ABILITY GROUPING AS A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY: A MICRO-ANALYSIS OF TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION.

Previous studies of the impact of social context on academic achievement have focused primarily on across-school comparisons. However, given the frequent use of ability grouping, students are usually exposed to different learning environments within schools. This paper examines the nature and extent of differences in the learning contexts of ability groups in a first-grade classroom. Observation, interviewing, and analysis of video-taped interaction during group lessons were used to identify major behavioral differences across groups and crucial processes within groups. Thirty video-taped lessons were then coded to determine the relative frequency of certain behaviors across group levels. Lower ability groups were found to have more inattentiveness, teacher management, and reading turn disruptions and violations, contributing to lower levels of reading achievement. In short, those students who were likely to have more difficulty learning were assigned to groups whose social contexts were much less conducive for learning. These results question the utility of ability grouping for instructing low ability students and indicate the importance of examining the impact of differential learning environments within schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]