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AQA GCSE Sociology revision

These activities are mapped to AQA GCSE Sociology 8192. Sixteen of them, sixteen to twenty-eight minutes each, across families, education, crime and deviance, social stratification and research methods. **This set has an order, which is unusual here.** Most subjects on this site are a pile of independent activities you can pick from in any sequence. Sociology does not work that way, because functionalism, Marxism, feminism and interactionism are not a topic, they are the lens the other topics are examined through. Two activities establish them: the four perspectives overview, and conflict against consensus with the classical sociologists. Set those first. Everything after them assumes a student can say what a functionalist would notice about a school, and a student who cannot is memorising disconnected opinions.

This page lists what we actually have for AQA GCSE Sociology 8192. It is built from the live activities, so it is accurate on the day you read it.

Perspectives first, and this time the order is not optional

Nearly every subject page on this site can be read as a menu. Take what your class needs, in whatever order suits the term.

Sociology is the exception, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of taste. AQA examines the topics through the perspectives: a question about educational achievement expects a student to know what a Marxist account of it would look like, and what a functionalist would say instead, and why an interactionist would be looking at the classroom rather than the economy.

A student who learns the topics without the perspectives ends up with a set of unattributed opinions and no way to build an evaluative paragraph.

Two activities set that up. The four perspectives overview is exactly what it says. Conflict against consensus, with the classical sociologists, gives the historical spine: Durkheim, Marx and Weber, and why the disagreement between them is the subject rather than a preamble to it.

Set those two before anything else. The other fourteen are a menu after that.

Named sociologists, attached to ideas

AQA Sociology is one of the few GCSEs that expects students to attribute ideas to people, and to do it accurately enough that the attribution earns a mark.

These activities keep the names attached to the work rather than gathering them into a list to be memorised. Merton's strain theory has an activity of its own, taking the five adaptations one at a time, which is the right amount of room for an idea students routinely reduce to a single sentence. Life chances and poverty carries Devine, Townsend and Murray together, so the disagreement between them is visible. Labelling and social control does the same for the interactionist account of deviance.

The effect is that a student meets a name at the moment the idea needs one, which is how they are examined.

Research methods is a topic, not an appendix

Sociological research methods is a content area in its own right on this specification and is examined on both papers: sampling, the practical, ethical and theoretical strengths of each method, and the interpretation of data.

Two activities cover it, one on research design and methods and one on data interpretation and ethics. That is proportionate to its weight rather than generous, and it is more than the strand usually gets in a revision resource, because it is less fun to write than crime and deviance.

If your students also take Psychology, AQA GCSE Psychology has three activities on the same problem from the experimental side, and the contrast between how the two subjects treat evidence is worth a lesson in itself.

The longest activities

Four run to twenty-six or twenty-eight minutes: life chances and poverty, power, authority and patriarchy, educational achievement and processes, and functionalist stratification with class theory.

Those are the ones to set as homework rather than as a starter, and the ones most worth using when a class has learned the vocabulary of a topic without being able to argue inside it.

Using them

The three activities embedded further down are playable here without an account.

The lists below group by classroom use, worked out from what each activity contains. For how each is meant to be run, see ready-to-run revision activities. To put several in front of one class in the right order, build a sprint and share one link, which is the simplest way to enforce the perspectives-first rule described above. Everything else, by subject and board, is on the revision pages.

What this page does not do

It does not supply contemporary statistics. Sociology arguments want current figures and these activities lean on named studies and structures instead, which age more slowly but are not the same thing.

It does not mark extended writing. The tasks run thirty to a hundred and sixty words with a structure to follow, and a human still reads what comes out.

It is not a scheme of work. For a shape to drop these into, see how to structure a GCSE revision programme.

It does not track anything, so there is no completion list to check.

Every live Sociology activity for AQA

16 activities, all mapped to AQA GCSE Sociology (8192).

See all 16, by topic

Try it with your class

AQA Sociology 16 minutes

The Four Perspectives: Functionalism, Feminism, Marxism, Interactionism

14 steps, 10 interactive, 9 activity types.

Best used for
Homework Intervention
  • Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.

Try one question

Which perspective compares society to a body, with each part working to keep the whole stable?

AQA Sociology 24 minutes

Merton's Strain Theory: the Five Adaptations

16 steps, 11 interactive, 9 activity types.

Best used for
Independent study Intervention Cover lesson
  • Independent study: Explains before it asks, so a student can work alone.
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
  • Cover lesson: Teaches and tests in one go, so a non-specialist can run it.

Try one question

Someone still wants the success their society teaches them to want, but finds the approved routes to it closed off, and turns to routes that are not approved. Which adaptation is this?

AQA Sociology 28 minutes

Life Chances and Poverty: Devine, Townsend, Murray

16 steps, 11 interactive, 12 activity types.

Best used for
Intervention Mock preparation Cover lesson
  • Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
  • Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.
  • Cover lesson: Teaches and tests in one go, so a non-specialist can run it.

Try one question

Two people have very different outcomes in health, education and work. What does a sociologist mean by calling these differences in life chances?

Common questions

Which activity should a class do first?

The four perspectives overview, and this set is unusual in having a right answer to that question. Functionalism, Marxism, feminism and interactionism are the lens every other topic is examined through, and a student without them is memorising unconnected opinions.

Are the named sociologists covered?

Yes, attached to the ideas rather than listed. Merton has an activity of his own for strain theory. Devine, Townsend and Murray appear together in life chances and poverty. Durkheim, Marx and Weber sit in the classical sociology activity.

Is research methods covered?

Two activities: research design and methods, and data interpretation with ethics. It is a full topic area on this specification and is examined on both papers, so that is proportionate rather than generous.

How much is here?

Sixteen activities, sixteen to twenty-eight minutes each, across all five content areas: families, education, crime and deviance, social stratification, and research methods.

What are the longest ones?

Life chances and poverty and power, authority and patriarchy, both twenty-eight minutes, then educational achievement and functionalist stratification at twenty-six.

Will I see who has completed them?

No. Following a shared link records nothing about who followed it, which is a deliberate choice about children's data.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

Create a free teacher account

Written by David Wright, Co-Founder, DoRevision.

David builds DoRevision with his son Noah (15). David has spent his career building EdTech products, and Noah has grown up watching lines of code being written. As a student at an important stage of his education, together they are building the revision platform that Noah is using to help revise for his GCSE exams and hopes his friends will find useful too.

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