Sociology-RM-Experiments in context Flashcards
What issues do sociologists sometimes use experiments to study?
Teach expectations, classroom interaction, labelling, pupils’ self-concepts, the self-fulfilling prophecy
What is an example of a lab experiment used to investigate teacher expectations?
Harvey and Slatin who examined whether teachers had preconceived ideas about pupils of different social classes
How did Harvey and Slatin carry out their experiment?
Used a sample of 96 teachers. Each teacher was shown 18 photographs of children from different social class backgrounds. To control other variables, the photographs were equally divided in terms of gender and ethnicity. The teachers were asked to rate the children on their performance, parental attitudes to education, aspirations etc
What did Harvey and Slatin find from their lab experiment?
Found that lower-class children were rated less favourably, especially by more experienced teachers. Teachers based their ratings on similarities they perceived between children in the photographs and pupils they had taught. This study indicates that teachers label pupils from different social classes and use these labels to pre-judge pupils’ potential
How may teacher expectations be passed on to pupils?
Through non-verbal communication, as shown by Charkin et al’s study
What was Charkin et al’s study?
Used a sample of 48 university students who each taught a lesson to a ten year old boy. One third (high expectancy group) were told the boy was highly motivated and intelligent, one third (low expectancy group) were told he was poorly motivated with a low IQ, one third (control) was given no information. Charkin et al videoed the lessons and found those in the high expectancy group made more eye contact and gave out more encouraging body language than the low expectancy group
What did Mason look at?
Whether negative or positive expectations had the greater effect. Teachers were given positive, negative or neutral reports on a pupil. The teachers then observed video recordings of the pupil taking a test, watching to see if any errors were made. Finally, they were asked to predict the pupil’s end of year attainment. Mason found that the negative reports had a much greater impact than the positive one’s on the teachers’ expectations
What are the ethical issues with lab experiments to investigate education?
Lab experiments that don’t involve real pupils have fewer ethical problems (Mason/Harvey and Slatin) as no child suffers any negative effects. However, others such as Charkin et al use real pupils which raise ethical concerns as young people’s vulnerability and more limited ability to understand what is happening means there are greater issues of deception, lack of informed consent, and psychological damage. These are a major reason why lab experiments play only a limited role in educational research
What is the ‘narrow focus’ issue for lab experiments to investigate education?
Usually only examine one specific aspect of teacher expectations eg body language, which can be useful as it allows researcher to isolate and examine this variable more thoroughly, however it means that teacher expectations are not seen within the wider process f labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy. Eg although Charkin et al identified the existence of positive and negative body language, they did not examine how it might then affect pupils’ performance
What are the practical problems with using lab experiments to investigate education?
Schools are large, complex institutions in which many variables may affect teacher expectations. Eg their expectations may influenced by wide range of variables such as class size, streaming, type of school etc. In practice, it is impossible to identify and control all variables that might exert an influence on teachers’ expectations. Sociologists are also often interested in role of large-scale social factors and processes such as impact of government policies on educational achievement, which cannot be studied in small-scale lab settings
What is the ‘artificiality’ issue with using lab experiments to investigate education?
Artificiality of lab experiments may mean they tell us little about the real world of education. Eg Charkin used university students rather than teachers, and Harvey and Slatin used photographs of pupils rather than real pupils. It is unlikely university students behave in same way as experienced teachers, and teachers’ expectations are based on more than just pupils’ appearance. Eg behaviour, accent and impressions of parents may all play a part
How are field experiments used to investigate education?
Concerns about lab experiments led some sociologists to use field experiments in real educational settings instead. However, these too have their limitations. Rosenthal and Jacobson’s ‘Pygmalion in the classroom’ illustrates the difficulties of using field experiments to study teacher expectations
What was Rosenthal and Jacobson’s study?
Carried out their research in a California primary school they called ‘Oak School’. Pupils were given an IQ test and teachers were told this had enabled researchers to identify 20% of pupils who were likely to ‘spurt’ in the next year. In reality, the test did no such thing and the pupils were actually selected at random
What were the aims of Rosenthal and Jacobson’s study?
To plant in the minds of the teachers a particular set of expectations about their pupils. Also to see if this had any effect on pupil performance
What was the IV in Rosenthal and Jacobson’s study?
As the ‘spurters’ were selected at random there was no reason to expect their performance would be any different to others in the class unless teacher expectations had an influence. ‘Teacher expectations’ was therefore identified as the independent variable
