Nurturing learning or encouraging dependency? Teacher constructions of students in lower attainment groups in English secondary schools

Abstract

'Ability' or attainment grouping can introduce an additional label that influences teachers' expectations of students in specific attainment groups. This paper is based on a survey of 597 teachers across 82 schools and 34 teacher interviews in 10 schools undertaken as part of a largescale mixed-methods study in England. The paper focuses on English and mathematics teachers' expectations of secondary school students in lower attainment groups, and explores how low-attaining students are constructed as learners who benefit from specific approaches to learning justified through discourses of nurturing and protection. The authors argue that the adoption of different pedagogical approaches for groups of low-attaining learners to nurture them may in some cases be fostering dependency on teachers and cap opportunities for more independent learning. Furthermore, more inclusive wholeschool learning-culture approaches may better allow for students across the attainment range to become independent learners.

The misallocation of students to academic sets in maths: A study of secondary schools in England

“…Given that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are over-represented in low sets, any inequality of resources or pedagogy will disproportionately impact this group of students, with implications for the reproduction of social inequality (see e.g. Francis et al, 2017b;Mazenod et al, 2019).…”

Learners’ attitudes to mixed-attainment grouping: examining the views of students of high, middle and low attainment

“…The following reason given by one of our study participants could appear to confirm the existing belief among the proponents of setting that low attainers would be intimidated and disheartened by challenging work and the faster pace of the mixed-attainment lessons (for discussion see Mazenod et al 2018;Hallam and Ireson 2005;Rosenbaum 1999). …”

La Segregación Invisible: Prácticas Punitivas y de Ordenamiento Académico en Escuelas Chilenas

“…Por una parte, los promotores de estas políticas han indicado que la generación de cursos homogéneos facilita el trabajo de los docentes, permite una mayor especialización de las estrategias pedagógicas para alumnos con diferentes capacidades o habilidades, y contribuyen con una mayor equidad en el avance de los aprendizajes del conjunto de estudiantes de cada sala de clases (Bolick y Rogowsky, 2016;Duflo, Dupas y Kremer, 2011). En cambio, sus detractores han señalado que la aplicación de estos mecanismos podría perjudicar seriamente a los jóvenes que asisten a cursos con alumnos con menores habilidades, incrementando la inequidad, dañando el desempeño de corto y largo plazo, e influyendo en las expectativas, auto-estima, auto-concepto, motivación y confianza de los estudiantes (Belfi et al, 2012;Bolick y Rogowsky, 2016;Francis et al, 2017Francis et al, , 2019Mazenod et al, 2018;Oakes, 2008;Tereshchenko et al, 2018).…”