What do the following words mean?

1
Starter activity

• What do the following words mean?
•  
• Formal socialisation
• Social control
• Equality of opportunity
• Vocationalism
• Hidden curriculum
• Meritocracy

2
Answer

• Formal socialisation - deliberately setting out
  to influence people's behaviour
• Social control - the way in which the social
  rules of the cultures within which people live,
  affect their behaviour
• Equality of opportunity - everyone in our society
  has the same chances.
• Vocationalism Preparation for work
• Hidden curriculum - the values that are passed on
  by schools without people realising.
• Meritocracy - the belief that the best people
  will do well in education and get the best jobs

3
Are schools equally good?

• Evaluating the extent to which children have
  equality of opportunity in British schools
• PowerPoint 2

4
Sociological Targets

• To understand that children have very different
  experiences of education.
• To understand that many factors can affect how
  well children do in school many of these are
  social and not intellectual.
• To identify some of the social characteristics
  that predispose children to failure or success.

5
Personal targets

• To think critically about social issues
• To undertake personal research
• To write a paragraph with both AO1 and AO2 skills
  in evidence.

6
The problem for government

• Study of education statistics suggests that the
  British education system favours members of some
  social groups and disadvantages others quite
  significantly.
• Certain individuals may do well if they come from
  disadvantaged groups, but in general, the pattern
  of evidence suggests that they will have to work
  harder to succeed.

7
Government policy

• Governments since the 1980s have tried to improve
  schools by offering parents choices about which
  schools they should send their children to and
  developing competition between schools to provide
  the best service.
• This has led to a variety of schools and school
  systems developing particularly in British cities.

8
Policies encouraging competition

• Publishing League Table results
• Encouraging private investors in schools
• Setting up the Academy programme
• Offering parental choice of schools
• Publishing GCSE and A level league tables
• Inspecting (Ofsted/Estyn) and publishing
  inspection reports

9
Activity

• You are parents who are ambitious for your
  children.
• List five things that you would look for in a
  school when you were making your choices.
• How would you set out about judging a school or
  finding out which was the best school?

10
Parents want the best for children

• Look at
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7304588.stm
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7341179.
  stm
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6403017.stm
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_we
  st/7385280.stm
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7764817.stm

Are all parents equally able to access the
schools with good examination results?
11
Discussion Point

• Are examination results the best way of telling
  the differences in the quality of education
  provided between schools?
• Discuss this question with your study partners
  and make points both for and against.
• (4 minutes)

12
Discussion

• If you were a school in competition with others,
  what kind of pupils would you want to attract in
  order to get the best results?
• What kinds of children would you reject from your
  school if you had the choice?
• What impact has market led government policy had
  on schools and schooling?

13
Independent Schools

• Britain has a fee-paying sector in education,
  which is also known as the independent sector.
• Parents pay money to schools that are run as
  businesses. These schools benefit from large
  amounts of tax-free income because they qualify
  as charities.
• Some of the best of these schools have excellent
  results, but there are many schools with limited
  facilities and poor pay for teachers as well.
• They can select their pupils and train them to
  apply to the best universities.

14
The best schools or the best pupils?

• The problem is that it is difficult to know
  whether schools that produce good examination
  results are actually the best schools.
• Karl Turner found that schools with high
  percentages of pupils with free school meals were
  unlikely to get good inspection reports.
• Schools with the best examination results tend to
  be single sex female, fee paying or in very
  wealthy areas and which select their pupils.

15
Gorard and Tymms (2006)

• Stephen Gorard and Peter Tymms (2006) said that
  pupils' examination results and schools'
  positions in league tables are affected by
• family wealth and pupil's prior ability.
• This relationship may be to do with factors that
  are beyond the control of parents
• poor diet,
• poor health,
• and lack of resources.

16
Summary of key points

• Not all schools are equally as good.
• Schools with the best results generally have
  middle class, wealthy students.
• Some people in Britain can afford expensive
  schools by paying fees.
• It is possible that the results are to do with
  the quality of students rather than the quality
  of teaching and education offered.

17
Assessment

• Write a paragraph in answer to the following
  question.
• Assess the view that competition between schools
  will encourage better education for pupils
• Show clear evidence of both AO1 and AO2 skills in
  your paragraph

18
Alternative schools

• Find out more about Summerhill School, one of the
  most famous alternative schools.
• Watch these video clips from YouTube
• http//uk.youtube.com/watch?vabzUqdh6yKY
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vGdwjvxcJHTA

19
Independent study

• Go to the websites of the following schools and
  find out about the experiences of pupils.
• Eton College
• Summerhill School
• Which school do you prefer?
• Why?