Secondary school teachers’ attitudes towards and beliefs about ability grouping

Secondary school teachers’ attitudes towards and beliefs about
ability grouping

Abstract

Background. Internationally and historically considerable research has been
undertaken regarding the attitudes of secondary school teachers towards different
types of ability grouping. There has been no recent research taking account of the
changing educational context in the UK.

Aims. This paper aims to explore secondary school teachers’ attitudes and beliefs
about ability grouping taking account of school type, gender, experience and
qualifications.

Sample. The sample comprised over 1500 teachers from 45 schools divided into three
groups based on their ability grouping practices in years 7-9. The sample included all
the lower school teachers of mathematics, science and English and a random sample
of teachers from other subjects in each school.

Methods. Teachers responded to a questionnaire which explored their attitudes
towards ability grouping through the use of rating scales and open ended questions.

Results. The findings showed that the teachers’ beliefs broadly reflected research
findings on the actual effects of ability grouping, although there were significant

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