PISA 2006: School context of science achievement: How ready are our 15-year-olds for tomorrow's world?

Perception of school climate

Students, parents and principals were asked a variety of questions about the learning atmosphere in their schools. It seems likely that a place where students feel they belong, and where they perceive their participation is worthwhile, would be a better place for learning than one where they feel out of place and no one is interested in what they have to say. This section looks at student, principal, and parent responses to various aspects of school climate. Note that no international comparisons are presented for the sections on students’ and principals’ perceptions because these questions were only asked in New Zealand as national options.

Students’ perception of school climate

In New Zealand, students were asked two sets of questions on school climate. The first set of questions examined students’ sense of belonging, and these statements are shown in Table 21 in the order in which they were presented to the students. Note that positive and negative statements are interwoven. Students were given four response options: strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree.

The majority of students gave responses consistent with them feeling they belonged at school. On average 9 out of every 10 students felt that school was a place where they fitted in, with the lowest agreement at the 87 percent level for My school is a place where I feel like I belong. More than half of all students (59%) strongly disagreed with the statement that My school is a place where I feel lonely, while a further 34 percent disagreed with this statement.

Table 21: New Zealand students’ sense of belonging at school

Notes:

Values presented for ‘agreeing’ included student responses to ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’; similarly, ‘disagreeing’ includes both ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’. See Appendix 3 for proportions of students in each of the four orginal categories.

The percentage of students with missing responses for each of these items ranged between 3% and 4%; these students are not included in this table.

The positive sense of belonging, as represented by the statements in the table above, was evident among both boys and girls, and among students from each of the ethnic groupings.

The second set of questions on school climate in the student questionnaire examined students’ perceptions of their teachers, as shown in Table 22. Around three-quarters of students, or more, agreed with the positively worded statements about their teachers. The highest agreement (strongly agree and agree combined 86%) was for the statement Most of my teachers treat me fairly, while the lowest agreement (74%) was for the statement Most of my teachers really listen to what I have to say.

Table 22: New Zealand students’ attitudes to their teachers

Notes:

Values presented for ‘agreeing’ include student responses to ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’; similarly ‘disagreeing’ includes both ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’. See Appendix 4 for the proportions of students in each of the four original categories.

Adjusted percentages are shown. The percentage of students with missing responses for each of these items was about 2%; these students are not included in this table.

The students’ positive perceptions of teachers, as represented by the statements in the table above, were held by both boys and girls, and generally among students from each of the ethnic groupings. However, Māori students were less likely to agree that most of my teachers really listen to what I have to say, with only 67 percent of students agreeing compared to 74 percent of their Pākehā/European, 76 percent of their Pasifika, and 85 percent of their Asian counterparts.

Principals’ perception of school climate

Principals were given 13 statements on potential hindrances to a good school climate, as shown in Table 23, and were given the response options not at all, very little, to some extent, and a lot. Note that the proportions given represent proportions of students rather than proportions of schools.

Of the statements listed, principals in New Zealand perceived student absenteeism to be the greatest potential hindrance to a good school climate, as shown in Table 23. About half (53%) of students were in schools whose principals thought student absenteeism hindered instruction to some extent or a lot. The second greatest issue reported by principals was teachers not meeting individual students’ needs (38% to some extent or a lot). Few students were in schools where teacher absenteeism (3%), teachers being too strict (4%) or poor student-teacher relations (9%) were considered a problem.

Table 23: New Zealand principals’ perceptions of potential hindrances to a good school climate

Notes:

Adjusted percentages are shown. The percentage of students with missing responses for each of these items was about 2%; these students are not included in this table.

The statements are ordered as they were asked in the questionnaire.

Parents’ perception of school climate

In order to complement the perspectives of students and school principals, participating countries in PISA 2006 were given the opportunity to collect data from parents. Sixteen countries, including New Zealand, administered questionnaires to parents. The other countries were:

• OECD member countries: Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Turkey;
• partner countries: Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Hong Kong-China, Macao-China, and Qatar.
  

Nearly 70 percent of the parents of participating New Zealand 15-year-old students returned a completed questionnaire.

To gauge the parents’ perception of school quality, parents were asked about their agreement on seven positive statements about their child’s school (listed in Table 24). The possible response options were: strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. The majority of parents of New Zealand 15-year-olds were satisfied with the quality of the school as measured by these statements. The statement with the most agreement (93%) among New Zealand parents was most of my child’s school teachers seem competent and dedicated. Agreement from parents in the other countries was of a similar level (89% on average), with the highest agreement in Bulgaria (95%) and the lowest in Germany (80%).

The statement with the lowest level of agreement (82%) among New Zealand parents was my child’s school provides regular and useful information on my child’s progress. Another way of looking at this is that only 18 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement. This statement had much greater variation across countries (the average was 74%), with the highest agreement in Poland (93%) and the lowest in Germany (46%).

Table 24: Parents’ perceptions of school quality, New Zealand and selected countries

Notes:

Only 16 countries collected data from parents, so the country average includes only these 16 countries.

Only 70% of New Zealand parents returned the questionnaire completed.

Source: Figure 5.8, OECD, 2007a.

The relationship between each of these statements on school quality and achievement was positive. That is, those parents who were satisfied with the school generally had children with higher achievement than those whose parents were not satisfied (see Figure 7).

Figure 7: Mean scientific literacy of students, by parental agreement with statements of school quality

Notes:

Lines represent the confidence interval around the mean; i.e. we are 95% confident that if all 15-year-old students were tested the mean science achievement would be on the line.

See Appendix 5 for values.

School preparation for science-related careers
Students were asked how much they agreed with four statements on the way their school prepared them for a science-related career (the questions are presented in Table 25). Prior to the questions, the following definition of what was meant by a science-related career was presented:

"When thinking about what a science-related career might be, think of the many jobs that involve science – not just the traditional ‘scientist’. Careers like engineer (involving physics), weather forecaster (involving earth science), optician (involving biology and physics), and medical doctors (involving medical sciences) are all examples of science-related careers."

Most New Zealand students agreed that schools were preparing them for a science-related career (between 74% and 93% agreeing or strongly agreeing with statements on this). The proportions were similar to Australia (71% to 93%), the United Kingdom (77% to 92%) and Ireland (74% to 92%). Students with higher levels of agreement to these statements (implying higher positive feelings of preparation) generally had higher achievement than those with lower levels of agreement.

Table 25: Student attitudes to whether school is preparing them for science-related careers

Notes:

Response options for ‘strongly agreed’ and ‘agreed’ are combined to give the values for agreement presented in this table.