Processes within schools: key terms
12 terms. Say the definition out loud, tap to check, then say whether you knew it. Back to the topic
These cards were written by the site from the specification, mark schemes and examiners' reports and are being checked by our Sociology tutor; tell us if you spot an error.
Streaming
Placing pupils in a class for all subjects according to their ability.
Exam tip Distinguish it from setting (ability groups subject by subject). Ball and Gillborn and Youdell show the lower streams are disproportionately working class.
Setting
Grouping pupils by ability separately in each subject.
Exam tip Do not treat setting and streaming as the same thing; mark schemes credit the distinction.
Educational triage
Sorting pupils into those who will pass anyway, those who can be helped to pass, and hopeless cases, then focusing on the middle group.
Exam tip Gillborn and Youdell. Link it to league tables and the A-to-C economy.
Ideal pupil
The teacher's picture of the perfect pupil, usually one with middle-class, white, often female characteristics.
Exam tip Becker's idea, extended by Archer. Use it to explain labelling of working-class and minority ethnic pupils.
Pupil subculture
A group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour patterns.
Exam tip Lacey: they form as a result of streaming. Name the type (pro- or anti-school) when you apply it.
Differentiation
The process of teachers categorising pupils according to how they see their ability or attitude.
Exam tip Lacey's term, paired with polarisation. Explain the link between the two for a developed point.
Polarisation
Pupils responding to streaming by moving to one of two opposite poles, pro-school or anti-school.
Exam tip Lacey's term. Show how it leads to subcultures rather than just defining it.
Anti-school subculture
A group that gains status by rejecting the school's values, for example by truanting or messing around.
Exam tip Willis's lads are an example. Say how it lowers achievement and why pupils join it (status frustration).
Counter-school culture
Willis's term for the lads' culture of resistance, which prepared them for manual work.
Exam tip Use it to challenge correspondence theory: the lads chose their path.
Pupil identities
The sense of self pupils form at school, shaped by class, gender and ethnicity and by how teachers see them.
Exam tip Archer's 'Nike identities' are a good example of working-class identity clashing with school.
Teacher expectations
The beliefs a teacher holds about how well a pupil will do, which may shape how the teacher treats them.
Exam tip Rosenthal and Jacobson's Oak School study is the classic evidence; later studies have struggled to repeat it, which gives you an evaluation point.
Subculture types
Woods's range of pupil responses: ingratiation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion.
Exam tip Use them to evaluate Lacey's simple pro/anti split: real responses are more varied.
Work with an AQA sociology tutor
Definitions fine but the 4-markers slipping? Message us.