Methods and Education Definitions

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  • Created by: skyblue97
  • Created on: 14-04-14 17:57
Case Study
Research that examines a single case or example, often using several methods or sources.
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Closed-Ended Questions
Questions used in a social survey that allow only a limited choice of answers from a pre-set list.
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Comparative Method
A method that compares two social groups that are alike apart from one factor.
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Compensatory Education
Educational policies that tackle the problem of under-achievement by providing extra support and funding to schools and families in deprived areas.
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Comprehensive System
A non-selective education system where all children attend the same type of secondary school.
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Content Analysis
A method of analysing the content of documents and media output to find out how often and in what ways different types of people or events appear.
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Correspondence Principle
Bowels and Gintis' concept of describing the way that the organisation and control of school mirrors the workplace in capitalist society.
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Cultural Deprivation
The theory that many working-class and black children are inadequately socialised and therefore lack the 'right' culture needed for educational success.
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Curriculum
Things taught/learnt in educational institutions.
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Deferred Gratification
Postponing immediate rewards or pleasures, generally with the aim of producing a greater reward at a later date e.g. staying in to revise rather than going out with friends, which will bring success in exams.
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Public Documents
Documents that are produced by organisations like governments, schools, media etc.
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Personal Documents
Documents created by individuals and often provide first hand accounts of events.
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Educational Triage
The process where schools sort pupils into 'hopeless cases', 'those who will pass anyway' and 'those with potential to pass' and then concentrate their efforts on the last of these groups as a way to boost the school's exam league table position.
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Ethnocentric
Seeing or judging things in a biased way from the viewpoint of one particular culture.
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Lab Experiments
A test carried out in controlled conditions in an artificial setting (a lab) to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between two or more variables.
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Field Experiments
Has the same aim as Lab Experiments but is carried out in a natural setting (e.g. a street).
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Hawthorne Effect
Where the subjects of a research study know they are being studied and begin to behave differently as a result, undermining the study's validity.
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Hypothesis
An untested theory/explanation, expressed as a statement. Sociologists seek to prove or disprove hypothesis by testing them against the evidence.
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Immediate Gratification
A preference for immediate pleasure/reward, without regard for the longer term consequences e.g. going out with friends instead of doing homework.
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Informed Consent
Where those taking part in a study have agreed to do so and understand the purpose of the study. the uses to which its findings may be put, and its possible effects.
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Interview Schedule
The list of questions to be asked in the interview.
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Interviews
A method of gathering information by asking questions orally, either face-to-face or by telephone.
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Structured Interviews
Interviews that use pre-set questions, standardised, usually closed-ended questions producing quantitative data.
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Unstructured Interviews
Like a conversation. They use open-ended questions producing qualitative data.
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Labelling
The process of attaching a definition or meaning to an individual or group.
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Longitudinal Study
Study of a sample of people in which info is collected at regular intervals over an extended period of time.
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Macro-level
Theories that focus on a large scale e.g. the social structure as a whole.
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Marketisation
The policy of introducing market forces of supply and demand into areas run by the state e.g. education.
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Material Deprivation
A lack of basic resources. In education, this explains working-class underachievement e.g. parents being unable to afford educational resources, overcrowding deprives children of a quiet study area etc.
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Meritocracy
An educational/social system where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and where individuals' rewards and status are achieved by their own efforts rather than ascribed by their gender, class or ethnic group.
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Micro-level
Theories that focus on small scale, face-to-face interaction e.g. between teacher and pupils in a classroom.
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Non-Participant Observation
A primary research method where the observer records events without taking part in them.
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Official Statistics
Quantitative data collected by the government. They can be gathered by registration or by social surveys.
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Open-ended Questions
Questions in a social survey that allow respondents to answer as they wish.
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Participant Observation
A primary research method in which the sociologist studies a group by taking a role within it and participating in its activities.
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Pilot Study
A trial run done before the main study.
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Primary Data
Information collected first hand by sociologists themselves for their own research purposes.
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Response Rate
The proportion of those people included in a social survey who actually reply or respond to the questions asked.
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Sample
A smaller group selected from the larger survey population to take part in a study.
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Secondary Data
Information collected not by sociologists themselves for their own research purposes, but by other people or organisations for non-sociological purposes.
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Where a prediction made about a person or group comes true simply because it has been made.
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Social Policy
The actions, plans and programmes of government bodies and agencies that aim to deal with a problem or achieve a goal.
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Social Survey
Any research method that involves systematically collecting information from a group of people by asking them questions.
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Restricted Speech Code
Short, grammatically simple sentences and limited vocabulary.
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Streaming
Where children are separated into different ability groups or classes and then each ability group is taught separately from the others for all subjects.
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Subculture
A group of people within society who share norms, values, beliefs and attitudes that are in some ways different from or opposed to the mainstream culture.
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Triangulation
The use of two or more different methods or sources of data so that they compliment each other, the strengths of one countering the weaknesses of the other and vice versa.
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Tripartite System
The system of secondary education created by the 1944 education act based mainly on grammar schools and secondary modern schools.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Questions used in a social survey that allow only a limited choice of answers from a pre-set list.

Back

Closed-Ended Questions

Card 3

Front

A method that compares two social groups that are alike apart from one factor.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Educational policies that tackle the problem of under-achievement by providing extra support and funding to schools and families in deprived areas.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

A non-selective education system where all children attend the same type of secondary school.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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