Education Flashcards
(44 cards)
Internal Factors affecting educational achievements
Internal factors affecting educational achievement refer to elements within the school or individual that influence a student’s performance. Here are some key internal factors:
- Student Motivation: A student’s intrinsic motivation to learn can significantly impact their educational achievement. Highly motivated students are more likely to engage with their studies, set goals, and persist through challenges.
- Teaching Quality: The effectiveness of teachers plays a crucial role in student learning. High-quality teaching methods, strong subject knowledge, and the ability to engage students can lead to better academic outcomes.
- Curriculum and Resources: The curriculum offered by a school and the resources available, such as textbooks, technology, and extracurricular activities, can influence how well students learn and achieve academically.
- Peer Influence: The social environment within a school, including peer relationships, can affect student attitudes towards learning. Positive peer influences can enhance motivation, while negative influences can lead to disengagement.
- Learning Environment: The overall learning environment, including classroom management, school culture, and safety, can affect students’ ability to focus and succeed academically.
These internal factors interact in complex ways to shape educational achievement, highlighting the importance of fostering a supportive and effective learning environment.
External factors affecting educational achievement
External factors affecting educational achievement are influences outside the individual school or student that can impact learning outcomes. Here are some key external factors:
- Socioeconomic Status: A family’s socioeconomic background can greatly affect educational achievement. Students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds often have access to better educational resources, extracurricular activities, and support systems.
- Community Support: The level of community involvement in education can influence student success. Communities that prioritize education and provide resources, such as tutoring programs or mentorship, can enhance student achievement.
- Cultural Factors: Cultural attitudes towards education can shape students’ motivations and expectations. In some cultures, academic success is highly valued, which can encourage students to strive for high achievement.
- Government Policies: Education policies, funding, and regulations set by local, regional, or national governments can impact the quality of education, including teacher training, school facilities, and access to educational resources.
- Family Background: Factors such as parental education levels, family structure, and support can affect a child’s educational experience. Parents who are engaged and educated are often better equipped to support their children’s learning.
- Peer Environment: The broader social environment, including the influence of peers outside of school, can also affect academic motivation and achievement. Positive peer groups can encourage academic success, while negative influences can lead to disengagement.
-Material deprivation - if they can’t afford to buy education books - less likely to achieve.
-Parental Support; if they provide motivation or not.
These external factors highlight the complex interplay of influences that shape educational outcomes for students.
When did the education reform act come in?
1988 (conservative gov)
What is the Labelling theory? (Becker)
Labeling theory is a sociological concept that examines how labels assigned to individuals can influence their behavior and self-identity. When people are labeled negatively, like being called a “troublemaker,” they may start to internalize that label and act accordingly. This can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the individual continues to exhibit the behaviors associated with the label, affecting their motivation and performance, especially in education. The theory highlights the significant impact of societal perceptions and the importance of being mindful of how we classify and interact with others.
What is the self fulfilling prophecy?
When someone begins to act as they’re labeled.
What was the central theme of the education reform act?
Marketization policies - refers to the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between supplies into areas run by state- such as education.
How has marketization created an education market?
reducing state control over education
increased competition between schools and parental choice of school
by creating a market, they believe standards would improve.
Policies promoting marketization
League tables
Open Enrollment (more successful schools can recruit more pupils)
Schools can become academies (less local authority control)
Specialist schools
SATS
Pupil Premium
Ofsted
National Curriculum
what is parentocracy? what’s positives of it?
described marketised education.
means ruled by parents.
supporters argues the power shifts from teachers and schools to parents. this encourages diversity and gives parents more choice and raises standards.
What was in the 1988 education act?
Introduction of marketization polices
Introduction national curriculum and testing - GCSE examination
Who are all the main education sociologists?
8.
Bowles and Gintis (Marxist)
Paul Willis (Marxist)
Parsons (functionalist)
Halsey Heath and Ridge
Durkheim (functionalist)
Ball, Bowe and Gintis
Ball
Becker
What did marxist Bowles and Gintis argue?
The correspondence theory ;
Bowles and Gintis argued that this prepared pupils for life in the capitalist system and prevented rebellion or revolution. The reason schools act in this way is because they work directly in the interests of the capitalist system and the ruling class and their principle purpose is to produce the workforce. Bowles and Gintis use the phrase: “work casts a long shadow over school.”
What does the marxist willis say about education?
Paul Willis claimed that ‘the lads’ had formed an anti-school subculture. They rejected school and all its values and instead focussed on the day they would eventually be allowed to leave. They formed their own set of values opposed to those of the school. For example, valuing ‘having a laugh’ in lessons instead of learning.
What did Parsons, functionalist argue about education?
Parsons argued that schools are meritocratic (the harder a student works, the more they will succeed). Individuals are judged on universalistic standards (standards that are the same for everyone). This is in contrast to particularistic standards that are applicable in the family.
Bridge between family and society.
What did Halsey, Heath and Ridge argue?
Halsey (1980) argues that education fails to offer equality of opportunity for all children. He found that children from working-class backgrounds were most likely to fail in the education system whereas middle-class children were most likely to succeed.
What did Ball find out/ argue?
Did a participant observation
He found that pupils who started school with similar attitudes to study began to diverge when they were banded/streamed. That is when they were put in classes supposedly based on their ability. Streaming is when pupils of a similar ability are in the same, streamed class for all subjects whereas with setting pupils could be in a high set for Maths and a low set for English (for example).
Working-class pupils gravitated towards the lower bands and then became increasingly disinterested in education and “anti-school”. The net effect of this was that children from lower-income families left school with fewer qualifications, therefore reproducing class inequalities, apparently by accident
Marketization benefitted middle class parents
Interactionalist belief on education
The interactionalist belief on education focuses on the importance of social interactions in the learning process. Key points include:
- Socialization: Education helps students learn social norms and values.
- Teacher-Student Interaction: Positive interactions can enhance learning, while negative ones can hinder it.
- Symbolic Interactionism: Labels and meanings attached to educational experiences shape student identities and behaviors.
- Classroom Dynamics: Peer interactions and group work affect learning outcomes.
In summary, interactionalists see education as deeply influenced by the social relationships and interactions within educational settings.
What did the functionalist Durkheim argue?
Emile Durkheim’s expounds on his views of education in his work ‘Moral Education (1925). Durkheim believed that education transmits the norms and values of society. He believed that it is necessary that individuals are united for society to function properly.
What did Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz argue?
evaluated impact of marketization
Ball, Bowe and Gewirtz (1994) found that: by publishing exam league tables, schools hoped to draw in more academically able children and motivated parents who could boost the school’s position in the tables.
The four roles of education in society.
Economic role teaching skills for work.
Selective role - Choosing the most able people for the most important jobs.
Social control - teaching acceptance of rules and authority
Political role - teaching people to be effective citizens and creating social cohesion
What do functionalists and marxist’s say about the role of education - economy role teaching skills for work?
Functionalists - Teaches skills and knowledge necessary for work, preparation for the real world.
Marxists - reinforcing class system.
What do functionalists and marxists say about the role of education in society - the selective role - choosing the most able people for the most important jobs?
Functionalists - System is a sieve, meritocratic system where everyone has equal opportunities to succeed. Those who work hard and achieve are rewarded with higher pay levels / status.
Marxist - Education doesn’t provide equal opportunities. Designed to benefit powerful, which is why lower class underperform.
What do functionalists and marxists say about the role of education in society - social control - teaching acceptance of rules and authority
Functionalists - society must be regulated by rules. Schools are an agency of social control.
Marxist - Social control reflects control in the wider society which benefits those in power.
What do functionalists and marxists say about the role of education in society - the political role - teaching people to be effective citizens and creating social cohesion.
Functionalists - acceptance of the political system and will exercise rights wisely.
Marxists - Only certain political opinions and ideas are tolerated, radical ideas are rejected.
