Secondary school teachers’ attitudes towards and beliefs about ability grouping

around in these groups of quite challenging youngsters for the whole of
their time, virtually from the minute they come into school and I think you
end up with a real problem about disaffection. (English teacher, mixed
ability school)

Beliefs about the effects of ability grouping on teaching

Teachers beliefs about the effects of ability grouping on their teaching are given in
Table 5. There was no consensus that setting leads to teachers ignoring the fact that a
class always contains a range of abilities or that only very good teachers can teach
mixed ability classes successfully. There was strong overall agreement that teaching
and classroom management are easier for the teacher when classes are set and that
setting enables pupils’ curriculum needs to be better matched, although there were
significant differences in responses from teachers working in schools adopting
different grouping procedures.

Table 5 about here

Subject domains considered appropriate for mixed ability teaching

Teachers were asked which subjects they felt were suitable for teaching in mixed
ability classes in years 7, 8 and 9, in years 7 and 8 only, in year 7 only or not at all.
Table 5 illustrates the responses. English and humanities were the subjects considered
most suitable for mixed ability teaching. Those considered most unsuitable were

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