Open AccessThe Relationship between Alienation from Learning and Student Needs in Swiss Primary and Secondary Schools
Author(s) -
Kaja Marcin,
Julia Morinaj,
Tina Hascher
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
zeitschrift für pädagogische psychologie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1664-2910
pISSN - 1010-0652
DOI - 10.1024/1010-0652/a000249
Subject(s) - alienation , psychology , injustice , competence (human resources) , perception , structural equation modeling , mathematics education , pedagogy , social psychology , political science , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience , law
. Previous studies have shown that secondary schools are less successful than primary schools in responding to student needs. Simultaneously, students seem to detach themselves during secondary schooling. Based on this, the present study investigated alienation from learning and its relationship with students’ perception of needs support by teachers and peers by analyzing data from 486 primary and 550 secondary school students in Switzerland. Multigroup structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the relevance of each independent variable for alienation from learning within and across the two subsamples. Teacher injustice as an indicator for the teacher-student relationship was significantly associated with alienation from learning for both subsamples, whereas there was a significant effect for competence support only in secondary schools. The findings highlight the importance of just and supportive teachers in preventing students’ alienation from learning in school.