A-Level Sociology: Paper One Education Section.

Education D.E.A. Questions

Outline two…(4 marks)

Outline two cultural factors that may affect social class differences in educational achievement

Outline three…(6 marks)

A. reasons why some working-class parents fail to attend parents’ evenings at their children’s school
B. ways in which school is organised that may be ethnocentric
C. factors within schools that may lead to the educational underachievement of pupils from some minority ethnic
groups.
D. reasons for boys’ educational under-achievement
E. material factors that might cause working-class educational under-achievement
F. reasons for gender differences in subject choices
G. ways in which factors and processes within schools may affect social class differences in achievement
H. reasons for ethnic differences in educational achievement
I. reasons why pupils form subcultures in schools
J. factors within the education system that may have contributed to improvements in girls’ achievement
K. reasons for gender differences in subject choices
L. factors outside the education system have resulted in improved educational achievement for girls
M. ways in which cultural deprivation may lead to educational under-achievement for working-class pupils
N. ways in which the labelling process may lead to educational under-achievement for some pupils.
O. reasons why different pupil subcultures may exist in schools

Applying material from Item A, analyse two…(10 marks)

P. Item A:.

Applying material from Item A, analyse two (10 marks)

Applying material from Item B and your own knowledge, evaluate…(30 marks)

Q. sociological explanations of gender differences in achievement and in subject choice.

R. sociological explanations for ethnic differences in educational achievement
S. the importance of cultural factors in causing social class differences in educational achievement
T. the view that factors and processes within the school are the main cause of differences in the educational
achievement of different social groups
U. the view that gender differences in educational achievement are primarily the result of ‘changes in wider society’
V. the view that ethnic differences in educational achievement are primarily the result of ‘factors inside the school’

A-Level Sociology: Paper One Education Section.

Education Policy Questions

Outline two…(4 marks)

Outline two ways in which globalisation has influenced educational policies

Outline three…(6 marks)

W. government policies that may have reduced social class differences in educational achievement.
X. policies that may promote the marketisation of education
Y. educational policies that may have contributed to social class differences in achievement
Z. ways in which government educational policies may have affected social class differences in educational
achievement
AA. policies introduced by governments to create an education market in England and Wales

Applying material from Item A, analyse two…(10 marks)

BB. Item A:.

Applying material from Item A, analyse two (10 marks)

Applying material from Item B and your own knowledge, evaluate…(30 marks)

CC.evaluate the impact of government education policies on inequalities of achievement between social groups
DD. the claim that the main aim of education policies in the last 25 years has been to create an education market

A-Level Sociology: Paper One Education Section.

Education Theory Questions

Outline two…(4 marks)

Outline three…(6 marks)

EE. ways in which education may mirror the workplace

FF. criticisms that other sociologists may make of the functionalist view of the education system.
GG. ways in which Marxists see education as being similar to the world of work
HH. functions that the education system may perform

Applying material from Item A, analyse two…(10 marks)

II. Item A: Marxists see society as fundamentally divided into two opposed social classes. The economic interests of
these classes are fundamentally different which brings them into conflict with each other. There are inequalities
in all aspects of capitalist society, including education and these inequalities seem to be entrenched and
unchanging. Marxists are also interested in understanding why people do not always see the real cause of these
inequalities.

Applying material from Item A, analyse two Marxist claims about the role of education in capitalist society (10
marks)

Applying material from Item B and your own knowledge, evaluate…(30 marks)

JJ. Item B: Functionalist sociologists see the education system as a vital social institution in modern society. They
argue that the education system exists to perform a range of essential functions for individuals, for institutions
such as the economy, and for wider society. Functionalists regard these functions as positive ones that enable
society to operate efficiently, fairly and without conflict. However, other sociologists criticise the functionalists
for wrongly assuming that education serves the interests of society as a whole.

Applying material from Item B and your own knowledge, evaluate the contribution of functionalist sociologists to
our understanding of the role of the education system in society. (30 marks)

Education with methods in context:

Question will always be: Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods,
evaluate the strengths and limitations of using (a method) to investigate the (an issue)
 Template:
Introduction: WWWE
W: what – define the method
W: who – who would generally use it? (positivist or interpretivist)
W: why – would they use it?
E: evaluation – who would not use the method, and briefly, why? (a grade evaluation already)

Main body: 3 to 4 paragraphs (personally I do 4 as there is enough time)

- For each paragraph explain a strength/limitation of the research method and why it is a strength/limitation
FOR THE ISSUE THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN. Eg: self-completion questionnaires may have low response rates
due to children forgetting to take them home or leaving them in their bag etc and build upon that with the
context for example truancy – they might not even be present to collect it.
- Also, explain the differing opinion eg the interpretivist view eg rapport wouldn’t be able to be made
- Try and use some theories of education such as Bernstein and language codes eg if a working class child does
not understand the elaborated wording of the question validity would be low as they wouldn’t be able to
answer it truthfully
- Base your paragraphs around PERVERT (p: practical issues, e: ethical issues, r: reliability, v: validity, e:
examples, r: representativeness, t: theories) / PET (p: practical issues, e: ethical issues, t: theories) same thing

Conclusion:

- Suggest major strength and or weakness of method and say why – is it the best method for studying the
topic in question?
- Explain why the differing theory would disagree and suggest a more suitable method and briefly explain why
and/or even include methodological pluralism or triangulation

Every 10 mark question ever (applies for the theory and method section too):

- 2 paragraphs worth 5 marks each

- Point (a01) -> example (a02) -> analyse/ evaluation (a03)
- Example: one reason for gender difference in achievement eg impact of feminism (a01) -> girls improvement,
social policies such as GIST or WISE + impact on girls (answer the why question) (a02) -> evaluate eg where
the policies successful?
- This question is usually worded as ‘applying material from item a’ for the education section. This means you
cannot use anything that’s NOT in the item – you won’t get any marks unless it says ‘applying material from
item a AND your knowledge’. Pick two points out of the item (I know its limiting)
- Theory and methods 10 mark questions in the book don’t have an item so youre not limited (but don’t
quote me on that I don’t know 100% if theres never an item)

Every 30 mark ever:

Introduction:

- define the key term in the question, briefly explain the issue in question, locate the debate (ie is it internal
factors vs external factors?)

4-6 paragraphs:

- structured similarly to the 10 mark question paragraphs – point explain evaluation, you must evaluate every
paragraph as much as you can to get the higher grades
- use a good number of theorists and examples for a02 marks and perhaps even evaluate theories with other
theories
conclusion:

- brief summary of argument, take a side – what do you think is the answer? It’s up to you if you want to take
a side or sit on the fence. For top grades, you might want to say for example that social class factors alone
don’t just influence achievement – ethnicity can be a double factor for affecting achievement

4 mark questions:

- 2 points (make it evident they are 2 separate points, perhaps do 2 separate paragraphs) with a01 and a02,
don’t spend too much time on this as its only 4 marks

6 mark questions:

- 3 points (make it evident they are 3 separate points, perhaps do 3 separate paragraphs) with a01 and a02, no
need for evaluation