Comments on: Mixed Ability Teaching Doesn’t Exist

By: Josephine

Josephine — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:47:07 +0000

Oh this is so so true! I’m doing my Diploma of Education (Australian equivalent of the PGCE) at the moment and my tutors won’t SHUT UP about bloody group-work, ‘collaborative learning’ and not ‘labeling’ children through streaming or ability grouping. The ONLY tutors who warn of the possible perils of group work are those in the ‘Gifted and Talented’ school, who freely admit that group work is total crap and does a complete disservice to anyone who is not absolutely smack on middle ground ability. I used to HATE HATE HATE group work at school (I would either have to do all the work, the tasks were idiotic and simplistic, it was fraught with social anxiety and the only thing that I learned was that any form of collaborative learning should be avoided like the plague) and it’s so depressing to be taught that I will have to inflict that misery on my students. As for mixed ability, I really can’t see how we can serve either the very bright or the ones who struggle in the same 40 minutes … and as for differentiating tasks, surely that just means that the ‘labels’ are still enforced in the classroom …
ARGH!!!

By: needles&pins

needles&pins — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 11:39:47 +0000

I would not bang the drum of mixed ability teaching at any cost and in any circumstances. However I teach D&T and have only ever taught mixed ability classes (which sometimes include supported SEN students). I have been surprised at the progress made by the weaker students in a climate where exam outcome is not capped.
My exam cohort is sufficiently small that setting beyond my class is not an option even in the run-up to GCSE’s so I set internally at that point (yes, ok “top tables” & all that) so that the students get the chance to stretch against others of similar ability.
I agree this would not translate into all other subjects. I pitch my teaching high in the knowledge that not all will get all of it (although I’m often pleasantly surprised) and provide opportunity for independent learning for the very top end.

By: Robert Moir

Robert Moir — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 09:27:34 +0000

“they ALL defended mixed ability teaching. eg the brighter kids can help the less able etc.”

Ugh. Of course the brighter kids go to school precisely to prop up those less able, not to nurture their own talents and stretch themselves. *sigh*

By: lilyofthefield

lilyofthefield — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:13:06 +0000

ian, I know the one you mean. It is hard to be the one who pours cold water on a scheme that people who genuinely believe in its value (or it’s in their best interests to appear to) have put a lot of work into, and I should know because it’s usually me (naysayer, not a team player, negative thinker etc etc).

And there’s nothing wrong with being positive about something and giving it a go.

But in the case of that school, it was patently not working to the advantage of anyone but the dim but reasonably willing and yet there they were, probably hand-picked at the time and SMT now, saying in the teeth of the televised evidence that it was fine and dandy.

I have personally lost count of the number of reincarnations of Brilliant Ideas that failed the first time and will obviously fail again for the same reasons but even faster because of modern-day pupil attitudes and non-existent discipline.

I’m not a genius or an original thinker. If I can see it, loads of people will have spotted it ages before me; and yet here it comes again, generating rainforests of paper, millions in consultancies, training and resources and nothing it seems can stop it.

By: ian

ian — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 02:33:48 +0000

Around about 1999 there was a C4 documentary on the George Orwell school in Islington. The school had mixed ability classes and small but significant part of each class seemed to be kids who were either insane or bad. They disrupted the lessons and the good kids looked very frustrated – and some started to join in.

But the really STRANGE thing was at the end of the documentary about 6 of the teachers were in the pub discussing the school – and they ALL defended mixed ability teaching. eg the brighter kids can help the less able etc. They seemed unable to learn from their own experience.

By: guy.incognito

guy.incognito — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:23:34 +0000

A lucid deconstruction of the mixed ability myth.

I’m a primary school teacher and hate having mixed ability for everything except Lit and Num (and that was only because me and the other yr5 teacher decided to go against the grain)

Lower down in the school they have mixed-year mixed ability Literacy and Numeracy lessons.

By: Matthew K. Tabor

Matthew K. Tabor — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:47:47 +0000

With regard to the question about the will to stick with teaching, I think the best solution is to keep burning the fires of indignation. That and being good at your job.

I recently read through Zig Engelmann’s critique of Project Follow Through. One of the most striking elements of his book was the effective grouping of students to avoid the exact problem we’re discussing here – basically, eliminating that 4-tiered system that Graeme mentioned. Unfortunately, such grouping necessitates the honest evaluation of students’ abilities and the acceptance of that assessment by parents. Few teachers and administrators stay strong on these topics and, as we’ve read from a few people here, classrooms suffer.

Remember, fires of indignation.

By: Bombaysapphire

Bombaysapphire — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:43:48 +0000

So glad to see this written so clearly. As a Maths teacher I agree that mixed ability teaching is not successful. I think that setting at Primary School would really help achievement in Maths (or Numeracy whatever you want to call it!)

Sadly there are always those who state that a really good teacher can teach a mixed ability group successfully. I’ve not been in this job long but in schools with a lot of banding sets have a far more mixed ability and from what I’ve seen it doesn’t work and everyone is pulled down.
If behaviour was perfect you could differentiate a lot more successfully but it’s not and it won’t be any time soon.

By: Graeme Stevens

Graeme Stevens — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:22:00 +0000

Gotta agree with you here. I teach IT and am regularly faced with a 4 tier class:

Tier 1: Love Computers have tried out the concept already

Tier 2: Bright kids. Take to anything like a duck to water

Tier 3: With encouragement reach a good or above average level

Tier 4: For all the will in the world, they can t do it because of lack of understanding, knowledge, language skills etc.

Take a topic like Programming and the gaps between tiers 1 and 2 and the rest are even more stark.

Wee Jimmy in tier 4 has no business holding back Joanna in tier 1 but this is invariably what happens unless you tailor make 20 individual lessons. Even if you did go that far (no one can) there is no way a single lesson of 40-60 minutes will change anything.

Subjects where there are a least sets made have a better crack of it.

Now, if I was remote teaching 20 kids that might be a different story but with distractions, interruptions, malfunctions and disruptions, that is never happening in a standard classroom.

Project work can be good BUT almost all the time, the poorer kids will NOT put in as much as the rest and will hide within the group as best they can.

I agree with the notion that a class of two = mixed ability, but there are kids on broadly the same lebvels as eachother that should be put together. Mixed ability, I agree, doesnt work.

By: Gill

Gill — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 17:30:41 +0000

Sorry, but that’s just so depressing
How do you all stick at the job? I couldn’t, on those kinds of terms.