Secondary school teachers’ attitudes towards and beliefs about ability grouping

mathematics and modern foreign languages. However, there was a tendency for those
teachers working in schools where mixed ability teaching was the grouping structure
in operation to support mixed ability teaching more than those in the schools with
more setting.

Table 6 about here

Factors affecting attitudes to ability grouping

An overall attitude to setting scale was created by summing responses to the
attitudinal statements described above. Where necessary numerical responses were
reversed so that all responses were in a similar direction. An overall high score
indicated a positive attitude towards setting.

The mean attitude to setting scores for teachers in the set and partially set schools
were almost identical, 93.6 (SD = 16.4) (partially set) and 92.3 (SD = 15.1) (set). The
mean for the mixed ability schools was much lower (84.6, SD = 18.5). This difference
was statistically significant (F = 37.02; df = 2,1348, p = .0001). There were no
significant gender or age differences in teachers’ overall attitudes towards setting.
There were significant gender differences in response to only four statements. These
were very small and showed no consistent pattern. Females agreed more strongly
that setting stigmatised children perceived as less able (means: female 2.53, male 2.7;
t = 2.79, df = 1, 1454, p = .005 ). There was stronger agreement among female
teachers that setting ensures that higher ability children make maximum progress

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