AQA A-Level Sociology : Methods in Context (education)

USING EXPERIMENTS TO STUDY EDUCATION

1) application in the classroom

- use field experiments to study aspects of classroom life

- has clear boundaries,e.g. space and time

- easier to control situation

2) reliability

- not exactly replicable but can be repeated in broadly similar ways

3) ethical problems

- pupils = more vulnerable and less aware of what's happening, so less able to give informed consent

4) limited application

- small-scale and can usually only examine a single aspect of behaviour

5) controlling all the variables

- schools = large complex institutions, many variables affect teachers and pupils.

USING QUESTIONNAIRES TO STUDY EDUCATION

1) practical issues

- good for gathering large quantities of data

2) sampling frames

- schools are a good source of ready made sampling frames. keep lists of teachers and pupils

3) response rate

- often low, but in schools they're higher

- once headteacher has put their authority behind the research, parents, teachers and pupils may be under pressure to cooperate

4) researching pupils

- children = short attention span so short questionnaires are more effective.

- poor lit skills may be a barrier

5) validity

- life experiences of children are narrower so they might not know the answers to questions. this means questionnaires are of little value.

USING STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS TO STUDY EDUCATION

1) response rate:

- less disruptive to school's activities bc short

- more likely to receive official support for research and hierarchical nature of the school may then work in their favour and increase the response rate

2) reliability

- easy to replicate. large-scale patterns in education behaviour can be identified

3) validity

- children tend to have better verbal skills than literacy skills, so they're more successful. but formal nature means pupils are unlikely to feel at ease.

4) ethical issues

- parental permission may be required. whether it's given or not depends on the sensitivity of the research topic

USING UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS TO STUDY EDUCATION

1) practical issues

- may be inarticulate or reluctant to talk, so this gives them time, space and encouragement work out their responses.

- younger children have a shorter attention span, so it may be too demanding

2) validity

- misunderstanding can be cleared up

- may present contradictory or irrelevant responses to the questions

3) reliability

- to make pupils feel at ease, some interviewers try to maintain a relaxed environment. this can' be standardised so diff interviewers can get v diff results

4) interviewer training

-need to be trained not to interrupt children's answers, to tolerate long pauses and avoid repeating questions

USING STRUCTURED OBSERVATION TO STUDY EDUCATION

1) practical issues

- classroom is well suited.

- quicker, cheaper and observer needs less training

- some school situations (playground) involve too many different behaviours to be categorised

2) reliability

- range of classroom behaviours is limited so a limited number of behaviour categories can be established.

- generates quantitative data, easily to compare

3) valid

- int: criticise for lack of validity. ignores meanings that pupils and teachers attach to behaviour

4) observer presence

- presence can be off-putting. likely to affect teacher's and pupil's behaviour, so less valid.

USING PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION TO STUDY EDUCATION

1) validity

- allows researcher to gain acceptance by pupils = more valid data. overcomes problem of status differences between pupil and researcher

2) ethical issues

- pupils are more vulnerable than adults and may not be able to give informed consent.

- greater issues when dealing with terms of protecting the school's identity

- poor image can damage the schools rep.

3) Hawthorne Effect

- have to be overt (few covert opportunities)

- teachers may be suspicious of an observer in their classroom and alter their normal behaviour.

4) representativeness

- can only be carried out on a v. small scale

USING OFFICIAL STATISTICS TO STUDY EDUCATION

1) practical issues

- government collects statistics from every school in the country

- saves sociologists time and money. allows them to make comparisons

- official definitions of key concepts and issues may differ from those that sociologists use

2) representativeness

- high representative bc they cover virtually every pupil in the country

3) reliability

- uses standard definitions and categories in the collection of educational statistics.

- same collection process is replicated each year, allowing direct comparisons to be made.

USING DOCUMENTS TO STUDY EDUCATION

1) practical issues

- large amount of information about education is made publicly available (e.g. school policy statements, school brochures and websites)

2) ethical issues

- few concerns bc placed in public domain

- more issues w personal documents, e.g. school reports, pupils' workbooks, teachers' diaries, etc.

3) credibility

- public documents give the 'official' picture of what's happening in a school or college.

- in an education market, schools want to present themselves in the most positive way

- many documents are constructed with a parental audience in mind.

- less believable and less valid