Topic 2

Refers to the way students become divided into two opposing groups or 'poles'; those in the top streams who achieve highly, who more or less conform and therefore achieve high status in terms of the vales and aims of the school, and those in the bottom streams who are labelled as failures and are therefore deprived of status.

Where teachers judge students by their hard work, behaviour and exam success and then rank or categorise them into groups (streams/sets) according to such criteria.

A group organized around a set of values, attitudes and behaviour which generally conforms to the academic aims, ethos and rules of the school.

A group organized around a set of values, attitudes and behaiour in opposition to the main aims of  school.

A smaller culture held by a group of people within the main culture of a society in some ways different from the main culture but with many aspects in common.

Refers to the process of defining a person or group in a certain way- as a particular 'type' of a person or group.

 A generalized oversimplified view of the features of a social group, allowing for few individual differences between members of the group.

When pupil becomes stereotyped either favourbly or unfavourbly on the basis of earlier impressions.

Where people act in response to predictions which have been made regarding their behaviour, thereby making the prediction come true.

Either s where schools try to ensure their intakes have a spread of pupils drawn from all bands of ability or more commonly s used as an alternative word for streaming.

Where in schools students are divided into groups of similar ability (bands or streams) in which they stay for all subjects.

Where students are divided into groups (sets) of the same ability in particular subjects.

Maths, english and science.

Refers to the way schools divide pupils into three groups:

-Those who are likely to succeed i exams

-Those who have a chance of succeeding if they get some extra help

-Those who have little chance of succeeding whatever is done

Schools concentrate on the first two groups and particularly the second group and basically write-off those who have lttle chance of success.