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Perceptions v. reality: pupils’ experiences of Learning in history and geography at Key Stage 4
Author(s) -
Biddulph Mary,
Adey Ken
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
the curriculum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1469-3704
pISSN - 0958-5176
DOI - 10.1080/0958517032000137621
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , perception , reading (process) , mathematics education , psychology , key (lock) , subject (documents) , pedagogy , computer science , library science , linguistics , political science , philosophy , computer security , neuroscience , law
History and geography have been identified as subject areas in which there has been ‘a notable lack of research’ (Lord and Harland, 2000: 29–30). This article builds on the findings of a questionnaire survey of over 1400 Year 9 pupils conducted in 1999 (Adey and Biddulph, 2001). The aim of this survey was to establish pupils’ experiences of learning history and geography at Key Stage 3 and to gain some insights into what they expected these subjects to be like at Key Stage 4. At the time of conducting the survey the message was clear – that pupils had found both subjects to be interesting and enjoyable at Key Stage 3 but many did not expect this interest and enjoyment to continue into GCSE. The data from the questionnaires pointed to trends in pupils’ perceptions of both subjects. In terms of GCSE, pupils were expecting subjects that required a lot of reading and writing, were quite difficult, where lessons would be varied and contain some (although not many) practical elements, and where they would have some opportunity to express their own opinions. It was clear that prior to GCSE pupils had a very insecure understanding of the relevance of learning in both subjects.