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- Setting has consistently been shown to have a positive effect on the self-confidence of higher-attaining students, often at the expense of lower-attaining students (Ireson & Hallam, 2001; Kulik & Kulik, 1982; Sukhnandan & Lee, 1998), whereas mixed-ability grouping has been shown to foster greater self-confidence and attitudes towards learning, particularly amongst lower-attaining students (Francis et al., 2020; Ireson & Hallam, 2001; Sukhnandan & Lee, 1998).
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Mar 20, 2018 · The practice of subject-by-subject grouping, known as ‘setting’ in the UK, is theoretically a more flexible form of grouping than ‘streaming’ or ‘tracking’ systems that involve assigning students to fixed classes based on their presumed ability, achievement level, or career aspirations.
- Antonina Tereshchenko, Becky Francis, Louise Archer, Jeremy Hodgen, Anna Mazenod, Becky Taylor, Davi...
- 2019
May 25, 2023 · The findings reveal that overall, mixed-ability grouping is the most common ability grouping practice in PE, although the extent and nature of this practice (and other ability grouping practices) varied by year group, Key Stage, gender of students, and/or curriculum activities.
- Do Practice Differentiation
- Do Change In-Class Groupings Regularly
- Do Have High Expectations of All Students in The Class
- Don’T Teach to The Middle
- Don’T Establish Fixed Within-Class ‘Ability’ Groups
- Don’T Plan Three Lessons For Every Class
- Don’T Over-Rely on High Attainers Explaining to Others
Students will start your lesson with different levels of prior knowledge and understanding. We recommend differentiation through questioning, feedback and outcome. Pre-teaching may also be helpful.
Fixed table groups based on "ability" share many of the same negative impacts on low prior attainers as setting and streaming.
A key benefit of mixed attainment grouping is that teachers can communicate the same high expectations to all students and offer the same tasks, regardless of prior attainment.
It can be much more effective to teach to the top and ask yourself what you need to do to make the planned learning objectives accessible for all your students.
Fixed groups can mean that students develop ideas about their "ability" and "potential" being fixed. Flexibility avoids this, and ensures that groups are changed according to pedagogic demands of the particular lesson, as well as providing diversity in students’ learning from one another.
Mixed attainment grouping should not mean an unrealistic workload for teachers. Rather than differentiation by task or resource, try differentiation by questioning, feedback and outcome.
Explaining learning to others can be very effective, but be careful not to depend too often on using high attaining students as explainers, as this can be frustrating for high attainers and patronising to students at other attainment levels. Professor Francis and her colleague Jeremy Hodgen will outline the findings of the best practice in grouping...
May 1, 2024 · There is overwhelming evidence, however, which points to some more worrying conclusions about setting. One of the key findings shows that, whilst setting works well for the high attainers enabling accelerated progress, it has no long term benefits for the low ability students in primary maths.
Oct 4, 2012 · Leonard (Citation 2001) showed that, in general, students achieved better undertaking group work in mixed-ability groups although the performance of high achievers was not significantly different in either setting. Overall, other factors, in addition to grouping structures, appear to play important mediating roles.
- Susan Hallam, Samantha Parsons
- 2013
Mar 16, 2021 · We compared beliefs and practices in mathematics in two schools: School M taught in mixed-ability groups and School S taught in setted groups. We surveyed 286 year 7 pupils (age 11/12) and 12 teachers via questionnaires, lesson observations, and interviews.
Dec 1, 2021 · Opponents of ability grouping, in contrast, argue that high-ability pupils do at best only marginally better in ability-homogeneous classrooms than they would have done in mixed-ability settings, whereas low-ability pupils do significantly worse.
