PISA 2012: Series on the Learning Environment Volume III: Student Behaviour Publications

Publication Details

In this report student behaviour, behaviour demonstrated by 15-year-olds that hinders learning, is put under scrutiny. Students' reports of the disciplinary climate in maths lessons are presented together with principals' reports of student factors that hindered learning at school, and how they relate to maths achievement. Finally student self reported measures of arriving late for school, and skipping class or a day of school are examined.

Author(s): Michelle Lamy with Steve May, Research Division, Ministry of Education.

Date Published: November 2014

Key Findings

Student behaviour

Disruptive behaviour in class and at school

  • According to New Zealand students’ reports of the disciplinary climate, noise and disorder and students not listening to the teacher were the most common behaviours that disrupt learning in maths classes. For over 40 percent of students these behaviours occurred in most or every maths lesson.
  • New Zealand students reported poorer disciplinary climate in maths classes than students in the OECD, Canada, the United Kingdom and particularly Singapore.
  • There was a high level of agreement between New Zealand principals’ and students’ reports of disruptive behaviour.
  • Higher incidence of behaviour that hinders learning was linked to lower maths achievement.
  • New Zealand stood out among PISA participants for one of the strongest links of the disciplinary climate in maths classes and maths achievement.
  • New Zealand principals reported that behaviour that hinders learning occurred less frequently in 2012 than in 2003.

Arriving late, skipping class and skipping days of school

  • Students in New Zealand were likely to be late for class more often than their peers in Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
  • When students were more frequently late, maths achievement was lower.
  • In the two weeks before they took the PISA assessment, 12 percent of New Zealand students skipped class and 13 percent skipped a day of school on one or two occasions. Just over 3 percent of New Zealand students skipped class and 4 percent skipped a day of school more than three times.
  • Of all the factors that are linked to lower maths achievement among New Zealand students, arriving late and skipping school exhibit the strongest association.
  • New Zealand stood out among PISA participants for one of the strongest links between skipping school and maths achievement, and for one of the largest differences between low and high socioeconomic students in arriving late and skipping school.
  • Between 2003 and 2012, there was a slight decrease in the numbers of students arriving late

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