Ball

• Case study, observations
• Setting in secondary schools
• Students conform to the expectations their band
• Band 1 were the most able, band 3 the least able
• First year pupils were put into one of three bands or streams. They were placed here based on the information provided by their primary school. Band 1 was the most able and band 3 was the least able. 

  He compared these pupils and their performance with pupils being taught in mixed ability classes. With this group he observed when the pupils arrived at school they were conformist and eager but their behaviour got worse over time. 
• Conformist - a person who behaves in a way that is considered acceptable by most people who avoid doing things that could be considered different or unusual. 
• Band 1 child: Has the academic potential and is likely to stay for 6th form. They are able to concentrate in lessons and know what their teachers want from them. They are grammar school material. 
• Band 2 child: They are not interested in school work and often lack concentration. They can be lazy, rowdy and immature which means that they don’t join in discussions well as well as losing/forgetting their school books. 
• Band 3 child: They tend to have a low ability level and have an anti-school attitude (more likely to become a part of a subculture). They don’t have a mature view and tend to be emotionally unstable. They can be seen as a waste of time in school.
• It shows how streaming can affect a student's progress. It can cause students' behaviour to deteriorate. This can be seen as labelling and the damaging self-fulfilling prophecy which is given to students when they are labelled as a ‘band 3 child’.
• Can be seen as outdated as there have been a lot of changes in education since and setting and streaming is now more popular. Gathered his research from only one school which means that it isn’t possible to generalise from his research.