Valuing Pupils’ Views in Scottish Schools

Abstract

Pupil attitude data have frequently been utilised in school effectiveness and improvement research to examine aspects of a school’s educational processes, culture and ethos. However, a related approach is based on the belief that the views and attitudes of pupils are important outcomes of schooling in their own right, in addition to academic or vocational achievement. The rationale for this approach is that schools and teachers can have a positive influence on pupils’ attitudes in a range of important areas that are central to the overall aims of schooling. These aims encompass enhancing pupils’ capacity for lifelong and independent learning and positive attitudes to education, behaviour and self-concept as well as promoting vocational aspirations and civic values. This article addresses a sub-set of these aims, specifically in terms of pupils’ attitudes to school, the learning context, self-concept and behaviour. This article also highlights the various issues and implications raised by measuring and using pupil attitudes in Scottish schools for the purpose of school self-evaluation and illustrations are drawn from the findings of the Improving School Effectiveness project funded by SOEID. Briefly, the results showed that generally both primary and secondary pupils’ reported attitudes were more positive than negative. However, differences between schools in terms of the extent of positive (or negative) attitude outcomes were identified and these differences appear to be greater at the primary level than at the secondary level. The findings are discussed in relation to the development of approaches to school self-evaluation in the UK.