Özet:

In this study, ability grouping practices have been examined based on students’ opinions, who are studying in a school which has one an elite and two mixed level classes. The sample of the study includes totally 74 6th class students of which 22 students in the elite class, 26 students in the first mixed class and 26 students in the second mixed class. Data was gathered through a questionnaire consisting of open and closed-ended questions and interviews. The open-ended questions and interviews were analyzed with content analysis and descriptive analyses. More than half of the students think that the practice is not fair; two thirds of the students involved in mixed classrooms consider that this practice negatively affect the friendship relations. The students were asked to make an assessment of the ability grouping practices in the interviews. It is seen that when the students were asked to make an assessment of practices according to psychological variables, especially the students in the mixed classes indicated that the ability grouping practices affect them in a negative way because of teachers’ different attitudes in different classes and they feel themselves as lazy.