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Research Fossil 2

Research Fossil 2

Compare Research Fossil 1

I should caution that these data have nothing like the scope of the primary survey, being drawn from a smaller collection of schools over a longer period of time.  But as was said before, the point of the surveys is to prompt local discussion and local action. 

Each column in this table shows the order, from 1st to 49th, in which the topics were rated by parents (Par), teachers (Tch), and pupils.  The adults indicated that the topic in question 'should be included' in the curriculum, while the pupils' results are based on those responding that they would be 'very interested' in it.  Some topic titles have had to be compressed from the exact wording in the questionnaire: these are shown in square brackets []

Rank positions among the Just a Tick topics list ordered by responses from all secondary schools 1985-1994

You might begin your reflections by establishing from the table:

  • The top topic for parents and teachers is 9.How a baby is made.  Other sex-related topics which get lots of positive votes from adults include 10. Menstruation: periods, 44. Contraception, and 46. Sexually transmitted diseases.
  • Teachers also see a great important in substance-related topics like 14. Smoking, 12. Drinking alcohol, and 13. Glue sniffing.  Parents also vote for these topics in large proportions.
  • All ages of boy vote most positively for 15.Physical fitness.  How much of this is a positive vote for sport, and how much a shrinking from the more emotional material elsewhere in the list?
  • Among the girls there is an intriguing climb from 5th to 1st for 45.Parenthood and child care.  With the finding above we can be assured that gender stereotyping is working well...
  • Another top topic for the pupils is 49.Cancer, which scarcely registers for the adults.  Girls are relatively more interested in this than boys: is this because the cancers girls hear about, like breast cancer and cervical cancer, are bound up with their entry into adulthood and the need for self-examination and screening?
  • Leisure activities 37-39 attract little support from adults.  Bottom of the adult lists is 39. Caring for pets, which still attracts strong support among pupils, particularly among the younger ones
  • Emotional topics like, 24.[Separation from parents], 25.Death and bereavement, and 26.Why people worry get relatively few votes from adults, or children.
  • The health educators’ two principal ideas of decision-making (34. Making up our minds) and self-esteem (33. Feeling good about yourself) attract some positive support, particularly 33 among the older girls.  [We know from other data that girls often score lower on measures of self-esteem than comparable groups of boys, although that may reflect greater honesty on the part of the girls.]
     
Author: 
DrDave