Grouping practices in the primary school: what influences change?

During the 1990s, there was considerable emphasis on promoting particular kinds of pupil grouping as a means of raising educational standards. This survey of 2000 primary schools explored the extent to which schools had changed their grouping practices in response to this, the nature of the changes made and the reasons for those changes. Forty-eight per cent of responding schools reported that they had made no change. Twenty-two per cent reported changes because of the literacy hour, two per cent because of the numeracy hour, seven per cent because of a combination of these and twenty-one per cent for other reasons. Important influences on decisions about the types of grouping adopted were related to pupil learning and differentiation, teaching, the implementation of the National Literacy Strategy, practical issues and school self-evaluation.

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