Student+questionnaire


 * Västerås and Gloucestershire Comenius Regio Project ‘EUR-EMSET’ **

** QUESTIONNAIRE **

** What do you think about Mathematics and Science? ** The purpose of this questionnaire is to find out about school students’ attitudes to learning in mathematics and science.



** __General remarks on Maths __ **

There are much more marked differences between the individual schools than between Sweden and the UK. There are even quite marked differences in responses between different groups in the same school – with for instance the Control Group at UK2 recording on the whole significantly even more positive responses than the Focus Group, within the context of generally very positive attitudes to the subject from both UK2 groups. There are particularly marked differences between schools (and to some extent between groups within schools) when it comes to responses to ** I feel enthusiastic about maths, **varying from 24% positive responses to 93%. Only SE2:1 seems to find maths exciting, as a clear majority view. It may be that the overwhelmingly positive responses from SE2 (especially Group 1) reflect the students’ experience that they are involved in ** a lot of practical activities and problem-solving. **

** __General remarks on Science __ **

It is noticeable that almost all students in all groups say they enjoy science lessons, whereas the response to the same question in relation to maths is much more varied. Within this context, there appears to be the most enthusiasm for science at SE2, amongst all the survey schools, within the groups chosen to complete the questionnaire. Most students both in Sweden and the UK also seem to find science (at least potentially and no doubt often actually) exciting. Again, there is a much more positive response from students in both countries in this respect than there is for maths. COMENIUS REGIO PROJECT ‘EUR-EMSET’ QUESTIONNAIRE COMMENTS THOMAS KEBLE SCHOOL WHAT I LIKE MOST ABOUT MATHS WHAT I LIKE MOST ABOUT SCIENCE Problem solving practical work It helps everyday life doing experiments Group work That there are different ways to solve a problem Doing projects Whole class activities

WHAT I DON’T LIKE ABOUT MATHS WHAT I DON’T LIKE ABOUT SCIENCE Tests tests It’s hard to understand it’s hard to understand Algebra is confusing lots of writing Fractions listening to the teacher too much Working from a text book Evaluating the experiments