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G: Pupil questionnaire enquiry results

G.1 Investigating pupils' learning experience

Alongside the subject and core skills assessments in the 2006 SSA, each pupil in the sample was asked to complete a questionnaire designed to explore their experience of, and attitude towards, their learning in the context of Social Subjects. In order to minimise the burden on individual pupils, while allowing a broad range of questions to be asked at each stage, four different questionnaire versions were created. Each consisted of a set of core questions along with a set of questions unique to each version. The versions were randomly allocated within each stage. Further information about the questionnaire design is available in Annex III.

In total more than 25,000 completed responses were received with between 1,400-1,700 responses to each version at each stage.

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

G.2 Resources at home

In order to better understand their home environment, pupils were asked about several resources that they might have at home. About three-quarters of pupils reported having a quiet place to work at home and the same proportion reported having access to the internet. The proportion who had a mobile phone or who had access to a dictionary was slightly less.

The availability of resources generally increased with advancing stage, although in the case of "Quiet place to work" and "Dictionary", the proportion with access goes down at S2. Girls reported having a greater level of access to these resources than boys, with the exception of "access to the internet", where levels of access were about the same for boys and girls. Detailed results are shown in Table G1.

G.3 After or out of school activities

About 90% of primary pupils reported participating in activities after or outside of school, with the proportion dropping to 80% at S2. In primary stages P3 and P5, after or outside school activities were more frequent among girls than boys. There was no gender difference at P7, while the activities were more frequent among boys than girls at S2. Figures are available in Table G2.

Table G3 describes the type of activities that pupils participate in outside school. The most frequent activities were "watching TV or DVDs", "listening to music", "playing sport or keeping fit" and "using the internet to find things out". The least frequent activities involve talking with an adult about things in the news or about books. More primary pupils than S2s reported reading on their own and talking with adults, while more S2s than primary pupils reported "watching TV or DVDs", "listening to music" and "using the internet to find things out".

A greater proportion of girls than boys reported engaging in certain activities outside school, namely; "Talking with an adult about what you do at school and what you are learning", "reading books on your own", "listening to music", and "writing things". More boys than girls reported "Talking with an adult about things that have happened in the news", and "watching videos or DVDs". Other activities showed no significant difference between the genders.

G.4 General job aspirations

Pupils were asked an open-ended question about what kind of job they would like to do when they left school, college or university. Job aspirations were extremely varied and as pupils got older the range of jobs increased. Chart G1 and Table G4 illustrate this by showing the proportions of pupils mentioning selected occupations. The occupations shown were those that were identified by over 5% of P3 pupils. There was clear evidence of gender stereotyping; vet, teacher, and hairdresser were more popular choices with girls, while the police and footballer were more popular with boys.

Aspirations often varied with stage, with early preferences being modified at later stages. For example, 21% of boys in P3 wanted to be a footballer, but this proportion fell to 3% at S2, while 13% of P3 girls had aspirations to be a vet, but only 5% had this wish at S2. The most commonly mentioned jobs were the same as those in the 2005 survey, with the exception of artist, which was mentioned less often this year.

Chart G1
Gender typing in job aspirations
(% P3 pupils mentioning the five most popular choices)

G.5 Social Subjects and jobs

Pupils were asked about their perceptions of the importance of Social Subjects (specifically of "knowing about Scotland and other countries") for a list of specific occupations. The pupils' assessment of importance decreased with increasing stage for most occupations. An exception was for lawyers, where the importance increased steadily from P3 to S2.

The highest perceived levels of importance for "knowing about Scotland and other countries" were reported for doctors and police, while the lowest levels of importance were for hairdressers. The proportion answering "Don't know" was higher for pupils in P3 in most cases, reflecting their more limited understanding of the occupations. Detailed results are shown in Table G5.

G.6 Lesson activities

Pupils' reports of their activities in Social Subjects lessons (see Charts G2a and G2b) were in broad agreement with those of their teachers (see Chart H1a & b in Section H). The two most commonly reported activities were "with the whole class being taught together by the teacher" and "writing in your jotter" (both slightly more common at S2 than in primary stages). Doing worksheets was also a frequently reported activity, reported "very often" by 61% of primary pupils, and 44% of S2 pupils.

"Working with a partner or a group on a shared task" was a more commonly reported activity in primary stages (where 35% reported it happening "very often") than in S2, where the proportion was 26%). In contrast, "using maps and diagrams" and "watching videos or DVDs" were more common activities at S2. More detailed results for lesson activities are given in Table G6.

Chart G2a
Activities in Social Subjects / topic work
(% primary pupils giving the indicated response to the question "When you do topic work in school, how often do you spend your time...")

Chart G2b
Activities in Social Subjects / topic work
(% secondary pupils giving the indicated response to the question "When you do Social Subjects in school, how often do you spend your time...")

G.7 Views about Social Subjects

Pupils were asked how good they thought they were at Social Subjects. Pupils' self-assessments in Social Subjects tended to become less positive at later stages (see Chart G3 and Table G7). The proportion rating themselves as "very good" dropped from 40% at P3 to 21% at S2. This trend is similar to self-assessment in English from 2005. In 2005 however there was a greater decrease from 41% to 12% of pupils rating themselves as very good. Girls at S2 were significantly more negative about their ability in Social Subjects than boys, with only 18% rating themselves as very good, compared to 24% of boys.

Chart G3
Pupils' self assessments in Social Subjects
(% pupils giving indicated response to the question "How good do you think you are at topic work/this subject?")

Pupils' views were also sought on a range of issues related to Social Subjects. Their responses are presented in Tables G8 and G9 (a-d). Overall, 77% of pupils stated that they "very often" wanted to do well in their topic work. However this figure decreased from over 80% at the primary stages to less than 60% at S2. Around 10% of primary and 15% of secondary pupils reported that their teacher 'hardly ever' helped them to make their topic work better. 41% of pupils found Social Subjects topics easy to understand "very often", with little variation between stages. More than three-quarters of pupils agreed that "everyone is expected to work hard in our class". About half of pupils overall were positive about the importance of Social Subjects for other subjects later in school.

G.8 Reading and writing activity outside school

Pupils were asked in more detail about their reading and writing activity outside school. Self-motivated reading and writing became less common with stage, as reported in the participation in out of school activities section. 38% of pupils reported that they "very often" read books on their own outside school. This proportion went down with stage, from 46% at P3 to 22% at S2. Similarly, the proportion who read or talked about books with an adult decreased from 19% at P3 to 7% at S2, and the proportion writing things outside school decreased from 25% at P3 to 14% at S2. These results are among those reported in Table G3

The more detailed question revealed that magazines were the form of home reading most commonly reported by pupils (reported by over two thirds of pupils), followed by fiction. Reading of fiction at home varied with stage, from 71% of P3 pupils to 49% of S2 pupils. Reading books about famous people, comics, and music books also decreased with stage, while reading newspapers increased. The reading of magazines increased to P7, then decreased at S2. The proportion of pupils who claimed not to like reading was lowest at P5 and greatest at S2. Buying books, or borrowing books from a library or a friend, became less common with increasing stage: 26% of P3 pupils reported doing this "most weeks", while by S2 the proportion had decreased to 15%. More detailed results are given in Tables G10 and G11.

G.9 Topics in Social Subjects

All pupils were asked about their knowledge of specific topics in Social Subjects. A different list of topics was used at each stage. The results of this enquiry are shown in Table G12.

Very broadly speaking the proportion of pupils who knew about the specific topics was 5-20 percentage points higher than the proportion who had studied the topic at school. At P3 the topic studied by the greatest proportion of pupils was "Our Local Area", at P5 the most common topic studied was "Scotland", at P7 the most common was "World War II" and at S2 the most common was "Rich World, Poor World".

G.10 Detailed questionnaire results

Table G1
Resources at home
(% who had access to the stated resource: 6316 P3 pupils, 6308 P5, 6770 P7, 5734 S2)

Table G2
Participation in group or club activities after or outside school
(% participating in at least one activity: 1569 P3 pupils, 1573 P5, 1711 P7, 1429 S2)

Table G3
Activities outside school
(% giving indicated response: 991 P3 pupils, 1230 P5, 1461 P7, 1257 S2)

Table G4
Job aspirations: the five most popular choices among P3 pupils
(% pupils mentioning the job in their response: 1216 P3 pupils, 1232 P5, 1318 P7, 1083 S2)

Table G5
Importance of knowing about Scotland and other countries
(% pupils answering "Very important": 1578 P3 pupils, 1569 P5, 1697 P7, 1441 S2)

Table G6
Activities in Social Subjects/topic work
(% pupils giving stated response: 6316 P3 pupils, 6308 P5, 6770 P7, 5734 S2)

Table G7
Self-assessment in Social Subjects
(% pupils answering: 1585 P3 pupils, 1570, 1679 P7, 1466 S2)

Table G8
Views about Social Subjects/topic work
(% pupils giving stated response: 6316 P3 pupils, 6308 P5, 6770 P7, 5734 S2)

Table G9a
Views about Social Subjects/topic work: version 1
(% pupils giving stated response: version 1 1584 P3 pupils, 1596 P5, 1683 P7, 1425 S2)

Table G9b
Views about Social Subjects/topic work: version 2
(% pupils giving stated response: version 2 1569 P3 pupils, 1573 P5, 1711 P7, 1429 S2)

Table G9c
Views about Social Subjects/topic work: version 3
(% pupils giving stated response: version 3 1578 P3, 1569 P5, 1697 P7, 1441 S2)

Table G9d
Views about Social Subjects/topic work: version 4
(% pupils giving stated response: version 4 1585 P3 pupils, 1570 P5, 1679 P7, 1439 S2)

Table G10
Types of home reading
(% pupils answering Yes:1517 P3 pupils, 1539 P5, 1642 P7, 1382 S2)

Table G11
Borrowing and buying books
(% pupils giving the stated response: 1517 P3 pupils,1539 P5,1642 P7,1382 S2)

Table G12
Knowledge of topics
(% pupils answering Yes: 1595 P3 pupils, 1584 P5, 1691 P7, 1466 S2)

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