https://www.mdu.se/

This quantitative study researches differences in perceptions of classroom activities among different pupil groups in order to inform teachers’ lesson planning. A survey of 408 Swedish upper secondary school pupils was conducted. Even persons who went to upper secondary school for up to five years ago were allowed to answer. For ten activities, likert scale-questions were used to ask pupils how much they liked an activity, how stressed they got by it and how much the activity promoted achievement of the knowledge requirements. A fourth question was asked about if their perception was the same across situations, or if factors like subject, teacher, classmates or the pupil’s grade or knowledge influenced their perception. The activities studied were graded group work, non-grade group work, individual work with a book, presentations in front of the whole class, presentations in front of a minor group, universal design for learning (UDL) (a concept of scaffolding), games and competitions in real life, digital games and competitions, in-class exams and project-exams. Background data for pupil grouping were stream (academic, vocational, individual), tendency towards introversion (if they get their energy from others or being alone), ability to concentrate and work on an assignment, grades and gender.

Significant differences for the background data were analysed with factorial ANOVAs in SPSS. Significant differences in perception were found for all activities except digital games/competitions and in-class exams. There were only minor significant differences for project-exams. Graded group work was perceived more negatively for girls and high-achieving pupils. Non-graded group work was perceived more negatively for students prone to introversion. Individual work with a book was perceived more negatively for students prone to extroversion. Presentations in front of the whole class was the least appreciated activity across questions and pupils prone to introversion and girls perceived them significantly more negatively. Presentations in front of a minor group was perceived more negatively by low-achieving pupils, pupils prone to introversion and girls. UDL was perceived more negatively by pupils in the individual stream (but: n=6), low-achieving pupils, pupils who have a harder time concentrating and boys. Games/competitions in real life were perceived more negatively by pupils prone to introversion and pupils having a harder time concentrating. Project-exams had only combined significances: it was perceived more positively by pupils prone to extroversion that had a harder time concentrating (but: n=4), and for girls prone to extroversion (n=22).

Pupils were shown to be mature about assessing what activities were liked versus what activities promoted achievement. Implications for practice include the suggestion that teachers include knowledge about how activities are perceived into their lesson planning in order to not disadvantage one group of pupils more often than others. Another implication is to involve pupils in questions of how content and knowledge requirements can be processed.

Warning: for grades “mostly E” and “mostly F” there were only seven and three respondents respectively, so tables, numbers and figures should be interpreted ignoring E- and F- answers.