Lab/Field Experiments to study Education

What issues may sociologists use experiments to study?

• Teach expectations

• Classroom interactions

• Labelling

• Pupils’ self concept

• SFP

What did Harvey and Slatin use a lab experiment to investigate?

whether teachers has preconceived ideas about pupils from different social classes

• 96 teachers

• each shown 18 photos of children from different class backgrounds (equally divided in gender/ethnicity)

• asked to rate pupils on performance, parental attitudes to education, aspirations, etc

• lower class children rated less favourably especially by more experienced teachers

How did Charkin et al investigate teacher expectations using a lab experiment?

48 uni students teach lesson to 10 year old boy

• 1/3 told boy is highly motivated + intelligent

• 1/3 told he is poorly motivated + low IQ

• 1/3 given no info

• lessons videoed + high expectancy group make more eye contact + gave out more encouraging body language

What are the ethical problems of using lab experiments to investigate education?

• young people = vulnerable

• lack of informed consent if agreed by parents

What are the theoretical problems of using lab experiments to investigate education?

• narrow focus (e.g. teacher body language) means teacher expectations not seen in wider process of labelling + SFP

• artificial- tell us little about real world of education (e.g. Charkin et al used uni students not teachers, Harvey + Slatin used photos of pupils not real pupils)

What are the practical problems of using lab experiments to investigate education?

• large-scale social factors + processes (e.g. impact of govt policy on achievement) can’t be studied in small-scale lab setting

• many variables shape teacher expectations (e.g. class size, streaming, type of school), impossible to identify + control all variables

How did Rosenthal and Jacobson use a field experiment to investigate education?

‘Pygmalion in the Classroom’, researched California ‘Oak School’ to find out about teacher expectations

• Pupils given IQ test, teachers told this allows researcher to identify top 20% = spurters, but pupils selected randomly

• Pupils re-tested 8 months and a year later

• In 1st 8 months growth = average 8 points, spurters = 12

• Greatest performance improvement in youngest children (6-8)

• After a year, ‘expectancy advantage’ only affects 10-11

What are the ethical problems with using field experiments to investigate education?

• Oak School- 80% pupils don’t benefit as not ‘spurters’, some held back educationally as receive less attention + encouragement from teachers

• Children have more rights today than in 1960s, legal duty of care of schools for children = hard to do experiments

• Rosenthal + Jacobson had to deceive teachers

What are the practical advantages of using field experiments to investigate education?

simple research design of Rosenthal + Jacobson = easy to repeat, repeated 242x in 5 years of original study BUT original can’t be replicated exactly

What are the theoretical issues of using field experiments to investigate education?

lack validity- not in true environment, Claiborn found 0 evidence of teacher expectations being passed on through classroom interactions in observations