The name is absent

The importance of context

Both theory and evidence here suggest children should be able to focus attention and
thus learn if they feel socially supported and well liked by both peers and adults in
their learning context (e.g. Goodenow, 1993; Ladd, 1990)⁴. For example, studies
focusing on social competence and motivation at school have shown that children
who are accepted by their peers and who have good social skills do better in school.
They have more positive academic achievement motivation and place greater value on
learning generally. In contrast, socially rejected children are at increased risk for
negative outcomes (e.g. Asher & Coie, 1990; Hinshaw, 1992; Wentzel, 1993).

The role of peers as co-learners is also relevant (Slavin, 1990; Stevens & Slavin,
1995). Peers aid understanding and learning through group discussion, sharing of
resources and modelling of academic skills. These aspects of pupil-pupil interaction
should influence achievement and related behaviours through its impact on children’s
expectations for success, self-evaluation and self-efficacy.

Such peer group effects are likely to vary across age. As children get older and
become adolescents the role of the peer group becomes more salient. Group
acceptance is more important and the time spent with peers is increasingly
unsupervised. Consequently, adolescents are likely to be especially susceptible to peer
group influences on their interests, goals and values (see Eccles et al., 1989; Wigfield
et al., 1991).

Pupil-teacher interactions and teacher expectations

Researchers studying pupil-teacher interaction and the classroom climate have
separated factors such as teacher personality and warmth from teacher instruction and
managerial style. As within the context of the family, these proximal class/school
processes are influenced on other aspects of a teacher’s cognitions and related
practices. For example, student achievement and attitudes are maximised when
teacher warmth and supportiveness occur alongside clear and efficient structured and
focused teaching (Fraser & Fisher, 1982; Moos, 1979).

One common claim in the literature is that working class pupils receive a smaller
amount of teacher time and attention than their middle class peers (see Foster et al.,
1996) for a review). These classroom inequalities are often explained as the product
of differential teacher attitudes towards or expectations of pupils from lower SES
backgrounds. Other investigators highlight the differences in teacher expectations
according to socio-economic factors. For example, Mortimore et al. (1988) found that
even when conditioning on reading, writing and maths attainment, social class
background was still related to teachers’ ratings of pupils’ abilities. Though a small
effect, teachers nevertheless tended to have a more favourable view of those from
non-manual backgrounds, i.e. underrate the ability of working class children and
overestimate that of middle class children. The findings from school effectiveness
literature compound such classroom inequalities by highlighting high teacher

⁴ However, separating out the unique contribution of peer group effects is empirically very
complicated and so we cannot be sure that peer group influences do not also include aspects from
other processes such as pupil-teacher interactions and ability grouping.

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