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H: Teacher questionnaire enquiries

H.1 Investigating teachers' experience of teaching

Teachers of pupils in the 2006 SSA sample were asked to complete a questionnaire designed to explore their experience of, and attitude towards, teaching in the context of Social Subjects. Further information about the questionnaire design is available in Annex III.

The teacher questionnaire was completed by class teachers at P3, P5, and P7, and by teachers of Social Subjects (History, Geography or Modern Studies) at S2.

Over 1,700 teachers returned completed questionnaires, comprising more than 1,400 primary class teachers, and over 300 secondary Social Subjects teachers. Teachers may have answered based on their experience of more than one subject e.g. a single questionnaire could have been completed by a teacher of History and Modern Studies based on their experience teaching across both subjects.

More than nine out of ten of the primary teachers who responded were female, compared with just over half of the secondary teachers. This is broadly in line with the national gender profiles of the two sectors. Tables H1 and H2 provide information on the length of teaching experience of respondents. In both sectors, about three quarters of the respondents had been teaching for more than five years. About 4% of teachers in secondary, and 8% in primary were in their first year of teaching. Just over half of all teachers had been in their current posts for more than five years. One in seven at S2 and P7, and one in five at P3 and P5, had taken up their current posts that year.

Throughout the following sections, findings are presented as sample statistics, not weighted estimates.

H.2 Teaching and preparation time

Table H3 provides information on the time spent teaching Social Subjects. For just under eight out of ten S2 teachers this was apparently equal to or less than five hours in a typical week. Comparing this with questionnaire results from 2005 for S2 Maths and English teachers shows that almost 90% of teachers in both subjects reported spending five or fewer hours teaching S2 meaning that on average social subjects teachers had slightly more class contact with S2 pupils in a typical week.

At primary more than 80% of primary teachers spend five hours or less on social subjects. Compared to 2005 results primary teachers on average spend less time teaching Social Subjects than English and Maths, where around 35% and around 60% of teachers claimed to spend five or fewer hours respectively on those subjects.

The amount of preparation time (Table H4) did not differ greatly between sectors, with S2 teachers reporting spending slightly more time than their primary colleagues on preparation for Social Subjects lessons. More than nine out of ten respondents across both sectors claimed to spend up to five hours per week on this. Compared with English and Maths at S2, reported preparation time is similar, but in the primary sector (in line with the amount of time teaching Social Subjects) the preparation time was less.

H.3 Professional development

Experience of professional development in Social Subjects (shown in Table H5) varied between the primary and secondary sectors. About two thirds of S2 teachers, but only four in ten of primary teachers, said that they had received continuing professional development ( CPD) in Social Subjects in the last two years. At S2 this is similar to the results reported in the 2005 survey by English teachers but is less than the 90% of Maths teachers who reported undertaking CPD in the last two years. At primary around 60-80% of teachers reported English or Maths CPD opportunities in the previous two years. There was little difference in satisfaction between the sectors (Table H6), with just under half of respondents in both sectors reporting being satisfied with the number of professional development opportunities available to them in the last two years. This is similar to English and Maths teachers at S2, but is below the level for primary teachers in these subjects, which was over 70%.

H.4 Resource use

Table H7 shows how often different resources are used in Social Subjects lessons. There are differences between the primary and secondary sectors for responses to all of the questions in this table, apart from "materials produced by a teachers' association" and "materials produced by another school", which were not widely used by teachers in either sector.

The use of commercial textbooks and resource packs was more common in the secondary sector, with over a third of teachers apparently using them in "most lessons", compared to one in seven primary teachers.

The use of 5-14 National Guidelines varied across sectors. Almost a quarter of S2 teachers reported referring to them once a year or less compared to around 5% of primary teachers. Materials produced by the school or the teacher were more used in secondaries than in primaries, in contrast to local authority 5-14 guidelines, which were reported to be more frequently used in primary schools.

H.5 Lesson activities

Charts H1a and H1b describe the lesson activity profiles according to the teachers who responded to the questionnaire. Teachers were given a list of activities and asked to rate how often they occurred in their classes. Further details are available in Tables H8a and H8b. There are differences between the responses from primary and secondary teachers for all questions, as might be expected from the differences in structure between the two sectors.

According to the teachers' reports of lessons in Social Subjects, the pupil activities that occurred most frequently "during most lessons" were: "writing in their jotter" (16% in primary, 74% in secondary), "with the whole class being taught by you" (48% in primary, 72% in secondary), and "working quietly on their own" (18% in primary, 45% in secondary). Most activities differed in their frequency between sectors: both "working with a partner or a group on a shared task" and "working in a group on a shared task" were considerably more common in primary lessons. One activity that had a similar frequency across sectors was "talking on their own with you", with about a fifth of teachers reporting that this occurred during most lessons.

"Completing worksheets" was reported more commonly in secondary than in primary lessons, and was also more frequent at P3 than in later stages.

"Working at a computer" was more frequent in the primary than in the secondary sector. Two thirds to three quarters of primary teachers reported that their pupils used a computer most weeks, while less than one fifth of secondary teachers reported the same.

"Using maps" and "using diagrams" were less frequent activities, although a quarter of S2 teachers reported using diagrams in most Social Subjects lessons. Both activities occurred more frequently at secondary level than at primary: 26% of primary teachers used maps in most weeks, compared to 39% of secondary teachers. Another less frequent activity, "watching videos or DVDs" was more frequent in secondary pupils: about a quarter of the primary teachers reported this activity occurring most weeks or in most lessons, compared to over 60% of S2 teachers.

Chart H1a
Lesson activity profiles according to primary teachers
(% teachers indicating that "during most lesson" pupils spend time on the given activity )

Chart H1b
Lesson activity profiles according to secondary teachers
(% teachers indicating that "during most lesson" pupils spend time on the given activity )

The activities "handling objects and artefacts" and "making things to do with the topic" occurred more commonly in primary schools. Over 20% of the primary teachers reported that their pupils handled objects or artefacts most weeks, in contrast to only 3% of the secondary teachers. Just over half of the primary teachers claimed that their pupils made things to do with their topic most weeks, while only 6% of the secondary teachers reported the same frequency for their S2 pupils.

"Working in the school grounds" and "visiting places outside school" were less common activities, although about 60% of primary and around 10-15% of secondary teachers reported that their pupils did this once or twice a term. "Talking to a visitor about a topic" was rare, with almost all teachers reporting this activity only once or twice per term or less frequently.

H.6 Views on attendance, motivation and behaviour

When asked about their pupils' lesson attendance, learning motivation and behaviour in class, teachers were broadly positive. Almost all teachers at all stages rated pupil attendance as "good"or "very good". For pupil motivation and behaviour, primary teachers were more positive than their secondary colleagues. Over 95% of primary teachers and over 85% of secondary teachers rated both their pupils' behaviour and their motivation to learn as "good" or "very good". Overall less than 1% of teachers rated attendance, behaviour or motivation as being "very poor". Details are provided in Tables H9, H10 and H11.

Stage-related differences emerged between primary stages for pupils' motivation to learn and for pupil behaviour., In particular, the proportion of teachers rating motivation as "very good" fell steadily from over half at P3 to 15% at S2 (see Chart H2).

Chart H2
Teacher's ratings of pupils' learning motivation
(% teachers giving each rating)

H.7 Use of 5-14 assessments

There are no 5-14 National Assessments currently available for social subjects. But teachers were asked about their use of National Assessments in reading, writing and mathematics. Their reported usage revealed striking sector differences National Assessments were reported as "always" used with small pupil groups by 53% of primary but only by 13% of secondary respondents. A similar pattern was seen for use with individuals, where the proportions were 40% for primary and 21% for secondary. Use of National Assessments with the class at set times reversed this pattern, with use being higher in secondary (34%) than primary (8%). Use with the class at any time differed little between sectors, with 12-14% of respondents always using this approach. Detailed results are shown in Table H12.

Teachers claiming to use National Assessments were asked to rate how often the results coincided with their own judgements in reading, writing and mathematics. The findings are illustrated in Chart H3 and given in detail in Table H13. The majority of primary teachers reported that their judgements matched with the National Assessment test results in almost all cases, while less than 10% of secondary teachers reported this. It is also interesting to note that only around a third of S2 teachers answered this question, which is to be expected as there are no Social Subjects national assessments.

Chart H3
Teachers' reports on the agreement of national assessment results with their own judgements
(% teachers giving each rating)

H.8 Assessment and planning approaches

Teachers were asked about the extent to which they used formative assessment and personal learning planning in Social Subjects lessons. The results are shown in Tables H14 and H15.

There was a difference in the proportion of teachers using formative assessment in their classes between primary and secondary sectors. Just over half of primary, but only a third of S2 teachers, who responded reported always using formative assessment.

There was also a difference in the proportion of teachers using personal learning planning with their pupils between the primary and secondary sectors. About a quarter of primary teachers always used this approach, compared with about 7% of S2 teachers.

H.9 Detailed questionnaire results

Table H1
Length of teaching experience
(% giving each response: 490 P3 teachers, 482 P5, 429 P7, 306 S2)

Table H2
Time in current post
(% giving each response: 490 P3 teachers, 482 P5, 429 P7, 306 S2)

Table H3
Time spent teaching
(% giving each response: 492 P3 teachers, 492 P5, 436 P7, 323 S2)
How much time do you spend in teaching Social Subjects at [stage] in a typical week?

Table H4
Time spent in preparation
(% giving each response: 492 P3 teachers, 492 P5, 436 P7, 323 S2)
How much time do you spend in preparation in Social Subjects at [stage] in a typical week?

Table H5
Professional development
(% giving each response: 484 P3 teachers, 489 P5, 435 P7, 330 S2)
Have you had any professional development in Social Subjects in the last two years?

Table H6
Satisfaction with professional development opportunities
(% giving each response: 484 P3 teachers, 489 P5, 435 P7, 330 S2)
Are you satisfied with the number of professional development opportunities available to you in Social Subjects?

Table H7
Frequency of use of different resources in Social Subjects lessons
(% teachers giving indicated responses: 436 P3 teachers, 452 P5, 401 P7, 292 S2)

Table H8a
Frequency of activities in Social Subjects lessons
(% teachers giving indicated responses: 399 P3 teachers, 419 P5, 377 P7, 271 S2)

Table H8b
Frequency of activities in Social Subjects lessons
(% teachers giving indicated responses: 399 P3 teachers, 419 P5, 377 P7, 271 S2)

Table H9
Pupils' lesson attendance
(% giving each response: 501 P3 teachers, 496 P5, 447 P7, 327 S2)
Please indicate your opinion about your pupils' lesson attendance

Table H10
Pupils' behaviour in class
(% giving each response: 501 P3 teachers, 496 P5, 447 P7, 327 S2)
Please indicate your opinion about your pupils' behaviour in class

Table H11
Pupils' motivation to learn
(% giving each response: 501 P3 teachers, 496 P5, 447 P7, 327 S2)
Please indicate your opinion about your pupils' motivation to learn

Table H12
Use of 5-14 National Assessments
(% giving each response: 442 P3 teachers, 430 P5, 395 P7, 224 S2)

Table H13
Degree of coincidence between National Assessment results and own level judgements
(% giving each response: 495 P3 teachers, 485 P5, 442 P7, 107 S2)

Table H14
Use of formative assessment in Social Subjects lessons
(% teachers giving indicated responses: 495 P3 teachers, 497 P5, 447 P7, 322 S2)
Do you use formative assessment approaches in your classroom?

Table H15
Use of personal learning planning in Social Subjects lessons
(% teachers giving indicated responses: 495 P3 teachers, 497 P5, 447 P7, 322 S2)
Do you use personal learning planning in your classroom?

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