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Assessment of Achievement Programme:
Report of the First AAP Survey of Social Subjects Enquiry Skills (2002)

5. Pupils' views on their learning

5.1 The pupil questionnaire

To reduce the survey burden on those schools that participated in both the pencil and paper assessments and the practical assessments, the pupil questionnaire enquiry was intended to be undertaken only in the 'non practical' schools. The P7 and S2 sample pupils in these schools were given the opportunity to describe their home and school learning circumstances, and to offer observations about their social subjects learning experiences, by completing a pupil questionnaire (reproduced in Appendix G).

After inviting demographic details, the questionnaire explored the facilities and resources the pupils had available to them at home, for study and for homework, and asked how much time they spent on homework in a normal week.

A series of questions followed (11 in total) that looked into the amount of time the pupils spent in various activities in the company of the adults in their lives (parents, carers, other family members): talking about hobbies, news, school work, books, films or TV programmes, reading, watching TV or videos, going to the cinema, listening to music, playing sport, etc.

A longer set of questions (30 in all) probed the pupils' opinions about their school learning experience: in environmental studies for the P7 pupils, and in one or other of geography, history, modern studies or social subjects for the S2 pupils. The questions focused, amongst other aspects, on the style of teaching/learning in the classroom, on the nature of subject assessment and the feedback given, on the pupil's personal topic interests and general attitude to the subject, on the pupil's level of self-confidence, and on the pupil's evaluation of the behaviour of the class.

A final set of questions (18 in total) asked pupils to rate how often they engaged in various different kinds of activities in their subject lessons: eg. working with a partner on a shared task, completing worksheets, handling objects and artefacts, visiting places outside school, etc.

In total, 799 P7 pupils in 50 schools completed the questionnaire, along with 609 S2 pupils in 42 schools. While the numbers of pupils who completed questionnaires are high, the numbers of schools that returned pupil questionnaires at each stage are not, and more, importantly, the low school numbers represent return rates on the part of invited schools of just around 50% at each stage. Given the relatively small numbers of schools involved, the possible biases that might have been introduced by the low school participation rate, and the 'clustering' of pupils with the schools that did return questionnaires (15-16 sample pupils per school), the enquiry has to be considered exploratory in nature, and care should be exercised when generalising the findings to the whole population of P7 and S2 pupils.

5.2 The pupils: demographics and home support

5.2.1 Gender, language and job aspirations

Both stage samples were evenly divided by gender. Around 90% of the pupils at each stage gave English as their first language, while roughly 5% gave 'Scottish', fewer than 1% mentioned other languages, including French, German, Spanish, Swahili and Urdu, while the rest failed to respond. Just 12% of the P7 pupils and 17% of the S2 pupils indicated a second language. French was the most frequently mentioned language here (at two-thirds of the 96 P7 pupils and just over half of the 104 S2 pupils who responded - under 10% of all pupils). Other even less prevalent languages were numerous: Gaelic, English, Irish, Welsh, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Swahili, Urdu, Punjabi.

Just over 80% of all the pupils indicated at least one job they would like on leaving school; 3% offered three alternative jobs, and over 100 different jobs in total were mentioned. "Teacher" and "footballer" were the clear overall favourites at P7: 10% of the P7 pupils mentioned teaching while 12% were aspiring footballers (20% of the boys). Around 5-7% in each case mentioned "lawyer", "nurse" (various forms) or "vet", around 2-4% in each case mentioned "beautician", "hairdresser", "actor/actress", "doctor", "pilot" or "police", 2% "architect", "the army", "joiner", "pilot", "scientist" (various forms), and 1 ¹/ ₂% "dancer", "mechanic" or "pop singer".

The largest changes between P7 and S2 were for "footballer", decreasing from 12% of pupils at P7 to 3% at S2, and the combination actor/actress/singer/dancer, also decreasing from 9% to 2%. "Engineer" rose from 1% at P7 to over 5% at S2, with variety of types of engineering mentioned: aeronautic, computing, electrical, construction, marine, mechanical, motor, navy, offshore.

The evidence from this enquiry is that jobs remain very heavily gender typed in the eyes of young people. Not one of the girls at either stage aspired to become an engineer, a joiner or a footballer, and not one boy at either stage expressed an interest in becoming a beautician, hairdresser, primary teacher, or nurse. The majority of those with an interest in the army or police were boys, while, interestingly, the majority of aspiring lawyers and vets were girls.

5.2.2 Home resources for learning

As well as traditional resources, such as dictionary, atlas and calculator, pupils were asked whether they had access to a computer and the internet, and whether they had a mobile phone and access to a television and video recorder in the home. They were also asked if they had a quiet place to study at home.

As Table 5.1 and Figure 5.1 show, high proportions of the pupils in both stages had use of a quiet place to study: 75% of the P7 pupils and 81% of the S2 pupils. Similarly high proportions also had access to a computer (75% at P7, 79% at S2), with only slightly lower proportions having internet access (61% at P7, 68% at S2). Calculators and dictionaries were also available to high proportions of pupils at both stages (just over 80%). The learning resource which the fewest pupils had access to was an atlas (55% of the P7 pupils and 61% of the S2 pupils).

Significantly higher proportions of girls than boys at both stages had access to a mobile phone (57% of the girls versus 42% of the boys at P7; 63% of the girls versus 49% of the boys at S2), while at S2 significantly higher proportions of the girls than of the boys claimed to have access to a calculator (87% versus 76%) and a dictionary (85% versus 76%). There were no differences in the access of boys and girls to computers or the internet.

Some pupils had access to all the resources, the proportion being significantly higher at S2, at 29%, than at P7, at 21%, and significantly higher among the girls than among the boys (18% of the boys compared with 23% of the girls at P7, 24% of the boys and 31% of the girls at S2).

5.2.3 Home support for learning

Pupils were asked how often they engaged in different activities with adults in their families. The findings are given in Table H.1 in Appendix H, and illustrated in Figure 5.2.

Before reviewing the results of this enquiry, it must be noted that some of the listed activities could take many forms, some more educational than others. For example, 'Talking about what you do in your spare time' might be talking about a learning-relevant hobby, or it could be talking about football or horse riding. 'Talking about things that have happened in the news' could include talking about current affairs, breakthroughs in science, or the latest pop gossip. 'Outings or visits to interesting places or events' could embrace visits to football or rugby matches as well as visits to nature reserves, museums or World War II battlegrounds. In other words, we cannot necessarily equate high levels of family involvement in the various activities with high levels of direct learning support from parents, carers or other adult family members. But we can reasonably assume that high levels of family involvement show high levels of interest in the pupil, and therefore in the pupil's general self-development, including educational development.

This particular enquiry produced a very similar picture of family activity for the pupils in both stages. The activities most frequently claimed to be shared with adult family members were 'watching TV and videos' (around 60% of the pupils at each stage claimed to do this on most days) and 'listening to music' (60% at S2 and just under 50% at P7 'most days'). Talking about free time activities and talking about films and TV programmes were also popular family activities, as was talking about school work and progress, with around 40% of the pupils at both stages claiming to engage in these activities with adult family members on most days. Reading or talking about books were much less popular activities, with around 40% of the pupils at each stage claiming 'hardly ever' to do one or the other.

While there were no significant differences in activity frequencies between those S2 pupils taking the different social subjects, there were some marked gender differences at both stages, and more so at S2 than at P7. In general, the boys spent less time engaging in many of the different activities with adult family members than did the girls - or at least they claimed to do so in greater numbers. In particular, while 65% of the S2 boys and just over 50% of the P7 boys claimed 'hardly ever' to go to the theatre, a concert or dance with adult family members, the corresponding proportions for the girls were roughly 40% and 30%, respectively. Similarly, while around 50% of the S2 boys and 40% of the P7 boys claimed 'hardly ever' to read or talk about books with adult family members, lower proportions of the girls said the same: 36% and 31%, respectively.

Only for 'playing sport or games, or keeping fit' was there a significant difference in the opposite direction: here, 47% of the S2 boys and 49% of the P7 boys claimed to do this on 'most days', compared with 28% of the S2 girls and 35% of the P7 girls. There were no strong gender differences at either stage in terms of the regularity with which pupils claimed to talk with adult family members about their school work and progress, which was almost daily for nearly half of them.

5.3 Subject learning activities

5.3.1 Learning activities in and out of the classroom

Pupils, like their teachers, were asked to indicate how often they engaged in each of eighteen named activities in their social subjects lessons. As Table H.2 in Appendix H and Figure 5.3 both show, the pupils' responses were more or less in line with those of their teachers (see Table 6.7 and Figure 6.1 in Chapter 6).

Whole class teaching predominated in the classrooms at both stages: 85% of the S2 pupils and 78% of the P7 pupils claimed to be taught this way in most lessons. Apart from listening to the teacher teaching the whole class, pupils reported that the following activities were those they most frequently engaged in: writing in a jotter or file (88% of the S2 pupils and 71% of the P7 pupils), working quietly alone (74% of the S2 pupils and 57% of the P7 pupils), completing worksheets (66% and 57%, respectively), and reading textbooks or reference books (62% and 45%, respectively). Visits out-of-school, working in school grounds, using a computer in class, using tools and instruments in investigations, and handling objects and artefacts all decreased significantly between P7 and S2, with sometimes substantial proportions of the S2 pupils claiming very rarely to engage in these activities.

For example, fully two-thirds of the S2 pupils claimed to visit places outside school once a year or less, and just under 50% claimed the same for working in the school grounds; corresponding proportions for P7 were 21% and 24% respectively. Just over 40% of the S2 pupils claimed to use a computer in lessons at most once a year, either alone or with a partner/small group, compared with just over 10% of the P7 pupils. Around 30% of the S2 pupils similarly claimed rarely, if ever, to use tools and instruments during investigations and/or to handle objects and artefacts; this compares with 10-15% of the P7 pupils.

There were no gender differences in any respect at P7. At S2 only two clear differences emerged in the responses of the boys and girls: 'reading textbooks or reference books' (68% of the girls claiming to do this in every lesson compared with 56% of the boys), 'completing worksheets' (70% of the girls and 60% of the boys doing this in every lesson). There were small differences in favour of the boys for using a computer, alone or in small groups or pairs: 48% of the boys compared with 39% of the girls claimed hardly ever to use a computer with a partner or in a small group, while 46% of the boys compared with 40% of the girls claimed rarely to use a computer on their own in lessons.

5.3.2 Homework

Among the 32 statements about their social subjects learning that pupils were invited to react to, two statements concerned homework. Pupils were asked to indicate whether they received regular homework in social subjects, and whether they used a computer to do it, checking the usual responses 'always', 'mostly', 'not usually or 'definitely not'. The findings suggest that S2 pupils received homework more regularly than did the P7 pupils, but that at both stages pupils used computers equally often to do the homework. Over 50% of the S2 pupils and 30% of the P7 pupils claimed 'mostly' or 'always' to get regular homework, while 20% of the P7 pupils claimed 'definitely not' to get regular homework compared with just 8% of the S2 pupils. At both stages just under 40% of the pupils agreed that they used a computer to do the homework 'always' or 'mostly' - this is perhaps a lower proportion than might be expected given the high degree of access to computers at home, but then not all types of homework lend themselves to computer use.

Elsewhere in the questionnaire, pupils were asked how much time they spent at home doing homework in a normal week. Clearly, as with any information based on retrospective estimation, the pupils' responses can only be considered as very loosely indicative. That said, the S2 pupils claimed to spend significantly more time on average on homework than the P7 pupils: just over 2_ hours at S2 compared with just under 1_ hours at P7 - this is in line with their responses, above, to the question about the frequency with which they received homework. There were no gender differences at either stage, in any respect.

5.4 Perceptions about classroom learning experience

Pupils' views about their classroom learning experience were explored using a set of statements that they were invited to rate for applicability to their subject lessons. For example, pupils were to indicate the degree to which the statement "We learn a lot of facts in Subject X" applied to their subject lessons, where Subject X would be environmental studies for the P7 pupils, and one or other of geography, history, modern studies or social subjects for the S2 pupils. Just over a third of the S2 pupils (35%) responded in terms of their geography lessons, just over a third responded in terms of their history lessons, 22% described their experiences in modern studies lessons, and 7% did so for their social subjects lessons (these 40 pupils were in just six schools, with the majority in just three schools). Opinions were noted by checking one of the following response options: 'Yes, always', 'Mostly', 'Not usually' and 'Definitely not', with 'Don't know' also a possibility.

The list of statements focused on a variety of issues, including the style of teaching/learning, the nature of assessment, the pupil's interest in the subject, the pupil's level of self-confidence, and so on. For ease of presentation the statements are here loosely grouped into those that relate to 'The nature of teaching and learning', 'Motivation to learn' and 'Assessment and feedback'.

5.4.1 The nature of teaching and learning

In Table 5.2 we see a mixture of different statements, some relating to the nature of subject learning, others to the style of subject teaching, and yet others to issues of classroom climate (eg. discipline).

The data in Table 5.2 suggest that social subjects lessons tended to be more content-based than enquiry-based, with 80-90% of the pupils agreeing that in their subject lessons they 'always' or 'mostly' learned a lot of facts, and a lower 60% or thereabouts agreeing that subject learning was 'always' or 'mostly' about asking 'Why?' and 'What if?'. Whatever the principal focus, lessons were clearly very interactive: over 80% of the pupils at each stage agreed that everyone was 'always' or 'mostly' given a chance to say what they thought and that they were 'always' or 'mostly' asked to explain their answers to questions. Almost 80% of the pupils at each stage agreed that they were 'always' or 'mostly' given extra help when they needed it.

Almost all the pupils agreed that they were 'always' or 'mostly' expected by their teachers to work hard (70% for 'always'), and 75-80% also agreed that it was 'always' or 'mostly' easy to concentrate on doing this in class (20-30% for 'always'). The majority claimed that pupils in their classes handed their work in on time, although the proportion checking 'always' was low at just under 15% at each stage.

There were no particular gender differences evident in the data.

5.4.2 Motivation to learn

A number of statements bore upon aspects of pupil motivation to learn. Some of these focused on intrinsic motivation, eg. the degree to which pupils found topics and investigations interesting, and others on extrinsic motivation, in particular own and family perceptions about the value of the subject for later learning and for jobs. The results of this enquiry are shown in Table 5.3.

As Table 5.3 shows, 80-90% of the pupils claimed that they 'always' or 'mostly' wanted to do well in the subject (more than 60% of the pupils at each stage wanted to do well 'always'), and worked hard on their topics and investigations. In addition, 75-80% of the pupils at both stages thought that they 'mostly' or 'always' discussed interesting topics and ideas in their subject lessons and that they were given interesting topics and investigations to do. Fewer pupils were equally positive about how much they looked forward to subject lessons and how much they enjoyed reading books about the subject and life in other countries: for both aspects the pupil groups were evenly split between those answering 'always' or 'mostly' and those answering 'not usually' or 'definitely not'.

Again, there were no particular gender differences in the results.

5.4.3 Assessment and feedback

Table 5.4 lists the statements that relate to 'Assessment and feedback', including both teacher assessment and self-assessment, and presents the results of this enquiry.

At each stage, 80-85% of the pupils claimed to find the subject easy to understand most or all of the time. A majority also denied that they often got behind with the work or that the pace of work was too slow. A fairly low proportion - just over 30% at each stage - agreed that they 'always' or 'mostly' found it difficult to catch up if they missed a lesson. Clearly, the evidence is that the majority of the P7 and S2 pupils found the subject easy, were happy with the pace of work, rarely felt left behind, and rarely found it difficult to catch up if they missed a lesson.

As to their teachers' assessment of their work and progress, it is interesting that over 10% of the S2 pupils and almost 20% of the P7 pupils claimed not to know if they received assessment information in the form of levels, grades or test scores, and over 10% at each stage could not say whether or not most of their teacher assessment took the form of short tests. On the evidence of those who offered a judgment, it would seem that both forms of assessment and feedback were more common at S2 than at P7: over 80% of all the S2 pupils agreed that they were given feedback on their progress in the form of levels, grades and test scores 'mostly' or 'always', compared with around 50% of the P7 pupils, and just over 60% of the S2 pupils compared with 40% of the P7 pupils indicated that assessment 'always' or 'mostly' took the form of short tests.

Around 80% of the pupils at each stage (84% at S2, 75% at P7) agreed that their corrected work 'always' or 'mostly' showed them where they had gone wrong, and around 70% at each stage agreed that they were 'always' or 'mostly' shown how to improve their work. Much lower proportions, at just under 40% of the pupils at both stages, thought that they were 'always' or 'mostly' involved in planning next steps in their learning.

Two gender differences emerged here, in that higher proportions of the boys than the girls admitted to getting behind with the work (15% versus 7% at S2 and 23% versus 10% at P7), and higher proportions of girls than boys at both stages claimed to find the subject easy to understand (88% versus 78% at P7).

5.5 Summary

Almost 800 P7 pupils in 50 schools and over 600 S2 pupils in 42 schools completed a questionnaire that explored various aspects of their subject learning experience both inside and outside school. The samples were evenly divided by gender, and the large majority were English native speakers. While the pupils' job aspirations were many and varied, they remained heavily gender typed.

According to pupils' reports, social subjects lessons (environmental studies at P7, and geography, history, modern studies or social subjects at S2) were more content-based than enquiry-based, but they were also very interactive, with a high level of questioning and answering, all pupils being given opportunities to participate, and pupils typically being asked to explain their answers to questions. Teachers usually gave help when needed. Teachers expected pupils to work hard, and the pupils claimed that they found this easy to do in lessons. The majority of pupils wanted to do well in the subject, and worked hard on their topics and investigations, which they found interesting in general. Pupils were more evenly divided on whether they looked forward to lessons and enjoyed reading books about the subject. Most pupils, and their families, considered the subject important for later learning in other subjects and for jobs.

The majority of the pupils found the subject easy, were happy with the pace of work, were rarely left behind, and rarely found it difficult to catch up if they missed a lesson. Most pupils, and higher proportions at S2 than at P7, agreed that they were often or always given teacher feedback on progress in the form of levels, grades or test scores, and short tests were common. Corrected work generally showed pupils where they had gone wrong, and pupils were typically shown by the teacher how to improve their work. However, a relatively low proportion of pupils agreed that their teacher involved them in planning their next steps in learning.

As to the nature of learning activities in the classroom, whole class teaching predominated at both stages, and the most frequent individual activities were writing in a jotter or file, working quietly alone, completing worksheets and reading text books and reference books. Using computers in class, using tools and instruments in investigations, handling objects and artefacts, working in the school grounds and visiting places outside school were less common at both stages, but particularly at S2, by which time some of these activities were rare.

On their own reports, the S2 pupils had more homework (all subjects) than did the P7 pupils, spending an average of 2.6 hours on homework compared with P7's 1.4 hours. High proportions of pupils at both stages had a quiet place to study at home, had home access to a computer and the internet, and had a calculator and dictionary available to them at home.

As far as family activities are concerned, the most common family pastimes were watching TV and videos and listening to music. Other popular family activities were talking about free time activities, talking about films and TV programmes, talking about school work and progress, and playing sport. Reading or talking about books were much less popular activities, as were cultural outings of various types.

While there were clear gender differences in job aspirations, there were no differences between boys and girls in terms of their reports on their social subjects learning, nor in general in access to important learning resources at home, particularly a quiet place to study and access to a computer and the internet. There were some gender differences in engagement in family activities, with boys tending less often than girls to have cultural outings with their adult family members or to read or talk about books with them, but more often to play sport with them.

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