A-Level Sociology: methods in context (education)

Methods in context is a distinctive question type in A-level Sociology. On AQA A-level Sociology 7192, for example, Paper 1 includes a 20-mark extended question that asks you to evaluate a particular research method for investigating a particular issue in education. Generic strengths and weaknesses of a method earn little on their own: what matters is how the characteristics of pupils, teachers, parents and schools change the way a method works.

The quiz trains exactly that move. Each question describes an invented study: exclusion statistics used to investigate harsher treatment of Black Caribbean pupils, a field experiment that misleads teachers about which pupils will make rapid progress, a bullying questionnaire collected by form tutors, a postal survey that only middle-class parents answer, Year 7 pupils interviewed in a deputy head's office, a group interview in which boys perform for each other, teachers who all say they treat every pupil the same, an adult trying to observe a Year 9 friendship group, a structured observation schedule, school prospectuses used as evidence of practice, and the consent needed to interview 13-year-olds. The last question asks which method fits a national comparison of attainment. For each you decide which practical, ethical or theoretical issue matters most, and the explanation links it back to reliability, validity, representativeness and the positivist and interpretivist positions.

The written work practises the exam skill directly. Several of its eight questions include a short original item describing a school setting, and ask you to apply the item and your knowledge of methods to evaluate a method for a stated research aim, with a reference answer that models how to connect each point to education rather than to research in general.

The material offers four formats. The 12-question quiz explains each answer. The 16-card flashcard deck covers the features of the education context (gatekeepers, pupils' vulnerability, teachers' professional front, hard-to-reach parents) and the key methods terms. The printable written work sets eight open questions with ruled space for handwritten answers that are then checked. The oral exam puts you in front of an examiner who gives you a research aim and a method, asks one question at a time, follows up on your reasoning and gives brief feedback at the end.

Use it once you know the research methods themselves, to learn how to turn a general evaluation into one that is specific to schools.

• Identify the characteristics of pupils, teachers, parents and schools that affect research (power and status, vulnerability, professional front, gatekeepers, response rates)
• Evaluate official statistics, experiments, questionnaires, interviews, observation and documents for specific education research aims
• Link each strength or limitation to practical, ethical and theoretical issues, including reliability, validity and representativeness
• Apply a short item about a school setting to a methods-in-context evaluation
• Choose a method that fits a stated research aim and justify the choice

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Methods in Context content of A-level Sociology specifications (for example AQA A-level Sociology 7192, specification version 1.2, section 4.1.2: applying sociological research methods to the study of education). All research scenarios and items are invented.