Education

teacher student relationships

A great one for teachers and a good one for students to consider the importance and difficulties of teacher student relationships in school.
Read it here.

AQA AS and A2 revision handouts

These form part of the revision pack I put together for students.  They include a checklist of topics (from the specification) and examples of all past questions up to the most recent summer exam (I hold back the January exams for mocks).

The AS guide is for Unit 1: Families and Households and Unit 2: Education with Research Methods
The A2 guide is for Unit 3: Mass Media and Unit 4: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods.

Please feel free to adapt and use.

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GCSE sample answers - education

An exercise looking at, and marking, sample 5 mark answers to help develop an understanding of the marking criteria at GCSE.

Remember to take the marks out when giving to students!

5_mark_sample_answers_teacher_version.docx

Media and Image

This is a fantastic commentary of the images of women portrayed by the media, commenting on how they project an impossibly flawless ideal.  Jean Kilbourne argues, not just that this image leads to increasing eating disorders and mental health issues among teenage girls, but that the objectification of women’s bodies contributes to a growth in violence against women.

Watch the video and see if you agree.

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Contraception

Useful article about the impact of the introduction of the contraceptive pill.

GCSE quizzes and games

If anybody else is feeling like me at the moment, then it is a good time to (re)discover Chris Gardner’s excellent website: lots of quizzes, games and notes for GCSE Sociology, several of which I use profitably with AS level as well.
Link.

Research methods: questionnaires

A great online exercise for evaluating questionnaires. 
http://wads.le.ac.uk/gg/orm/timingform.htm

Gender and educational achievement

An interesting link I came across recently which explores the issue of boys underachievement at GCSE in more depth.  There is a chapter you can download, along with a presentation, both of which contain useful information that could be adapted for use with sixth-former, or potentially GCSE students.

African-Caribbean underachievement

Interesting and baldly stated article about reasons for underachievement by black boys.  A good starting point for a lesson.

Gender and education

Following the departure of Sky Sports’ broadcaster Richard Keys and Andy Gray for sexist remarks, the question of gender is a pertinent one for discussion.  Is Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson right to suggest that the row is ‘baffling and worrying’?  Or, should we be more concerned that the gender pay gap for full-time employees is 10.2% (2009, ONS)?

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Unequal Opportunities

This report suggests that despite the expansion in higher education we are not seeing higher levels of social mobility. Not all universities are equal, so it seems, and the key to ending up in a higher ranked occupational category and indeed income group, is to get to one of the Russell Group of leading universities.

Education and Social Elites

A topical one today if you’re revising education and social mobility/education and the social structure. Have a look at this interesting article on the BBC Magazine webpage.  Tomorrow I’ll try to upload a pic I took of the media village on Westminster Green.

More League Tables

Well, in today’s Guardian check out this fascinating table of international university rankings.  Students - I side with the comments on The Guardian which cast considerable doubt on this heap of massaged statistics.  Your task is to explain why these statistics are probably, most likely, sorely lacking in both validity and reliability

. I’ll even allow you to use the posted comments as a source of ideas.

When I Grow Up - Last Four Days

Very interesting programme on R4 which uses data from the Nuffield study and brings in updates on social mobility,education and parental influence.  Four days left to listen to it on iPlayer.

You can find out more about the Centre for Longitudinal Studies by clicking on the highlighted text.  I will post more on the CLS next week.

Education and the State

Cambridge University is hosting what look to be some quite interesting lectures on the relationship between education and the state. Speakers will include David Hargreaves, Stephen Ball, Anna Fazackerley, Estelle Morris, John Bangs and Philip Blond. Due to the marvels of ICT the lectures will be available as podcasts. Probably challenging material for AS/A students, so hey, teachers, do your students a favour and guide them through, make a handout, or something like that.  I’m sure these lectures will provide some much needed material to freshen up our rather jaded AS/A take on education and the state.

Inequalities, Lifechances and Education

Here’s a BBC report detailing the continued gap between the affluent and those at the bottom of the social ladder.  This seems to have been going on for as long as I can remember and gives pause for thought about sociological perspectives. Maybe one thing Marx got wrong was his underestimation of capitalism’s incredible ability to tolerate inequalities. It seems a system far from being close to collapse through revolution as envisaged by Marx.  Perhaps more likely now, some might argue, is collapse due to man made environmental catastrophe. Discuss.

Education and Equality

A bit political, a bit controversial today, but I saw this today in The Guardian and thought it was spot on. There’s a fair bit of sociology in it too, towards the end. I guess you could argue that Hanley oversimplifies a bit, but I’ve been one of those who have found New Labour, well, just a bit too ‘New’ if I can put it that way for now. For me, this hits the nail pretty much on the head. But then, perhaps I’m just a simplistic, unreconstructed old leftie?

Quote for the Week coming up tomorrow and somewhere in the T2U machinery there’s another quiz waiting to be published.

Have a great weekend.

The BNP, Education and the British Working Class

The furore over the inclusion of BNP Nick Griffin on tonight’s Question Time, has prompted a lot of discussion in the media. Last night the BBC’s Newsnight, got in their two pence worth.  If you missed it, click on the link to iPlayer and have a listen. It’s somewhere around halfway through I should think.

In amongst all the debate about Griffin, Newsnight did some very interesting contextualisation.

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Sociological Words

A good lesson for me yesterday.  I was looking at an exam paper.  Explain the meaning, said the questions, of the terms ‘professional’ and ‘status’.  So, being a typical teacher parent, I tried them out on my 15 year old son. Intriguing answers…

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More on Uni Statements

Following my earlier posting, it’s worth reading this article on the Guardian carefully before reaching any hasty conclusions.

University Entrance and Meritocracy

Here’s something to make you laugh - or cry - in the exam season. I saw this in the Times yesterday, and I have to confess, that my reaction was just to laugh.  Sorry for all those who spent hours slaving over their personal statements. This is what happens when plagiarism becomes rife.  For sociology students though, it does beg a serious question: will this promote meritocracy, or will it make no significant difference?

Educational Attainment and Ethnicity

Here are some revision notes on educational attainment and ethnicity. As previously, think in terms of input factors and school factors.

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Gender and Educational Attainment

Gender can come up a fair bit - but you can use the basic input/school factors approach I outlined the other day to tackle them – simply add relevant studies. Here are a few pointers.  Tomorrow - ethnicity and educational attainment.

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Education - School Factors

As promised yesterday, today a few points on the other side of the explanation for differences in educational attainment. Yesterday I briefly viewed the explanations which put the cause of differential attainment firmly on the side of the pupil - in terms of factors like IQ and class. But suppose it’s nothing to do with pupils social background - how would such explanations work?

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