The Sociological Detectives: DEA

In this sim students take the role of “sociological detectives” investigating the reasons for differential educational achievement. Broadly, the sim involves: identifying a range of theories that can be used to explain differential educational achievement across and within categories of class, gender and ethnicity. identifying and collecting evidence that can be used to test (support […]

More Sociology Stuff: History of Education

These short files provide brief coverage of the main signposts in the history of English education, from the first Education Act in 1870 to the major curriculum reforms introduced by the Thatcher Conservative government in 1988 (the Act came into force in 1990). As you might expect, the rapid – and I do mean fast […]

Sociology Stuff: DEA

If you’re sitting comfortably, I’ll tell you a story. A long, long, time ago, when the Internet was still young, there existed a web site, created by Mark Peace, called Sociology Stuff. This web site specialised in producing high quality sociology stuff (hence the name. Probably. I’m guessing) for a few years before Mark got […]

The Marketisation of Education: Branding

The development of Academy schools and Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) to oversee the management of such schools has been a well-documented dimension of the marketisation of education in England and Wales over the past 20 years. As such, when writing about the New Right and / or marketisation in an exam this is an obvious example […]

More Ideas for Structuring Extended Answers

As I noted in a previous post on mnemonics that can be used to help students structure paragraphs for extended answer questions, these are many and varied. Although they all perform much the same sort of function – that of helping students remember to include information in their answers that cover all the required Assessment […]

Postmodernism and New Media

This set of Notes was originally part of a textbook chapter looking at the impact on audiences of different types of old and new media, something I mention by way of explanation for both the general focus and lack of depth in the Notes. Without wishing to bore you with the intimate details of dealing […]

Study Strategies: The Appliance of Science

It’s probably fair to say students and teachers are constantly bombarded with study advice – what to do, what not to do, why you shouldn’t do what someone else has told you is absolutely essential – and it’s equally fair to say that not all of his advice is necessarily impartial or, not to put […]

Simulacra and Hyperreality

I’ve called this a “Lesson Outline” (rather than Plan) because it’s designed to introduce and to some extent explain the related concepts of simulacra and hyperreality using practical examples to illustrate the processes. What the Outline does is treat Baudrillard’s concepts of simulacra and hyperreality in much greater depth than is usually the case with […]

IDEAS for Structuring Extended Answers

Although there are a number of mnemonics around that help students structure extended answers in ways that allow them to cover and gain marks for each Assessment Objective (AO1, AO2 and AO3), I particularly like this mnemonic because it’s easy to remember and follows a logical structure for the construction of each paragraph in an […]

Beyond Milgram: Obedience and Identity

Association for the Teaching of Psychology review of our new film by Punam Farmah So you think you know Milgram and his experiments, inside and out? Well, the chances are this film will get you thinking again. Written by Steve Taylor and presented by Clare Parsons, this twenty-minute film is based around the original, re-interpretation […]