Setting, Social Class and Survival of the Quickest

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Abstract
The question of whether students should be grouped and taught in classes according to their perceived ‘ability’ during their school careers is one of the most controversial issues in education. This is partly because the issues that surround setting, streaming and mixed ability teaching are relative, both to ideology and personal values. Decisions about student grouping are also of immense importance to the education of students and this importance extends beyond the development of subject understanding. In the UK moves from streaming to setting to mixed ability teaching and back again to setting can be related directly to developments in research, educational theory and the political agenda of the time. In this article I will present a brief overview of the theoretical and historical developments which surround student grouping. I will then aim to extend theoretical positions further by examining the way in which setting and mixed‐ability teaching influenced the motivations, perceptions and eventual attainment of students in two schools.