Students’ Perception Of School And Educational Activities

Abstract

The present study aims to draw a fact finding analysis regarding the teenage students’ perception towards school and educational activities, with a focus on aspects concerning the students’ interest and attitudes shown within the school space. A number of 370 students enrolled in the Romanian pre-university education participated in the study. The investigation was carried out with the help of a questionnaire regarding the students’ perception of the educational activities and an interview guide. Unfortunately, the results pointed out a phenomenon which has been frequently noticed in the school space, namely the predominance of a superficial attitude and a relatively low level of interest showed for school and its activities. The students’ opinions represent an important step the teacher is invited to take into consideration in his or her endeavor, in order to offer the students actual experiences of learning and life. The added value of the study lies in the organized focus group, through which the students discussed their opinions regarding different aspects in relation to the school role in their training and development.

Keywords: Attitudeinterestdidactic activity

Introduction

One of the present challenges of the educational practice is represented by the way in which

students of all levels of education perceive and behave in relation to school, in general, and the

teaching/didactic activities, in particular. The efforts of the educational actors, may they be teachers or

educational/school authorities, are oriented towards stimulating students and their interest in school; the

need to increase the students’ additional and sustained motivation leave from the presumption that

building and developing positive attitudes stand, among other aspects, as basic objectives of school. We

know that a positive attitude towards school and the actual educational activities favors the student’s

strong commitment for his or her own process of training and evolution. In numerous cases, teachers

show a strong concern for the transmission of knowledge, and the obedience of school curriculum, yet

they should be aware of the fact that their students’ attitudes and emotional states are equally important.

Also, if we refer strictly to the teenage period of time, as the students in our target group are experiencing

at present this development stage, there is a unanimous recognition of the fact that this is the most

difficult stage in one’s life, the age of great impetus, crises, anxiety and insecurity, the most

”disagreeable” period in life. We are not aiming here to conceptualize the teenage from the causal,

factorial, reportorial or phenomenological points of view, we’ll resume ourselves at drawing attention

upon the fact that the educational process at this age is characterized by a series of distinct characteristics

whose importance shouldn’t be neglected. We also want to recall the fact that in school practice more and

more teachers blame the students’ poor training and interest for learning.

One of the early definitions of attitude is that offered by Louis Thurstone (1928), who describes

attitude as „the total sum of one’s inclinations, feelings, preconceived ideas, worries, threats and beliefs

about a specific object” (p. 531). Later, the quoted author cut down the definition and affirmed simply

that an attitude is „the emotion for or against a psychological object” (1931, p. 261). Contemporary

visions express through attitude the trends regarding thinking, feeling and action, positively or negatively,

regarding the surrounding phenomena and realities (Salta and Tzougraki, 2004). Chelcea and Iluț (2003)

defined the attitude as the position adopted by a person or group of people, of acceptance or rejection of

objects or phenomena, people or institution with an intensity which may range from minimum to

maximum. Another known conceptualization is that offered by W. Allport (1935) who defines by attitude

„a state of mental and neural training, organized thorough experience, which performs a guiding or

stimulating influence on the individuals’ answers to all objects and situations they come in relation with”

(p. 798). In view of these considerations, there is a special interest in finding out if the investigated

students show attraction or rejection towards school and in what way can these attitudes be translated.

The attitude and interest varies from the point of view of intensity and character and according to

genre, age or a series of variables of a social order. In relation with the school context, attitudes and

interests are conditioned by factors regarding the class of students and the classroom climate, teachers,

and the content of knowledge. Various empirical studies have emphasized the impact of attitude and

interest upon the school activities. Thus, Siegel and Ranney (2003) have demonstrated by their research

that attitude and interest correlate with the students’ perseverance and performances; practical and

participative instruction fund positive attitudes and ensure an increasing interest towards learning; the

quality of school instruction represents a determining factor of attitudes (Trumper, 2006); motivation

correlates with attitude (Cannon and Simpson, 1985). In addition to that, the relationship between attitude

and superior school results are influenced also by contextual factors, by the class management and the

nature of academic or evaluative tasks.

Regarding the fact that learning should be based on students’ interests and experiences, there is a

general agreement, yet there comes the need to identify those educational contents which are significant

and relevant for the students. In order to stimulate students’ interest, the teaching activities have to

integrate personal life experiences, there should exist strong connections between the transmitted

scientific information and the students’ cultural and experiential background.

Albu (2005) conceptualizes the concept of interest in terms of the motivational factor with an

increased importance, which „implies a person’s selective and relatively stable orientation, from her own

initiative, towards certain objects and/or domains of activity, in order to carry out certain activities” (p.

18). In addition, the author draws attention upon the fact that the interests require aspects relating to

organization, invariability and efficiency (2005). A person’s orientation, the student in our case, towards a

certain activity or task involves „the presence of knowledge, mental activism, its experiencing as

agreeable/ disagreeable, which produce pleasure and, in the same time, drive to action, control, based on

determination and perseverance” (Albu, 2005, p.19); this way the structural elements of interest, namely

those cognitive, emotional and volitional ones, are underlined.

Objectives of The Study

Through this investigation, we aim to identify students’ perception of school and educational

activities. On this line, we proceeded to identifying and analysing two indicators, namely the students’

interest and attitude towards school and the educational activity.

Methodology

Results and Discussions

The first analyzed indicator was the interest shown by the investigated students for the

didactic/learning activity. The results are synthesized in Table 1 .

As for our group, we found that most of the subjects (N= 162) showed a moderate level of interest.

The decreasing frequency of answers put on the secondary place a very low interest (63 subjects); further

on, 58 students claimed a high level of interest in school activities. The reality discovered draws an alarm

signal and may stimulate a series of further actions meant to increase students’ interest in school. By

insisting on the idea that the interests are strongly connected with aspects relating to curiosity, the desire

to search and discover, the multiple advantages the students may benefit from an activity or action, the

school in general and teachers in particular, during the instructive-educational activities, find themselves

in the situation to quickly identify and implement actions to fight the lack or the low level of students’

interest. This urge is primarily based on the identification of types of interests, and we discuss in this

context about „general and personal interests; professional and extra-professional interests; material and

spiritual interests; immediate and perspective, technical, scientific, sports, literary and artistic, touristic,

etc. interests” (Albu, 2005, p.19).

The second indicator analyzed by us is represented by students’ attitude towards school, and the

results are presented in Table 2 .

From the perspective of attitude, out of the total batch of 370 subjects, 311 declared a positive

attitude towards school that may be fuelled by the action of some factors relating to the educational

environment, group of friends and parents or the process of actual teaching (with an accent on the

teaching methods). The efficient teaching determines the manifesting of a positive attitude towards

science, and the process itself (Papanastasiou and Zembylas, 2002). The reactions launched by the quality and efficiency of teaching stimulate and perpetuate a positive attitude towards teachers, curriculum,

lessons, in other words, towards school.

The relationship between attitude and genre reveals a positive character in girls’ case. While

researching the issue, White (1999) noticed that the male students tend to show a positive attitude,

especially during primary school, then this tendency will be manifested by girls. On the level of

secondary school, it’s been noticed that the positive attitude is shown mainly by girls. As for the present

study, the data support the hypothesis.

According to some specialty studies, the attitude towards school may also change depending on

the level of the class of students; in some cases, the attitudes towards school is favorable as the level of

study goes higher (Akpinar et al., 2009), but other cases disagree with this hypothesis. In our case, the

attitude is negatively influenced simultaneously with the advancement to another level of study (9th grade: M = 1.24, SD = 0.43; 10th grade: M = 1.22, SD = 0.41; 11th grade: M = 1.10, SD. = 0.30; 12th grade: M = 1.10, SD = 0.30).

Complementary to this analysis, the investigative endeavor also aimed to provide a qualitative

analysis regarding the students’ perception of school and school activities. In trying to observe the

phenomenon, as accurate as possible, we selected 86 students belonging to every level of study (21

students – 9th grade, 22 students – 10th grade, 20 students– 11th grade and 23 students – 12th grade) to

participate in the interviews.

One of the questions of the focus group targets the role of school in the contemporary society.

Thus, most of the students admit that school brought its contribution to their own development and to the

development of society at the same time, and they affirm that „ Through school and education, the society

develops”, „Education favors evolution”, „Without school and education, a society cannot exist”. Other

contrasting opinions were displayed: „Society offers numerous examples of individuals who accomplished

themselves without learning”, „Why do we need education, when the society does not support us when we

graduate from high-school or college?”, „The concept of school should be changed in today’s society”.

These reflections are completed by those referring to the identification of the extent in which school

contributes to the accomplishment of objectives and personal interests. Many students appreciate in a

negative way the implication of school in their support to follow their aspirations, as they consider that

the basic objective of school is to teach, in a rigid manner mostly, specialty disciplines: „ The school does

not have time anymore to listen to us, to help us in other areas”, There are too many important

disciplines, time runs too short, and teachers cannot help us with what we would like”, „Every school

wants to have the best students, and that means first of all to study for the most important disciplines”.

Regarding the didactic activities, students’ opinions describe them as rigid and less attractive: „ We

are given too much information, so we don’t have time to understand and learn that”, „Teachers are

mostly preoccupied to teach, they don’t listen to our opinions”; „Very many lessons are boring because

teachers do not capture our attention, they don’t make us be curious”. The students think that the didactic

process should be made more attractive thorough modern teaching and evaluation methods, a more

original display of the learning material, by organizing study teams, and the usage of modern didactic

materials. We continue this investigation on motivation with the students’ answers to the question: What

motivates you most to study? Here are some of the answers: „ The desire to be the best”, „I learn to

demonstrate my parents that I can do it”, „I learn because I have to, not because I like it”, „I learn when

I like the subject or the teacher”, „I learn in order to attend the university later”, „I don’t learn because

it doesn’t help me”, etc.

Among the difficulties faced by students during some learning activities we could mention: the

terminology in use, the large amount of information to assimilate during a short period of time, the lack

of further explanations, too much homework with high degree of complexity and difficulty, no exercises

to stimulate attention and curiosity, poor knowledge of efficient learning techniques. The solution

proposed by students include that teachers should come closer to their needs and interests, and offer

further explanations any time the situation requires; also, teachers should assign the homework according

to each student’s rhythm and capacity; the lessons should be more relaxed from the perspective of

information, the terminology should be adequate and the material resources should facilitate the

understanding of new knowledge.

At last but not least, a growth in efficiency of the didactic process may be stimulated, in students’

opinion, by organizing activities in an interactive manner, by the correlation of theory with practice, a

stronger accent on practical activities, the more frequent usage of teamwork, a renewal of material

resources, the simplification of school curriculum, a reduction of daily schedule, by organizing relaxing

activities during the school day, the involvement of students in new learning situations adapted to the

present context, and responsibility offered to students according to their potential.

Conclusions

The themes approached by the present study, the students’ interest and attitude towards school and

educational activities, represent hereinafter and beyond no doubt, extremely important issues in every

teacher’s agenda. The quality and success of learning depend on the extent of students’ commitment (that

is interest, attitude, desire and motivation), and we think here that the students’ success is also their

teachers’ success. This study underlined a reality which is unfortunately quite frequently present in school

practice, namely that of students showing a low level of interest in school. As for the attitude, the results

indicated its rather positive character. The added value of the study lies in the organized focus group,

through which the students discussed their opinions regarding different aspects in relation to the school

role in their training and development, the attractiveness or lack of that role of the didactic activity, the

learning motivation, and their difficulties in learning, the growing of quality of instruction. We should

mention that, at the end of this intervention, the students’ opinions, which are quite grounded, represent

an important step the teacher is invited to take into consideration in his or her endeavor, in order to offer the students actual experiences of learning and life.

References

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