Comprehension exercises. I. Reread the text and answer the following questions:

I. Reread the text and answer the following questions:

1) What is education if viewed as an aspect of socialization? 2) What is the functionalist view on education? 3) What are the functions of education in modern society? 4) How can you prove that there are the conservative functions of education? 5) Can education bring about desired social change? 6) What is the conflict perspective on education? 7) What factors prove that education maintains social class differences? 8) Why are educational inequalities evident in many nations around the world? 9) How do interactionist theorists view education? 10) How can you prove that education has become a vast and complex social institution throughout the world? 11) Speak on education as viewed from different sociological perspectives. Which of them do you share? Give your arguments for or against.

III. Describe the educational system in Russia and its distinctive features employing the ideas and terms from the text.

IV. Comment on the following topics thinking like sociologists.

1) Public versus private schooling. Are you for or against it? 2) Tracking students into curriculum groups. What about tracking talented and gifted students into curriculum groups? 3) A teacher-expectancy impact. Do you accept or question the validity of this «Pygmalion effect»? Were there «Pygmalion's in the classroom» among your school teachers?

V. Express your opinion:

a) of the education you got at school: its level, school facilities, teachers and administrators. Are you proud of your school? Were your school years happy?

b) of the education you are getting at Ivanovo State Power University. Does the РИТМ* technology truly promote good academic teaching, encourage student creative thought and develop students' aspirations? What do you think of its emphasis on precise and constant current control of students' actual achievements in studies?

* Система РИТМ — the Individual Creative Thinking Development Technology, introduced by the University Academic Council in 1987.