Ability grouping in the secondary school: attitudes of teachers of practically based subjects

In response to statements relating to behaviour and discipline there was close agreement
between the teachers of the different subjects. Overall, they disagreed that there were
more discipline problems in mixed ability classes and that there were more exclusions
from the lower sets. However, they differed in their responses to questions about
truancy. The music and art teachers more strongly agreed that truancy was greater in
pupils in the lower sets. This was statistically significant (see Table 3 for details).

Ease of teaching ability grouped classes

When teachers were asked to agree or disagree with statements relating to the ease of
teaching in ability grouped classes, there were few significant differences in response.
All of the teachers tended to disagree that only very good teachers could teach mixed
ability classes successfully and that in mixed ability classes teachers tend to teach to
the average child. Overall, there were neutral responses to the statements that setting
made classroom management easier and that teaching was easier when classes were
set. There was a tendency for all the teachers to agree that developing the appropriate
teaching skills necessary to teach a mixed ability class benefited all pupils in the class.
There were statistically significant differences between subject specialisms in relation
to the statement that setting led to teachers ignoring the fact that a class always
contained a range of abilities. The drama teachers most strongly agreed with this
statement, the PE teachers most strongly disagreed. The PE teachers most strongly
agreed that setting enabled pupils’ curriculum needs to be better matched while the
drama teachers most strongly disagreed. These differences were statistically
significant (see Table 4 for details). Music teachers responses fell between the
extremes in relation to all of these statements.

Table 4 about here

Factor analysis

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