Children’s School Lives: Primary pupils enjoy school less as they progress to senior classes
The Children’s School Lives study follows 4,000 children across almost 200 schools in Ireland throughout their primary education. Stock picture: Danny Lawson/PA
Children’s enjoyment of learning seems to decline as they progress through primary school partly due to overloaded subjects, while parents struggle with homework as children get older.
That is according to research carried out at University College Dublin on behalf of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).
The landmark Children’s School Lives study follows 4,000 children across almost 200 schools throughout their primary education to learn in detail about their experiences.
The latest report focuses on curriculum and assessment and found that children in fourth class considered repetition, of both content and activities, as the main reason why they considered a subject boring.
Similarly, some children stressed the increasing workload as they progressed in primary school as early as their transition into second class which impacted their enjoyment of learning.
The study found a sense of more ‘adultlike’ expectations beginning to penetrate their learning experiences at this stage.
The study also highlighted how much time teachers dedicate to certain subjects.
In second class, some 75% of teachers spent more than the recommended time teaching maths, while 58% did so for English and 21% for Irish. Some 53% spent less than the recommended amount of time teaching religion.
Except for religious education, most Junior Infants teachers indicated enjoying teaching every subject. Religious education (29%) and drama (18%) were the least enjoyable subjects to teach.
Teachers commonly mentioned curriculum overload and lack of time as key challenges, particularly in more senior years.
They highlighted the need for responsive and differentiated instruction to make the subjects engaging for children.
PE was consistently the most popular subject among children while Irish was consistently the least popular.
Children in second class ranked PE as the most interesting and Irish as the least interesting subject, a ranking which remained largely unchanged once they reached fourth class. The same students also ranked PE as the most useful subject (71%) followed by maths (69%) and English (67%).
Some 26% said Irish is not very useful, followed by music (22%) and art (18%).
In fifth class, children were least likely to indicate that they were bored when they were in PE (4%), while the largest proportion of children indicated they were bored while learning Irish (58%) and Maths (35%).
In terms of testing, parents reported children in the early years of primary school do not feel worried or anxious about assessment, but this changes as they progress through primary school saying it sometimes leads to children faking illness.
Approximately a third of children in fourth class said they did not feel anxious about testing.
However another third typically felt anxious sometimes, while the same amount typically felt anxious usually or always.
Anxiety was often connected to a sense of failure or an element of surprise.
Although homework was seen as a challenge for some parents in busy households, it was perceived mostly as manageable for parents of children in first class. As the children get older, however, parents noted an increasing resistance to homework — most often from boys.
Parents of children in senior classes noted that the amount of homework assigned is a challenge and felt more strongly that homework is an unnecessary source of stress for children.
Irish is noted, by both Irish and migrant parents, as a subject they struggle with themselves, and worry about giving support to their children.
