Teaching Sociological Skills: Analysis (1)

Of the assessment objectives set out by AQA, the most frustrating one for examiners and teachers must be analysis. This is because good analysis can turn a decent answer into a great one and unfortunately often it tends towards the descriptive rather than the analytical. In this summer’s exam series students showed a good level of knowledge and understanding of key sociological concepts and theories, but all too often they were underdeveloped and trailed off into list-like responses. In the 30-mark essays this was evidenced by a national average of around 18 marks out of 30.

So why do students struggle to analyse?

From my experience of as an examiner and as teacher, part of the problem with analysis is that students often don’t understand the difference between describing what a sociologist thinks and what impact their ideas have on our understanding of sociology. All too often they will rely upon ‘Durkheim suggested…’, ‘Bowles and Gintis found that…’ and the like. Whilst this will score adequately in the exam one or two high band essays across the exam series can make a massive difference to grades. 

Part of the problem is language. Students can fall into a safe zone of regurgitating descriptions of theories and concepts that they have memorised. The good responses use their language skills to show that they understand the consequences of a theory or concept. 

In my next post tomorrow, I will explore more about how to master your skills in analysis with an example related to 'labelling'.