INTERACTIONISM

• what do interactionists focus on?


  They focus on the processes within schools for example labelling and setting and streaming to explain why some students do better than others

  it looks at the way students and teachers look and react to one another
• What is labelling 


  making a stereotype judgment or assumption

  based on an individual’s abilities their potential and behaviour and it can be positive or negative aswell as interchangeable
• Which theorist looks at labelling

  Becker
• what is self concept 


  changing your behaviour based on other views
• what is the self fulfilling prophecy 


  Living up the the label
• what is the halo effect 


  the student knows their potential and some peers are envious
• Rosenthal and Jacobsen 


  Research was an experiment

  fake IQ test in a school to see if the student had potential

  results were given and teachers were given the best scores

  teachers treated them differently for example if they got a high IQ score treated in a positive way like more motivation and more one on one time
• what is setting


  based on specific subjects for example maths and science
• what is streaming 


  based on ability across the curriculum for example on average
• Nell Keddie (1970)


  observed classes from different streams studying the same humanities subject in a London secondary school

  in the lower streams the teachers simplified the content to the extent that learning was based on common sense ideas

  however in higher streams were taught more abstract concepts giving them a greater chance to develop their understanding
• Hargreaves (1967)


  found that students in lower streams who had been labelled as more likely to be troublemakers rebelled against the values of the school.
• Ball (1981)


  looks at the impact of setting and streaming

  studied the banding system in a comprehensive school. pupils were placed in one of three bands based on reports from their primary school

  however working class pupils were more likely than middle class pupils to be placed in lower bands even though their measured abilities were the same in primary education

  behaviour in lower bands got worse once they began secondary and teachers had low expectations of them and directed them towards practical subjects and lower level exams and then did the reverse for the higher bands
• Hallam (2009)


  he measured how likely it was for pupils in different sets to have a positive self concept.

  they used questionnaires to study pupils aged 14 and 15 in 23 secondary schools

  they found that those in higher sets were more likely to have a positive academic self concept

  this also made them more likely to look positively at staying on in education
• Gillborn and youdell (1999)


  found that those placed in lower sets were often denied the chance to sit higher tier GCSE exams meaning they could not get grades higher than a grade C
• Evaluation of interactionism 


  some students have an unfair opportunity

  not ethical if it is fake

  children are being lied to