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sociology a level aqa help

Looking for help on a draft sociology question. Constructive criticism or any type of feedback would be helpful. Each paragraph is one point made but it needs strengthening with a limitation / counterargument. Any ideas?

4 Outline and explain two ways in which a young person’s gender may affect their educational achievement. (10 marks)

One way a young person’s gender may affect their educational achievement is through school subcultures and how gender can play a part in which social school culture a child may embrace. An anti-school subculture is often adopted by males to protect and maintain their dominant masculine identity, this is achieved with the rejection of school work and adopting disruptive mannerisms within the classroom along with 'Macho' behaviour to gain status and creditability from other students. Evidence is shown by the research of Epstein et al. (1998) who found working-class boys risked bullying and harassment by others if perceived as hard working and caring of academic success. This ‘Laddish’ behaviour negatively affects the educational achievement of boys and can explain why they perform poorer than girls. //Strength or Limitation to this argument //

Another way gender affects academic achievement is that girls outperform boys in school. Due to equal opportunities and growing ambition girls are more likely to succeed academically. Females are better independent learners and more likely to seek help from teachers than boys. Girls are more consistent with their revision and improving examination results. Sue Sharpe's (1994) research shows how young women are more ambitious and confident than 20 years ago, striving for gender equality and occupational fulfilment. This is fortified through the higher educational achievement of girls over boys, young females have clear long term goals and recognise positive school performance is key to achieving success. //Strength or Limitation to this argument //
Reply 1
Original post by SLouby

4 Outline and explain two ways in which a young person’s gender may affect their educational achievement. (10 marks)

One way a young person’s gender may affect their educational achievement is through school subcultures and how gender can play a part in which social school culture a child may embrace. An anti-school subculture is often adopted by males to protect and maintain their dominant masculine identity, this is achieved with the rejection of school work and adopting disruptive mannerisms within the classroom along with 'Macho' behaviour to gain status and creditability from other students. Evidence is shown by the research of Epstein et al. (1998) who found working-class boys risked bullying and harassment by others if perceived as hard working and caring of academic success. This ‘Laddish’ behaviour negatively affects the educational achievement of boys and can explain why they perform poorer than girls. //Strength or Limitation to this argument //

Another way gender affects academic achievement is that girls outperform boys in school. Due to equal opportunities and growing ambition girls are more likely to succeed academically. Females are better independent learners and more likely to seek help from teachers than boys. Girls are more consistent with their revision and improving examination results. Sue Sharpe's (1994) research shows how young women are more ambitious and confident than 20 years ago, striving for gender equality and occupational fulfilment. This is fortified through the higher educational achievement of girls over boys, young females have clear long term goals and recognise positive school performance is key to achieving success. //Strength or Limitation to this argument //

A 10 mark question in A-level sociology does not require evaluation - the question 'outline and explain...' is merely asking you to identify a reason/cause/role/effect, explain what this means in relation to the context of the question, and you should do this using the PEEL structure.

For this question, I would talk about Willis' study on laddish subcultures and why boys stereotypically have an anti-school subculture sentiment as a result of the decline of traditional male working-class industrial jobs (crisis of masculinity) and the changing ambitions of girls and link that to Sharpe's study as you've done for your second point.

Your points from a quick glance seems fine, but just make sure that you're following the PEEL structure for both points and link each point back to the question and I'll struggle to see why you won't gain full marks.
(edited 2 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by JT_888
A 10 mark question in A-level sociology does not require evaluation - the question 'outline and explain...' is merely asking you to identify a reason/cause/role/effect, explain what this means in relation to the context of the question, and you should do this using the PEEL structure.

For this question, I would talk about Willis' study on laddish subcultures and why boys stereotypically have an anti-school subculture sentiment as a result of the decline of traditional male working-class industrial jobs (crisis of masculinity) and the changing ambitions of girls and link that to Sharpe's study as you've done for your second point.

Your points from a quick glance seems fine, but just make sure that you're following the PEEL structure for both points and link each point back to the question and I'll struggle to see you won't gain full marks.

Thanks this helps a lot :smile:

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