One of the biggest debates in our Maths office is about setting versus mixed ability teaching. It is something I feel increasingly passionate about as it is just plain as day to me the negative effects that setting has on pupils, and I am not just talking about low ability but low and high. It is really something I intend to focus my teaching career on. Just today (like most days), I saw the massive positive effects of having an unsetted class compared to other years where classes were set. The motivation, determination, self-confidence and therefore results of the pupils is amazing. And it just so happened that also today a friend and colleague forwarded me an article about mixed ability and setting. Considering I have decided to focus my life on ending setting, I thought I would share a bit the article here:
In secondary schools, Students' experiences of ability grouping similarly suggests that setting in mathematics has a negative effect on both attainment and motivation, with the exception of slightly improved attainment for top set pupils. The authors conclude that setting promotes a more inflexible style of teaching than mixed ability classes, and creates unreasonably low or high expectations for the pupils in the lower and top sets.
The effects of ability setting on teaching practices and the curriculum in the secondary school example included:
The study also showed that working class pupils were disproportionately represented in the lower sets, considering their Key Stage 3 scores (I CAN DEFINITELY TESTIFY TO THIS!).
Taken from http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/toolsandinitiatives/tripsresearchdigests/a0013256/themes-pupil-grouping-and-organisation-of-classes
In secondary schools, Students' experiences of ability grouping similarly suggests that setting in mathematics has a negative effect on both attainment and motivation, with the exception of slightly improved attainment for top set pupils. The authors conclude that setting promotes a more inflexible style of teaching than mixed ability classes, and creates unreasonably low or high expectations for the pupils in the lower and top sets.
The effects of ability setting on teaching practices and the curriculum in the secondary school example included:
- the best teachers being allocated to the top sets, despite evidence that high quality teaching is more beneficial to lower attaining pupils
- curriculum polarisation, which meant that moving between sets was very difficult because they followed different syllabi
- unreasonable expectations of the top sets, reflected in a fast, procedural teaching style
- a lack of differentiation within sets, leading to many pupils finding the pace either too fast or too slow.
The study also showed that working class pupils were disproportionately represented in the lower sets, considering their Key Stage 3 scores (I CAN DEFINITELY TESTIFY TO THIS!).
Taken from http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/toolsandinitiatives/tripsresearchdigests/a0013256/themes-pupil-grouping-and-organisation-of-classes
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