Secondary School Pupils Attitudes to School and Teachers

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Abstract
The research reported here was carried out as part of the NFER Constructive Education Project, financed jointly by the Home Office and the Department of Education and Science. Teachers of approximately 2,400 first‐ and fourth‐year secondary school pupils were asked to identify those among them whom they thought to be particularly well‐ or ill‐adjusted. The attitudes of these contrasted groups towards various aspects of school and home life were then assessed by the use of the ‘semantic differential’ technique. It was found that, overall, teachers were seen as positively as other adults, but also as being somewhat lacking in the more ‘human’ qualities such as warmth, kindness and happiness. The ‘ill‐adjusted’ pupils had less favourable opinions of school and teachers. In presenting these results it is acknowledged that the manner in which the contrasting groups were identified severely limits the significance that can be attached to the findings. The teachers’ own attitudes towards the individual pupils would already be built into their designation of a pupil as well‐ or ill‐adjusted, and the criteria by which different teachers would judge such things cannot be assumed to be comparable.