Nivågruppering
The aim of this essay is to examine if the attitudes and the experiences of Ability Grouping are the same on different levels of the school organisation.I have chosen to answer the following two questions:· Have the teachers, the students and the headmaster the same idea concerning the educational model at the school, that is, the pros and cons of Ability Grouping?· Does the intentions of the curriculum agree with this educational model?I knew what I thought about the educational model at the school that is the object of this essay, after spending ten weeks at it as a trainee, but I felt that I would be interesting to know what the people who are part of that system everyday think about it.In order to be able to answer my questions, I used both the qualitative and the quantitative method. I interviewed the headmaster and five teachers to find out what they thought about Ability Grouping. I also distributed inquiries to 70 students from 6th to 9th grade to get their point of view. In the theoretical discussion I explain the meaning of different conceptions that I use throughout this essay. I also discuss different theories to give examples of pros and cons of Ability Grouping.My conclusion is that the majority of the students think that Ability Grouping is either a good or a very good way of organizing the students in school. All the teachers except one prefer Ability Grouping to the traditional way of grouping the students, that is, in classes that are mixed concerning the level of knowledge but where everybody is at the same age. The main concern though, both among the students, the teachers and the headmaster, is that the students get more shy when they work in groups that are mixed, and that the students who are not that good in school loose someone to look up to. The Ability Grouping model that this school uses, which is more flexible than the traditional one, agree with the intentions of the curriculum in many ways. To agree with it to the full extend though, you need to add the traditional classes as well, which also is the mix that the school has chosen.