behaviour). For example, a student labelled as ‘deviant’ is likely to have normal classroom behaviour interpreted as a temporary phase, whereas episodes of disruptive behaviour from a student labelled as ‘high performing’ are more likely to be interpreted as a temporary phase. This can lead to the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Question 14

Becker (1971) - Ideal pupil

Answer 14

teachers initially evaluate pupils in relation to their stereotypes of the ‘ideal pupil’, which set the standard for teachers’ judgements of the quality of young people of pupils and would represent the typical normal or average conforming pupil

Question 15

Hempel-Jorgensen (2009) - Ideal pupil identity includes things like

Answer 15

hard work, concentrating and listening to teachers, performing well academically, good behaviour, staying out of trouble and conforming to rules

Question 16

Hempel-Jorgensen - Ideal learner
year-long research on 12 primary schools in Hampshire, using observation and conversation with children and semi-structured interviews with teachers

Answer 16

found that pupils have a conception of an ‘ideal learner’ - the characteristics they thought their teacher would like in a new pupil
this influences how the view themselves as a student (their ‘learning identity’) and how they view their classmates, and this could impact their educational motivation, aspirations and academic attainment

Question 17

Non-academic aspects of the ‘ideal pupil’ which can influence teachers’ assessments of students’ ability

Answer 17

speech, dress, personality (likeability, politeness, helpfulness etc), relationships with other pupils, conformity to discipline, enthusiasm for work, conduct and appearance

Question 18

Becker (1971) and Rist (1970) found that the social class of students

Answer 18

and the extent to which they conformed to the middle-class standards of teachers, rather than student abilities, were the most significant factor influencing teacher labelling.

Question 19

Harvey and Slatin (1975, USA) showed photographs of students from different backgrounds to 96 primary school teachers

Answer 19

and found that white, middle class children were identified to be more likely to be successful students, while teachers had lower expectations of students from poorer or non-white backgrounds

Question 20

Gillborn (2011) found that the ‘ideal pupil’ stereotype

Answer 20

favours white students, and also that teachers do not see black children as likely to have academic success, and were therefore denying opportunities to black children (regardless of class or gender, subject choice or drive or ambition).
He found that black students are more likely to be placed in lower teaching groups, denied access to the most sought-after subjects and less likely to be entered for the top exams.

Question 21

Hartley and Sutton (2011) suggest that the ‘ideal pupil’ stereotype is

Answer 21

more likely to be applied to girls, in particular Indian Asian girls, than to boys

Question 22

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) - ‘Pygmalion in the classroom’ study provided evidence for the “self-fulfilling prophecy”

Answer 22

found that a randomly chosen group of students whom teachers were told were bright and could be expected to make good progress, even though they were no different from other students in terms of ability, did make greater progress than students who weren’t labelled

Question 23

Becker’s (1971) idea of the ‘ideal pupil’ suggests that the self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 23

is likely to have the most negative effects on working class, black, male pupils

Question 24

Hartley and Sutton (2011) - study of 140 children in 3 Kent primary schools found evidence of the self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 24

• assigned children to 2 groups, with the first group being told that boys don’t perform as well as girls
• boys in that group received significantly worse scores in tests in maths, reading and writing
• girls’ performance was similar in both groups
• suggested that boys’ relatively poor performance nationally could be explained by negative gender stereotypes generating a self-fulfilling prophecy

Question 25

Banding definition

Answer 25

either where schools try to ensure their intake has a spread of pupil drawn from a variety of abilities or an alternative word for streaming

Question 26

Streaming definition

Answer 26

where, in schools, students are divided into groups of similar ability (bands or streams) in which they are taught for all subjects

Question 27

Setting definiton

Answer 27

where students are divided into groups (sets) of similar ability in individual subjects

Question 28

Ball (1981) - research in Beachside Comprehensive into effects of streaming

Answer 28

found that top-stream students were ‘warmed up’ by encouragement to achieve highly and to follow academic courses of study, whereas lower-stream students were ‘cooled out’ and encouraged to follow lower-status vocational/practical courses, and therefore achieved lower levels of academic success, frequently leaving school as early as possible

Question 29

Smyth et al (2006) - effects of streaming

Answer 29

found that students in lower streams have more negative attitudes to school, find the teaching pace too slow, spend less time from homework and are more likely to disengage from school work and become disaffected with school life, suggesting that streaming has harmful effects on the learning identities of students labelled as low ability, damaging their self-esteem and confidence and negatively impacting aspirations and attainment

Question 30

The Sutton Trust research into setting found that

Answer 30

whilst it was a good way of stretching bright students from poorer backgrounds, there is a lack of lower class students in higher sets, putting poorer pupils at a disadvantage and favouring the middle class. Evidence suggests that the higher a student’s social class, the more likely there are to be placed in top streams or sets.

Question 31

Keddie - unequal access to knowledge in streams and sets

Answer 31

found that teachers taught higher-stream classes differently, expecting them to behave better and do more work, giving them more work and different types of educational knowledge, which gave them greater opportunity for academic success than those in lower streams, who may therefore underachieve to due a lack of access to this knowledge
for example in higher or foundation GCSEs, foundation paper pupils aren’t given the same access to the knowledge

Question 32

Educational triage definition

Answer 32

the way schools divide pupils into 3 groups - those who are likely to succeed in exams whatever happens (A*-C grade students), those who could succeed in exams with extra help (C/D students) and those who have little chance of succeeding whatever is done.
Schools prioritise the first two groups, particularly the second, and write-off those who they see as having little chance of success.

Question 33

Gillborn and Youdell (2000)

Answer 33

found that schools were undertaking the process of educational triage

Question 34

the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)

Answer 34

includes GCSEs in English, maths, 2 sciences, a foreign language and a humanity
in educational triage, schools may assess how much help to allocate a student based on their likelihood of achieving the A*-C grades necessary for the EBacc

Question 35

in 2011, the government announced that, to end what it saw as a culture of low expectations in some schools,

Answer 35

every secondary school in England would be expect to increase the proportion of pupils achieving at 5+ A*-C grades at GCSE (including in english and maths) from 35% in 2011 to at least 40% by 2012 and 50% by 2015, and that schools not achieving this would be seen as underperforming and could be taken over by headteachers from better schools or by an academy.
This emphasis on school improvement is likely to intensify the process of educational triage, as even more resources would be diverted to those who could achieve this with extra help, and away from pupils who seemed to lack the ability

Question 36

Positive evaluation of explanations for student progress focusing on school organisation, processes and teaching/learning context

Answer 36

• recognise the importance of what happens inside schools, avoiding blaming educational failure on just the pupil (their background or circumstances)

Question 37

Negative evaluation of explanations for student progresses focusing on school organisation, processes and teaching and learning context

Answer 37

• too deterministic, suggesting that students have no choice - Fuller (1980) found that despite black girls being subject to negative labels, many of them chose to reject the labels and strived to prove teachers wrong through educational success
• don’t pay adequate attention to the distribution of power in society (the influence of class)
• don’t pay enough attention to factors outside school (eg cultural and materialistic factors) - blames only teachers and schools rather than structural inequality