Banding

Organising pupils into broad ability groups, such as higher, middle and lower bands.

Placing pupils in broad ability groups, such as the three bands studied by Stephen Ball at Beachside Comprehensive.

Banding was intended to meet pupils’ different learning needs, rather than deliberately disadvantage working-class children. Nevertheless, working-class pupils were more likely to enter lower bands. Pupils who initially had similar attitudes towards school developed different attitudes after being grouped.

The allocation of pupils to broad groups according to their perceived academic ability.

Use Ball’s findings about banding and continuing teacher judgements in mixed-ability classes, rather than discussing his work on parental choice.

Use Hargreaves for labelling, streaming and subcultures; Ball for banding and teacher expectations; Willis for resistance to school and its consequences.

Banding organises pupils into broad ability groups, such as higher, middle and lower bands. By contrast, setting groups pupils separately for each subject, allowing someone to be in a higher group for one subject and a lower group for another.

Definition

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AQA GCSE Sociology · 8192

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Eduqas GCSE Sociology · C200