ABSTRACT
This chapter determines the aim of the research to what effect streaming had on the intellectual, social and personal development of junior school pupils. The programme of research began with a survey of one in eight of all primary schools in England and Wales. It aims to investigate methods of school organisation and the extent to which streaming or non-streaming was practiced in large junior schools. The main thesis of the streaming study was that teachers' attitudes and the classroom practices they employ resulting from these attitudes are crucial factors in determining the effectiveness of a school's organisational policy. The first part of this chapter analyses the origin of this idea. It then highlights the value of exploratory research as a means of generating hypotheses empirically, rather than relying on the researcher's ideas and preconceptions, and also identifies the key variables. The second part of the chapter concentrates upon the climate in which the researcher operates.
