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

Overall 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. A high score indicated a
positive attitude towards structured ability grouping. The most positive attitudes to
ability grouping were exhibited by the PE teachers followed by the music and art
teachers. Those with the least positive attitudes were the drama teachers (see table 6).
These differences were highly significant statistically (F = 6.35, df = 3,190, p = .0001)
and appeared between all groups of subject teachers except those of music with drama
and art. These findings mirrored those reported earlier regarding which subjects were
considered suitable for mixed ability teaching. Teachers with the most positive
attitudes towards ability grouping reported that their subject was least suitable for
mixed ability teaching.

Table 6 about here

Multiple regression undertaken to demonstrate the best predictor of attitudes towards
ability grouping demonstrated that of age, gender, subject specialism and type of
school (set, partially set and mixed ability) the best and only significant predictor was
the subject taught (beta = .170, F = 5.68, df = 1,192, p = .018).

Rationale for responses

The open questions provided insights into why the teachers responded as they did.
Reasons given for difficulties with structured ability grouping included those relating
to the nature of the practical subjects which differed from academic subjects in what
was required of pupils:

13

<<   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   >>

More intriguing information