The main activity of our cross-school research project was devising and carrying out a questionnaire survey amongst the 5 schools involved. This section of the site deals principally with the outcomes of the questionnaire survey, and the questions arising from it. There were also issues of how we went about constructing the questionaire, and learning to work together on a project of this nature. The ‘Process’ issues can be accessed by clicking on the following link: Class management Cross-school project: Process.
We have broken the questionnaire outcomes into its ‘components’, so as to make it easier to explore online, but for those interested, the whole paper describing the project can be downloaded by clicking on the following link: Class Management and Disaffection
Across the 5 schools, we surveyed the views of just over 700 pupils, from years 7 to 10 (11-15 year olds) The results could be analysed by school, by age of pupil, by gender, and by ability level as defined by position in English sets. There was an attempt to balance the number of responses from each school, but overall, there were a higher number of responses from the larger of the 5 schools. One of the aims of the questionnaire was to give pupils the opportunity to talk about different facets of their school experience- what they thought about teachers, subjects, classrooms, and school in general.
Question 1: Teacher characteristics…
In our initial discussions, our combined experience led us (not unexpectedly) to a sort of hunch that what the teacher was like as an individual would be an important part of pupils’ attitudes towards learning, and that it was not just a matter of which subject it was, or how that related to pupils’ career aspirations. Another proposition was that pupils’ attitude to learning a subject/being in a classroom was not just related to the technical or pedagogical competence of the teacher, or even their professional qualities, but that it related in part to what the teacher was like as a person, what we termed ‘reasonable human being’ qualities, which might, we thought, impact on the relationship between the pupils and the teacher, which in turn, would influence their attitude to learning and the degree of their engagement with learning.
We therefore ‘brainstormed’ a list of ‘teacher characteristics’, which were a mixture of: technical/pedagogical capability, (e.g. “Explains things well”, “Controls the class well”), professional qualities (e.g. “Marks and returns your work promptly”, “Always seems well prepared”), and personal characteristics, which might also be defined as a teacher’s ‘style’ of teaching (e.g. “Is friendly”, “Says hello or nods to you outside the lesson”).
We accepted that to some extent these distinctions were arbitrary, and that some would argue that the categories which we had defined as ‘personal’ might be considered matters of technical or pedagogical competence by others, (what about, for instance, “makes you work hard”?) but we still felt that it would give us the opportunity to gain some insight into what pupils thought made them want to learn, and to feel that being in the classroom was worthwhile, both in terms of which sorts of factor were most influential in pupils’ thinking, and also, in terms of which factors within the 3 groupings were most important to pupils.
The pupils were asked to indicate whether they thought each factor was Very important, Quite important, Not very important, or ‘doesn’t matter’. The guidance to pupils was as follows:
We would be grateful if you could answer the following questions. We are trying to find out what makes pupils want to learn, and what puts them off learning.
It’s NOT a test. You don’t have to put our name on it and nobody will ask you what you put. It will take about 15 minutes to complete and will provide helpful information which we hope will help us to improve lessons so that you enjoy them more and get more out of them.
Please try and answer all of the questions; don’t leave any out.
Don’t worry about your handwriting. The answers will not be checked for spelling mistakes.
Please be as open as possible- but don’t use swear words!
Question 1: Things to do with the teacher (Please put a tick in the column that comes closest to your point of view)…
Question 2: In which subject do you make most effort to learn, and do you most want to do well in ? Can you explain why this is the subject where you make the most effort to do well in?
As well as exploring the relationship between teacher characteristics and disaffection, we wanted to see if there were any patterns related to subjects and how they were taught, so pupils were asked to indicate in which school subject they made most effort to learn and do well in, and why, and which subject they were least ‘bothered about’ and why.
In what subject do you make most effort to learn, and do you most want to do well in? Can you explain why this is the subject where you make most effort to do well in?
In what subject do you make least effort to learn, and are you least bothered about doing well in. Can you explain why this is the subject where you make least effort and are least bothered about doing well in?
Question 3: In which school subject do you make least effort to learn, and are you least bothered about doing well in? Can you explain why this is the subject where you make least effort and are least bothered about doing well in?
Percentage of response from the 708 pupils who were involved with the survey
When looked at together with the most favoured subjects, and the reasons which pupils gave for their choices, it was difficult not to come to the conclusion that there was a ‘subject’ dimension to classroom disaffection, although there was also considerable ‘school effect’. There was also a degree of polarisation with regard to school subjects, with Maths and Science being either top or bottom, and Humanities subjects tending to be neither the most liked, or the most unpopular. Note that Science and Languages figures need to be aggregated to get an overall picture as they are sometimes referred to in different forms.
Question 4: Can you think of one lesson which you have been in which you thought was a particularly good lesson, (interested you, made you want to learn more, helped you to understand or do something which you couldn’t do before…) and try to describe as clearly as possible what it was that made it good?
Pupils were asked if they could think of one lesson which they thought was particularly/memorably good, (interested them, made you want to learn more, helped them to understand or do something which they couldn’t do before…) and to try to describe as clearly as possible what it was that made it good.
Many pupils did not respond to this question. Does this mean that they had never had a lesson which they regarded as ‘good’, or ‘memorable’, or just that they couldn’t be bothered to recall one in particular?
Amongst those that did respond, what were the characteristics of lessons which were deemed worthy of selection as being ‘good’ or ‘useful’, ‘enjoyable’ or ‘memorable’ in some way? Is it possible to code the responses into meaningful categories? Is there a ‘gender’ effect? Or a ‘school’ effect? Do views on what makes a particularly good lesson vary as pupils get older, or according to whether they are ‘high fliers’ or pupils who find learning difficult?
Question 5: What are the things that most put you off being in the classroom/learning a subject?
Pupils were asked to list the 3 things that were most off putting about being in a classroom/learning a school subject.
Question 6: What are the things which most make you feel OK about being in the classroom/learning a subject?
The pupils were identified to list 3 things.
Question 7: Is there any other comment you would like to make about teachers, lessons and how you are taught at school in general?
Many pupils did not answer this question, and a few responses were abusive, but there were some interesting strands to the responses, clusters of which are given below.
It was apparent that not all pupils are disaffected from schools and from learning. It would appear that for many, school and learning is a very enjoyable and worthwhile bit of pupils’ lives.
Many pupils passed comments on their perceptions of their teachers’ quality of life.
Many pupils gave suggestions for making things better in general.