AQA Sociology GCSE Education

GCSE Sociology Education

Differential Achievement

Gender
Ethnicity
Social Class

Teacher Expectations

Material and Cultural Deprivation

Parental attitudes

Essential Notes and Workbook

Gender
H Green Year 10 Sociology
AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Topic 18

Design your own diagram to show the 4 main reasons which explain
why girls are getting better grades than boys.

You need to include:

The role of the feminist movement

Changing job opportunities
Legal changes
Introduction of the national curriculum

Gender

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Topic 20

Why are girls improving faster than boys?

Complete this chart to show the findings of three sociological studies

on gender and achievement.

Study What did their study show?

Harris (1993)

Moir and Moir

(1998)

Katz (2000)

Which sociologist do you agree with the most? Why?

Material Deprivation
H Green Year 10 Sociology
AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Topic 14

Some sociologists are interested in how the home environment can

affect educational achievement. Material factors are concerned with
money and the general standard of living within the home.

Complete this chart to show how material factors can effect a child’s
educational achievement.

Study What does this tell us about

educational achievement?
The child poverty action group

Douglas (1967)

Halsey, Heath and Ridge (1980)

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

For each of these factors explain how they could lead to educational
underachievement.

Factor How this could lead to

underachievement.
Lack of school uniform or sports
kit

Lack of privacy or quiet in the

home

Poor diet – no breakfast before

coming to school

Poor attendance through illness

Not having attended nursery

School

How does coming from a middle class home benefit children?

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Read the extract on page 123

Explain the research carried out by Leon Feinstein in 2002

What are the factors which effected pre-school children’s

underachievement?

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Parental Attitudes and Achievement

Topic 15

How do the attitudes and values of middle-class and working-class

parents differ?

Middle-class values Working-class values

List the ways that middle-class parents might be able to give their
children a head start in education.

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Cultural deprivation

What do you think cultural deprivation means?

How might the middle-class parents help their children by providing

them with cultural experiences?

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Teacher Expectations and

School Factors
Topic 16

What is the halo effect?

How might teachers see working-class and middle-class children

differently?

Working-class Middle-class

Which sociologists studied this?

What do you think self-filling prophecy means and how can this be
applied to education?

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Streaming, Sub-cultures and School

Organisation
Topic 17

Do the classes and sets you are placed in at school, the people you
make friends with and how the school is organised have an effect on
educational achievement?

Key word: Streaming

What is streaming?

Arguments for and against streaming

Arguments for streaming Arguments against streaming

How have some schools tried to overcome the issue of streaming?

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Key word definition: Sub-culture

Definition of sub-culture

Describe the work of…

Hargreaves (1967)

Lacey (1970)

Rutter (1979) thought that the way that a school was organised
helped the pupils to achieve.

Describe the schools which had the best results:

H Green Year 10 Sociology

AQA Sociology GCSE Education

Ethnicity and Achievement

Topic 21

Answer questions 1 to 3

Topic 22/23

Draw a diagram to show these factors may affect the achievement of

students from different ethnic backgrounds:

Home and social class

Cultural differences
Parental expectations
Types of school attended
Labelling and teacher expectations
The hidden curriculum
H Green Year 10 Sociology
AQA Sociology GCSE Education

You may do this on A3/A4 paper.

H Green Year 10 Sociology