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8 From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School glected other subjects in such a way that ‘previous test content came to define the curriculum’ (p. 276). They found an increased rate of grade retention of students in fifth class to reduce student failure in the certificate exams. In spite of a large body of research on the impact of high stakes testing on teaching, much less attention has been paid to the impact on student experiences. Two US studies used student drawings to analyse their perceptions of high stakes testing (Wheelock et al., 2000; Triplett and Barksdale, 2005). They found that the depictions generally reflected anxiety, anger, boredom and withdrawal, with disaffection greater among older students. In another US study (Noguera, 2007), students were critical of high stakes testing, feeling it was unfair to judge them on the basis of a single test. However, research in one American school found that students had variable knowledge of the potential impact of high stakes tests for them or their school (Weiss, 2009). Research in England (Putwain, 2009) points to the pressure and stress associated with high stakes assessments, both exams and coursework. Pressure was seen as coming from students themselves, from teachers and from parents. Students saw exam preparation, particularly practising previous exam papers in class, as an explicit strategy for managing their sense of confidence and fear of failure. Most students favoured coursework over exams as a basis for assessment but deadlines for coursework were also seen as a source of stress. Research in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s also revealed higher stress levels among exam year groups, especially among female students (Hannan and Shortall, 1991; Smyth, 1999). Although individual factors were the main source of variation in stress levels, the school context, particularly the nature of relations with teachers and peers, was found to exacerbate or reduce stress levels. 1.2.2 Decision-making in the Final Year of School International research into educational decision-making has been extensive. Studies have tended to focus on the way in which factors such as social class and gender shape post-school expectations and choices (Shavit and Blossfeld, 1993; Shavit et al., 2007). In spite of higher education expansion, middle-class young people remain much more likely to attend university than their working-class peers (Shavit et al.,
Introduction 9 2007). Recent decades have also seen female participation in higher education surpass that of males in most OECD countries (OECD, 2010). Explanations for the persistent social class differentiation found can broadly be divided into frameworks which emphasise rational choice and those which emphasise social (or socio-cultural) reproduction. Social reproduction theorists focus on the way in which different economic, cultural and social capitals are possessed by different social classes and the resulting formation of different dispositions to learning (see, for example, Bourdieu, 1984). These theorists suggest that schools legitimise the cultures of the dominant classes and thus act as a means to sort and select students for adult roles in the polity and the economy. Young people who are members of the dominant groups enjoy advantages through their prior knowledge of, and easy access to, various forms of capital that are privileged by the formal school curriculum and pedagogy. Therefore, educational institutions reproduce social hierarchies of class (and also race) through official school knowledge, which either advantages those who have access to cultural capital, or alienates those who do not have access to it (Ghosh, Mickelson, Anyon, 2007; Stanton-Salazar, 1997). In contrast, from a rational choice perspective, post-school choices are seen as reflecting an assessment of the relative costs and benefits attached to different options, costs and benefits which differ by social class (Erikson and Jonsson 1996). Middle-class young people are seen as having more to lose by not going on to higher education while for workingclass young people university may be a more costly and risky option. Empirical research (Mickelson, 1990; Bloom, 2007) finds that young people make extremely accurate assessments of the choices open to them and the risks that they face in their transition to adulthood, but these choices and risks are very different for different groups of students based on their social class location. Most strikingly, poor and working-class students face significant economic, social, and psychological risks that middle- and upper-class students do not (Bloom, 2007). Both sets of theories could be seen as devoting comparatively little attention to the impact of school organisation and process. However, research has highlighted the importance of formal guidance (at school) and informal guidance (particularly from family and peers) in shaping
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Page 7 and 8: CONTENTS List of Tables and Figures
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Page 17 and 18: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction Curr
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Page 23: Executive Summary xxi Such a focus
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Page 44 and 45: Chapter Two CURRICULUM, TEACHING AN
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Chapter Four LEAVING CERTIFICATE EX
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Chapter Five GUIDANCE AND DECISION-
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REFERENCES Airasian, P.W. and Madau
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References 241 Grodsky, E., Warren,
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References 243 Mickelson, R.A. (199
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References 245 Smyth, E. and Calver
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Current debates about senior cycle
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