Change in Pupils’ and Students’ Attitudes toward School as a Function of Age – A Finnish Perspective

Abstract

The article describes changes in pupil and student contentment as a function of age in the general education system. School satisfaction was measured with a 216-item test with 15 different versions simultaneously in all grades of primary and lower secondary education and in two grades in upper secondary general education. IRT modeling with matrix sampling was used to equate the versions for all the grades. Pupil/student contentment decreased significantly after the 2^nd grade with the intensity of the satisfaction declining steadily until the 8^th grade. From 9^th grade on, contentment recovered as it began to increase once again, albeit moderately. It then stayed constant until the 2^nd grade in high school. Pupil/studentcontentment decreased especially in the areas of assessing teachers, classroom activities, and lessons; there was a smaller reduction in the areas of school atmosphere and physical environment. Over the years, the girls were more satisfied with school than were the boys. Pupils with a higher achievement level were more satisfied than those with a low level of achievement

Changes in Achievement in and Attitude toward Mathematics of the Finnish Children from Grade 0 to 9—A Longitudinal Study

“…Compared with the results on Metsämuuronen, Svedlin and Ilic (2012), the decline in the data, however, seems to be quite mild.…”

“…The result of declining attitudes was expected because of the previous results (Metsämuuronen, 2006a;2006b;2006c;Metsämuuronen, Svedlin & Ilic, 2012). Compared with the results on Metsämuuronen, Svedlin and Ilic (2012), the decline in the data, however, seems to be quite mild.…”

“…More recently, Metsämuuronen (2010) followed-up 4,545 pupils from grade 3 to 6 and noticed that the girls' general attitudes toward Mathematics declined 13.6 percent units and boys' attitudes 9.2 percent units. The study of Metsämuuronen, Svedlin and Ilic (2012), simultaneously with all grades of compulsory education in Finland, showed that the decline in attitudes is very intense after the two first grades but its evens out at grades 9 to 12. A deficiency of the study was the cohort design, that is, that the students were not followed up and hence it was not known how the individual attitudes changed over the years.…”

“…It is quite clearly shown in several studies that the attitudes toward school have a tendency to decline during the years (see the discussion in Metsämuuronen, Svedlin & Ilic, 2012). Metsämuuronen studied the general attitudes toward the Mother tongue in Finnish language (2006a) and in Swedish language (2006b) and compared these (2006c) using a longitudinal design.…”

Knowledge Discovery from the Programme for International Student Assessment

“…Moreover, in a longitudinal study of Finnish students in grade 1 to grade 12 by Metsämuuronen et al (2012), it was concluded that student contentment in regard to school in Finland decreases significantly from the second to the eighth grade, while it then very slightly increases starting in the ninth grade. The majority (82% 11 ) of the Finnish students participating in the PISA are in the ninth grade, and almost all the rest are in the eighth grade (16%).…”