setting ensured that the brighter children made maximum progress where the PE teachers
most strongly agreed followed by the music teachers. The drama teachers most strongly
disagreed with this statement.
Table 3 about here
Beliefs about the personal and social educational outcomes for pupils
When the focus of the statements was pupils’ personal and social development, the
pattern of responses was similar to that for beliefs about the impact on able pupils, i.e.
structured ability groupings were seen to favour the more able children. Table 3 gives
the means and statistical significance of differences. The teachers most strongly
indicating that ability grouping had little impact on personal and social education
outcomes were the PE teachers.
Equity issues
Table 3 illustrates the responses given in relation to the equity of opportunity afforded
different groups of children within different grouping structures. There were no
statistically significant differences in relation to a range of statements relating to the
equity of ability grouping except in relation to mixed ability classes providing the less
able with role models of achievement (see Table 3 for details). The drama teachers
agreed with this statement significantly more strongly than the other teachers. The
music teachers agreed with this statement significantly less strongly.
Behaviour, attendance at and exclusion from school
10