Grade Level and Sex Differences in Attitude to Several School Subjects

Abstract

Considerable prior research has been conducted into grade level and sex differences in students' attitudes to school, in general, and to school science, in particular. This research generally has revealed that attitudes deteriorate with increasing grade level, that girls hold more favourable general school attitudes, and that boys express more favourable attitudes to school science. As research evidence is more scarce for school subjects other than science, the present study explored grade level and sex differences in attitudes to English, mathematics, social studies and art among a sample of 1,817 Year 7–10 students. Significant declines in attitude to each school subject occurred with grade level. Girls expressed significantly more favourable attitudes towards English, social studies and art, but significantly less favourable attitudes towards mathematics. Student attitudes generally were most favourable towards English, next towards mathematics, next social studies, and least favourable towards art.