Using experiments to investigate education

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  • Created by: Ali682
  • Created on: 06-03-19 10:47
What do sociologists use experiments to study?
Teacher expectations, classroom interaction, labelling, pupils' self-concept and the self-fulfilling prophecy.m
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Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations
Several researchers have used laboratory experiments to investigate teacher expectations. For example, Harvey and Slatin (1976) examined whether teachers had preconceived ideas about pupils of different social classes.
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Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations (2)
Harvey and Slatin used a sample of 96 teachers. Each teacher was shown 18 photographs of children from different social class backgrounds. To control the variables, the photographs were equally divided in terms of gender and ethnicity.
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Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations (3)
The teachers were asked to rate the children on their performance, parental attitudes to education, aspirations and so on.
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Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations (4)
Harvey and Slatin found that lower-class children were rated less favorably, especially by more experienced teacher. Teachers based their ratings on the similarities they perceived between the children in the photographs and pupils they had taught.
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Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations (5)
This study indicates that teachers label pupils from different social classes and use these labels to pre-judge pupil's potential.
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Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations (6)
Such experiments may be passed on to pupils through non-verbal communication. Charkin et al (1975) used a sample of 48 university students who each taught a lesson to a ten year old boy.
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Charkin et al
Videoed the lessons and found that those in the high expectancy group made more eye contact and gave out more encouraging body language than the low expectancy group.
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Mason (1973)
Looked at whether negative and positive expectations had the greater effect. Teachers were given positive, negative or neutral reports on a pupil. The teachers then observed video recordings of the pupil taking a test, watching to see if any errors
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Mason (1973) (2)
were made. Finally they were asked to predict the pupils' end of year attainment. Mason found that the negative reports had a much greater impact than the positive ones on the teachers' expectations.
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Ethical problems
Laboratory experiments that do not involve real pupils have fewer ethical problems than those that do. Neither Mason nor Harvey and Slatin used real pupils, so no child suffered any negative effects. However others such as Charkin et al have used rea
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Ethical problems (2)
However others such as Charkin et al have used real pupils and this raises ethical concerns. Young people's vulnerability and their more limited ability to understand what is happening mean that there are greater problems.
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Narrow focus
Laboratory experiments usually only examine one specific aspect of teacher expectations such as body language. This can be useful because it allows researcher to isolate and examine this variable more thoroughly.
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Narrow focus (2)
However this means that teacher expectations are not seen within the wider process of labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy.
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Practical problems
There are practical problems in conducting experiments on teachers' expectations in schools. Schools are large, complex institutions in which many variables may affect teacher expectations. For example their expectations may be influenced by a wide
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Practical problems (2)
range of variables such as class size, streaming, type of school. In practice, it is impossible even to identify let alone control all the variables that might exert an influence on teachers' expectations.
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Practical problems (3)
Sociologists are often interested in the role of large-scale factors and processes such as the impact of government policies on educational achievement which cannot be studied in small-scale laboratory settings.
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Artificiality
The artificiality of laboratory experiments may mean that they tell us little about the real world of education. For example, Charkin used university students rather than teachers and Harvey and Slatin used photos of pupils rather than real pupils.
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Artificiality (2)
It is unlikely that university students behave in the same way as experienced teachers, and teachers' expectations are based on more than just pupils' appearance. For example behavior, accent and impressions of parents may all play a part.
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Field experiments and teacher expectations
Concerns about laboratory experiments have led some sociologists to use field experiments located in real educational settings instead. However these too have their limitations.
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Field experiments and teacher expectations (2)
Rosenthal and Jacobon's (1968) 'pygmalion in the classroom' illustrates the difficulties of using field experiments to study teacher expectations.
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Rosenthal and Jacobon (1968)
Carried out research in a California primary school they called 'Oak School'. Pupils were given an IQ test and teachers were told that this had enabled the researchers to identify the 20% of pupils who were likely to 'spurt' in the next year.
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Rosenthal and Jacobon (1968) (2)
In reality the test did no such thing and the pupils were in fact selected at random.
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Rosenthal and Jacobon
Had two aims. Firstly to plant in the minds of the teachers a particular set of expectations about their pupils. Secondly, to see if this had an effect on pupil performance.
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Rosenthal and Jacobon (2)
Because the 'spurters' were selected at random, there was no reason to expect their performance would be any different to others in the class unless teacher expectations had an influence.
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Rosenthal and Jacobon (3)
All the pupils were re-tested 8 months later and then again after a further year. Over the first 8 months, pupils gained on average 8 IQ points, but the 'spurters' gained 12 points.
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Ethical problems
Field experiments in educational settings pose major ethical problems. The potential impact of the Oak school experiment on pupils is substantial. For example while the 'spurters' benefited from from the study, the remaining 80% of pupils did not.
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Ethical problems (2)
Some may have been held back educationally because they received less attention and encouragement from teachers. Children have more rights now than in the 1960s and the duty of care that schools have today means this experiment cannot be carried out.
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Ethical problems (3)
Field experiments work best when those involved are unaware that they are in an experiment. Yet this requires deception- in this case Rosenthal and Jacobson had to deceive the teachers. Had they known the true nature of the IQ test and the purpose of
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Ethical problems (4)
the research, it would have been impossible to plant expectations in their minds and the experiment would have failed in its purpose.
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Reliability
Rosenthal and Jacobson's research design was relatively simple and therefore easy to repeat. Within 5 years of the original study, it had been repeated no less than 242 times. However given all the many differences between school classes.
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Validity
Rosenthal and Jacobson claimed that teachers' expectations were passed on through differences in ways they interacted with pupils. However the researchers did not carry out observations of classroom interaction, they had no data to support the claim.
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Validity (2)
Later studies that did use observation such as Claiborn (1969) found no evidence of teacher expectations being passed on through classroom interactions.
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Broader focus
However Rosenthal and Jacobson did look at the whole labelling process from teacher expectations through to their effect on pupils rather than just examining single elements in isolation. Their study was longitudinal so trends over time were known.
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Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations

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Several researchers have used laboratory experiments to investigate teacher expectations. For example, Harvey and Slatin (1976) examined whether teachers had preconceived ideas about pupils of different social classes.

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Laboratory experiments and teacher expectations (2)

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