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

Subjects considered suitable for mixed ability teaching

Teachers were asked if they thought that their subject was suitable for mixed ability
teaching. 94% of the drama teachers agreed that it was, 3% disagreed; 89% of art
teachers agreed, 4% disagreed; 84% of the music teachers agreed, 12% disagreed; and
83% of the PE teachers agreed and 16% disagreed. The remainder failed to respond.
These differences were not statistically significant.

Current grouping practices and preferred grouping practices

Most of the classes which the teachers taught were mixed ability. In art 92%, music
86%, drama 80% and PE 58%. In PE, mixed ability grouping in year 7 followed by
some kind of setting in years 8 and 9 was prevalent in 14% of cases. For the
remaining teachers a range of practices were in operation including setting (where
pupils are grouped according to attainment for each subject) and banding (where
pupils are grouped broadly in bands in terms of general attainment and may also be in
sets for particular subjects). There were no statistically significant differences in the
way that the pupils were grouped in each of the three types of school (set, partially
set, mixed ability) in year 7 for these practical subjects, but in years 8 and 9 the
schools which overall adopted high levels of setting had statistically significantly
higher levels of ability grouping in the practical subjects than the mixed ability or
partially set schools.

When asked if they had any reservations about the grouping practices adopted in their
schools there were no statistically significant differences between the teachers of the
different disciplines (see Table 1). Overall, most teachers had no or only small
reservations about the practices adopted in their school, although 70% of music

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