Class Differences In Achievement (2) Internal Factors Flashcards
Define labelling.
Attaching a meaning or definition to someone. For example, teachers may label a student as bright or thick, troublemaker or hardworking.
What are interactionist sociologists interested in?
How people attach labels to one another, and the effects this has on those who are labelled.
Briefly outline Becker’s study and his findings.
Based on interviews with 60 Chicago high school teachers, he found that they judged pupils according to how closely they fitted an image of the ‘ideal pupil’.
- Pupils’ work, conduct + appearance informed their judgement.
- M/c students closest to ‘ideal’
- W/c furthest away, regarded as badly behaved.
According to Hempel and Jorgensen, how do teachers define the ‘ideal pupil’ in a middle-class school?
Rowan primary school: Had very few discipline problems therefore ‘ideal pupil’ was defined in terms of personality and academic ability.
According to Hempel and Jorgensen, how do teachers define the ‘ideal pupil’ in a working-class school?
Aspen primary school: Discipline was a major problem therefore ‘ideal pupil’ was defined as quiet, passive and obedient.
Summarise the effects of labelling in secondary school as found by Dunne and Gazeley.
- Found that ‘schools persistently produce w/c underachievement because of labelling and assumptions of teachers.’
Interviews in nine English state secondary schools:
- Normalised underachievement of w/c pupils, seemed unconcerned by it + felt there was nothing they could do about it. Felt they could change m/c underachievement.
- Major reason: home background - labelled w/c parents are uninterested in children’s education, m/c parents as supportive.
Conclusion: the way teachers explained and dealt with underachievement itself constructed class differences in levels of attainment
Summarise Rist’s findings about labelling in primary schools.
Teachers used info on students home background + appearance to separate them into different table groups:
- Tigers: fast learners, m/c, neat + clean appearance. Placed at front + received most encouragement.
- Cardinals + clowns: W/c (mostly), seated further away, given lower-level books to read, had fewer chances to show their abilities, read as a group not as individuals.
What are the three stages of the self-fulfilling prophecy?
Step 1: The teacher labels a pupil and on the basis of this label, makes predictions about them.
Step 2: The teacher treats the pupil accordingly, acting as if the prediction is already true.
Step 3: The pupil internalises the teacher’s expectation, which becomes part of their self-image, so that they now become the type of pupil the teacher believed them to be in the first place. The prediction is fulfilled.
Briefly summarise Rosenthal and Jacobson’s study.
Oak community school:
- Told the school they have a new test designed to identify those pupils who would ‘spurt’ ahead.
- Was actually a simple IQ test, however, teachers believed what they’d been told.
- Researchers tested all pupils and picked 20% at random.
- Told the school they’d been identified as ‘spurters’.
- Returned 1 yr later and found 47% of ‘spurters’ made significant progress.
- Demonstrates the self fulfilling prophecy: accepting the prediction lead to the teachers making it reality. Belief that certain children were spurters lead to teachers making them spurters.
Define streaming.
Streaming involves separating children into different ability groups or classes. Each group is taught separately from the others for all subjects.
Which pupils are most likely to be placed in lower streams?
Teachers don’t see w/c students as ideal pupils, they tend to see them as lacking ability and have low expectations for them. Result: they tend to be placed in lower streams.
Why is it hard for pupils to move to a higher stream?
Children are more or less locked into their teachers’ low expectations of them. Children in lower streams ‘get the message’ that their teachers have written them off as no-hopers.
What evidence does Douglas give to show that streaming affects educational achievement?
Douglas found that children placed in a lower stream at age 8 had suffered a decline in their IQ score by age 11.
Contrast: Children placed in a higher stream at age 8 had improved their IQ score by age 11.
Gillborn and Youdell looked at how teachers use stereotypes to label pupils. They also linked labelling to league tables. What do league tables show?
League tables rank each school according to its exam performance. For example, in terms of the percentage of pupils gaining 5 or more GCSE grades A*-C. Schools need to achieve a good league table if they’re to attract pupils and funding.
Explain what Gillborn and Youdell mean by the A-C economy?
This is a system in which schools focus their time, effort and resources on those pupils they see as having the potential to get 5 grade C’s and so boost the school’s league table position.
