The Inequality Of Mixed Ability Classes In Secondary Schools.

Having experience of teaching English to many mixed ability classes in the secondary school environment, I have reached the emphatic conclusion that the whole concept is fundamentally flawed.One school in which I taught had mixed ability English classes all the way through from year seven to year eleven. As would be expected, some groups have a significantly higher proportion of more able to less able students and vice versa. Irrespectivce of this, all students are much more likely to experience inadequate teaching in the mixed ability setting no matter what their own abilities are and what the micro-demographic of each class is with regard to ability levels. It should be noted that this is usually no fault of the teacher concerned who experiences intense levels of stress at not being able to give adequate attention to the less able members of the group whilst simultaneously not having sufficient opportunity to stimulate and encourage the most able. The students in the middle ability range suffer just as much as everyone else because from their perspective, the teacher spends too much time with the most and least able members of the group. It will be perceived from all of this that my personal view is that the situation is just about as near to a total no-win scenario as it is possble to be in the educational environment. Moreover, from personal professional experience, I very rapidly realised that there are a number of other unfortunate consequences to mixed abiltiy. For example, Many of the so-called less able students (as well as some of the most able) consistently present with serious behavioural challenges within the classroom situation. This is frequently in, large part, due to their own frustration at not receiving the attention from the teacher which they feel thay have a right to. Some have been diagnosed with specific medical conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and have been prescribed the appropriate medication for these. Finally, although I am quite willing to admit that there is patently no flawless system of education in existence, I feel that some form of streaming by ability is crucial, certainly with regard to the teaching of English. I would be highly surprised if had taught a different subject and reached an alternative conclusion.