By Jodie
Summer 09
Contents page
Introduction: Page 3
Methodology: Page 3
Findings: Page 4
Discussion: Page 13
Conclusion: Page 13
References: Page 13
Appendices: Page 14
Introduction
I wanted to find out about what lessons students like the most and why. I wanted to find that out because if students don’t like a lesson because you don’t play games it would be good if that could change and get lessons to be much more fun for students. Teachers would also be able to have a bit of fun and teach funnier things.
Whitehead and Clough (2004) carried out some research with 139 year 8 pupils from two schools. They discovered that they preferred to work in groups and discussion and activities with peers. Students felt that the activities that were helpful to their learning included:
- ‘Listening and discussing, Which enabled them to share ideas’
- ‘Practical work, Which they saw as more memorable and fun’
- ‘Working in friendship groups, Which enabled sharing of skills and a safe space for asking questions’
They preferred to put them selves into a pair or small group rather than the teacher to choose. They also found out:
- 43% chose Science as their favourite subject
- 32% chose Maths as their favourite subject
- 25% chose English as their favourite subject
The girls liked English much more than the boys.
I wanted to find out what lesson students at Walton High enjoyed the most and why and I wanted to ask a wider age range. (Year 7-Year 11)
Methodology
In this project that lasted over numerous weeks I had a lot of work to do. To start with we went to the inductions day. I learnt a lot of useful things that I will need to finish this project. We had to know what research is and that we should learn from other people’s research. We also learnt all about different types of research. E.g. interviews, questionnaires. Also on Day 1 we started our project by choosing our question we want to use. Until Day 2 we were meant to collect as much research as we could and I did but on Day 2 in the afternoon I had to get more research data. Over the next month till Day 3 we had to try and get all of our data analysed so that on Day 3 we could do our report.I had just finished analysing my data on Day 3 and started to do my report. I did not get much done so I had to do a lot of it at home in my free time.
Findings
In this part of this report I am going to tell and show you all of my results throughout this project.
As you see in the graph above I asked more girls than boys so my results may not be fair. I think that I should have asked the same number of boys as girls. But I have asked 96 pupils so I think that is very accurate.
In the graph above I asked quite a mixture of ages but because Year 11’s were on study leave only a few were still in tutor time. So as you see it was fair over a mixture of ages and I asked all years because they do different lessons because of GCSE’s in Year 10 and 11.
In this graph it shows what the 56 girls I asked 3 favourite lessons. As you can see most of the lessons that year 7, 8 and 9 have to do and then a few others that are for year 10 and 11. French and Spanish are quite low because you get to pick which one you would like to do at the begining of the year.
In this graph it shows that a lot of boys love P.E but then that is because they are very energetic. These are the boys best essons. They have quite a high number on most but low ones as well.
In this graph it is a overall comparison of boys and girls favourite lessons.
These are some of the reasons why girls like certain lessons. A lot of girls like it because they like the subject or they like the teacher and more reasons.
These are the reasons why boys like them lessons. Most boys like it because of the subject or the teacher just like the girls and more reasons.
On my questionnaire I got some differnet opinons and I mixed the boys and girls together. I also put them all into categories and they were:
- Fun and enjoy it: 14
- Interative: 1
- Interesting: 7
- Learn new things: 5
- Group work: 3
- Good at it: 3
- Other ones( that are just one): 7
So they are all sorts of different reasons.
As you see in this graph this is what lessons children dislike the most and quite a lot were high and everyone chose the three they disliked the most.
In this graph it is the same as the last one except for boys. They are quite high like the girls and all 3 lessons were picked just like the girls.
In this graph it is just an overall comparison of the boys and girls.
These are some of the reasons for why girls do not like these lessons. As you can see most people don’t like it because of the teacher and subject.
In this graph you can see that boys don’t like the lessons because of the teacher, it is hard and just the subject.
As I gave ‘other’ on the questionnaire I wrote all of then up and put them in to categories and they were:
Pointless: 2
Boring: 21
Not fun or enjoyable: 4
Not good at all: 1
Bad class and teacher: 2
Don’t understand or don’t like it: 2
Other: 2
This is all of the categories that people think can change in the school and what can make them happy in school and how they may behave. Most people think that we could do more activties, get the teachers to be more soft and sit with friends in more lessons.
The Discussion
The only problems I had was finding more information to relate to my research. I have found out that pupils want lessons to change in lots of different ways and that could be hard to do in all of them. The research that I am relating to said most boys like english less than girls. My findings agree with that because most girls like it much more than boys. I think that if I asked more Year 11’s it would be better but other than that my results are fine for me. I think that I have used comparisons. I would change thing next time by starting earlier and have more time to do everything. The only other problem that was not resolved was not having enough Year 11s.
Conclusion
These results suggest that P.E is a popular subject for girls and boys because it is practical and physical. English is popular with girls and not boys. I am surprised by that because boys in my Engilsh class quite like it and our lessons are pratical lessons. You should rember though more boys than girls were asked.This overall project needs to be done in more time because it is to short all the time. This is a brilliant project and any one can do it if you put a lot of effort in it.
References
Whitehead, J and Clough, N (2004) ‘Pupils, the forgotten partners in Education Action Zones’, Journal of Education Policy, 19(2).
Available online at
The Appendices
This is a copy of my questionnaire.
What lessons do children like the most and why? By Jodie
This questionnaire is to find out what lessons children like the most and why. This questionnaire is anonymous and when I am finished they will be shredded. I will be the only person to read the results so please tell the truth it will be better to analyze the results.
Thank you
Q1) what gender are you? (Please tick one box)
Boy ( ) Girl ( )
Q2) what year are you in? (please tick one)
7( ) 8( ) 9( ) 10( ) 11( )
Q3) what are your favourite 3 lessons?
- ………………………………………………..
- ………………………………………………..
- ……………………………………………….
Q4) Why are these your favourite lessons?(Please tick up to 3)
Hard ( ) Teacher ( ) Easy( ) sit with your friends ( ) play games a lot ( ) The subject ( )
Other ( )
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Q5) What are your least favourite 3 lessons?
- …………………………………………
- ……………………………………….
- ………………………………………..
Q6) Why are these your least favourite lessons? ( please tick up to 3)
Teacher ( ) Hard ( ) Easy ( ) Never play games ( )
Don’t sit with friends ( ) The subject ( )
Other ( )
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Q7) What do you think that can be change in these lessons to make the lessons more enjoyable? (or what you want to happen. DON’T BE SILLY)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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