Using Material from Item a and Elsewhere, Assess the View That Factors and Processes Within the School Are the Main Cause of Differences in the Educational Achievement of Different Social Groups. (20 Marks)

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Sociology. Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the view that factors and processes within the school are the main cause of differences in the educational achievement of different social groups. (20 marks) Streaming: pupils are placed in a class on the basis of their general ability. They remain in that class for most subjects. Banding: is a less rigid form of streaming. Each band contains two or more classes, which may be regrouped for different subjects. Setting: Pupils are placed in classes on the basis of their attainment in particular subjects for example, they may be in set 1 for maths but then set 3 for English. Mixed ability: students are randomly or intentionally mixed in terms of their perceived ability. The processes that take place within the school are classification of pupils, labelling, typing and the self-fulfilling prophecy, banding and streaming and pupil subcultures and identities. Within the school there are major social class, gender and ethnic differences in how pupils do, with much debate about the reasons for these differences. Many sociologists argue that the processes and the factors within the school are the main cause of differences in the educational achievement of different social groups. The positive and negative labelling of pupils by teachers can have important effects on pupil’s performance, this is a good example of how the differences in the educational achievement of different social groups effect in different ways. Hargreaves interviewed teachers and did a classroom observation. He found that at the start of the term the teacher didn’t know about their pupils or had little knowledge about them which would only be limited information such as their appearance or where they are from. Within this observation there were 3 stages of classification, stage 1 was speculation, which included teacher’s

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