AQA A-Level Sociology Methods in Context Summary Notes
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Course
Methods in Context
Institution
AQA
Summary notes for the methods in context topic of the education module in sociology AQA. Includes sociologists, case studies, definitions, comparisons and evaluations.
LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND TEACHER EXPECTATIONS:
- 'Expectancy effects': pupils played into the expectations teachers had of them.
- 'Halo vs horn' effect.
CASE STUDY - HARVEY AND SLATIN:
- Method: 18 photos of children from different social classes.
- Findings: working class labelled less favourably (teachers label and prejudge student
potential).
CASE STUDY - CHARKIN ET AL:
- Method: lessons with 10 year old boys.
- Findings: those that were told the boy was a high achiever showed encouraging body
language when teaching him.
CASE STUDY - MASON:
- Method: positive/negative/neutral reports on pupils given to teachers and then were
shown videos of students taking a test, asking them for first impressions.
- Findings: negative reports had a greater impact on the teacher's expectations.
CASE STUDY - ROSENTHAL AND JACOBSON:
- Sample: Californian primary school.
- Method: pupil IQ test, told teachers the test would identify 20% of high achievers
(deception - pupils were selected at random).
PRACTICAL PROBLEMS:
- Schools are large and complex institutions which means that experiments are too
small scale.
- Many variables to identify let alone control: class size, type of school, streaming.
ETHICAL PROBLEMS:
- Vulnerable groups.
- Deception (Rosenthal and Jacobson).
- Lack of informed consent.
THEORETICAL ISSUES:
- Narrow focus.
- Artificiality.
THEORETICAL PROBLEMS - NARROW FOCUS:
- Cons:
+ Wider processes are ignored.
+ Contributing variables such as external factors are not considered.
- Pros:
+ Specific observations.
+ Isolated variables and hypothesis testing.
THEORETICAL PROBLEMS - ARTIFICIALITY:
- Lacking in validity.
- Charkin: used university students instead of actual teachers.
- Harvey and Slatin: used photos instead of real pupils.
FIELD EXPERIMENTS AND TEACHER EXPECTATIONS:
- Subjectively interpreted.
ETHICAL ISSUES WITH FIELD EXPERIMENTS:
- Detrimental impact on student progress.
, - Deception is a key feature (improvement of children's rights since 1960s)
THEORETICAL ISSUES WITH FIELD EXPERIMENTS:
- Reliability:
+ Rosenthal and Jacobson's study was repeated 242 times.
+ However, variables cannot be replicated due to differences in teaching styles,
school types etc.
- Validity:
+ No observations of actual classroom interactions.
+ Claiborn: no evidence of teacher expectations passed through interactions.
- Broad focus:
+ Not identifying wider processes of labelling.
+ Can be longitudinal to identify trends over time.
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