What do students and teachers think about school? Exploring school attitudes

Abstract

This study presents the results of a school attitude research aimed to study school subject attitudes, develop a school attitude questionnaire for students and teachers, and explore beliefs on the functions of schooling. Hungarian secondary school students (N=1508) and teachers (N=155) participated in the research. Results highlighted the general popularity and the perceived relevance of different school subjects. The most popular ones were foreign languages, PE, ICT and History, while the least popular ones were Chemistry, Physics and Music among the participants. Findings revealed that correlation between the general liking and perceived importance of the subject and the teacher could be essential in forming positive attitudes primarily to raise the popularity of science subjects. In students’ narratives, the crucial functions of schooling were helping to gain knowledge and literacy, to prepare students for adult life, and developing collaborative skills. On the contrary, in teachers’ reports developing critical thinking, teaching students learning strategies were the most important. The validity and reliability results of the school attitude scales are encouraging. Results justified that school attitude domains are interrelated. Results of the teacher questionnaire also explored that perception of self-efficacy and coping abilities impact attitudes towards the quality of teaching. Differences can be found between the preferences of boys and girls. Boys tended to report more positive attitudes towards ICT, Physics and Mathematics, while girls preferred Hungarian Language and Literature and Biology. Concerning the results of certain school attitude scales, girls tended to report higher academic engagement than boys.