Norwegian boys hate school more than any other group, study finds

For the most part, Norwegian girls enjoy going to school, while boys show a marked dislike for the school environment. One of the problems is that boys perceive the school to be unfair.

SINTEF is responsible for the Norwegian part of a study investigating how schoolchildren in grades 4 to 7 experience their school environment. The study surveyed students from Norway, Spain and Poland. Students were asked what they thought of their teachers and peers, as well as whether or not they liked school and considered it fair.

The article is published in the International journal of open educational research.

Norwegian boys say school is unfair

The researchers found that the most significant differences were between the sexes, specifically between Norwegian girls and boys.

“For the most part, Norwegian girls enjoy going to school, while boys show a marked aversion to the school environment,” explains Sébastien Muller, research scientist at SINTEF Digital. “The responses of Norwegian boys are also more variable than those from Poland and Spain,” he says.

“The biggest differences arise when they are asked whether they consider the school to be fair,” says Müller. “Norwegian boys perceive school as significantly less fair than girls. It is almost twice as likely that a boy will respond by saying he thinks school is unfair,” he says.

Although Spanish and Polish boys clearly view school as more unfair than girls, this tendency is much less pronounced than among Norwegian boys.

Compared to Norwegian girls, Norwegian boys also report that they like school much less (boys’ results are 44% lower). Spanish boys clearly hate going to school as much as Spanish girls, while in Poland there is no difference between the sexes.

What Norwegian boys think about teachers

Norwegian boys also stand out for displaying the most negative perceptions of their teachers. Here again, the scores are 44% lower than those of girls. Polish boys aren’t too enthusiastic about their teachers either, even though their Spanish counterparts aren’t much different from girls.

When it comes to what students think of their classmates, the responses of boys and girls in Poland and Spain were quite similar. But once again, Norwegian boys are distinguished by a marked negative perception of their classmates.

What all three countries have in common is that students’ perceptions of their school, their teachers and their peers deteriorate as they progress through the school. Here, Norwegian students stand out with a slightly more positive trend: their level of dissatisfaction increases less with age than in Poland and Spain.

Worsening after the pandemic

This study was first conducted in the fall of 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This happened again in the fall of 2020, after the first global wave of infection. The pandemic has clearly had a negative impact on everyone’s experience of school, with an approximately 20% reduction in all scores across all countries studied.

Researchers were hardly surprised by the negative impact of strict restrictions and long periods of school closures.

“However, we were surprised to find that the negative impacts were similar in Poland to those in Norway, even though Polish schools were closed for almost twice as many weeks,” says Mari Gunnes, also a researcher at SINTEF Digital. “This shows that there are many other factors that influenced the impact of pandemic measures on students,” she says.

In Norwegian primary and secondary schools, 75% of teachers are women. Does the gender of the teacher play a role in student satisfaction?

“It looks like it,” Muller said. “In our study, we found that boys were about equally satisfied regardless of the gender of their teacher. At the same time, it appears that girls get along better at school with male teachers than with female teachers. Percentage more likely that a girl will say she is more satisfied with school if her teacher is a man. So, if we take the sexes together, we see a slightly greater probability that students will appreciate school more if they have a male teacher. ,” he explains. “For a larger proportion of boys, a greater focus on theoretical studies is perceived as more demanding and less relevant.”

School is more suitable for girls

Head of School Development Kjetil Ulsrud Lundemoen from Modum Municipality monitored the implementation of the SINTEF study in five of the municipality’s schools. He has his own opinion on why boys view the school environment in a bad light than girls.

“One likely reason is that a much larger proportion of students in Norway attend a fully integrated school system,” says Lundemoen. “Spain and Poland, in particular, have special schools that cater for students with behavioral difficulties. I also believe that for a greater proportion of boys, a greater focus on theoretical studies is experienced as more demanding and less relevant It’s not that girls don’t appreciate practical subjects, but they “tolerate” the academic aspects better.

“Fortunately, the pendulum is starting to swing the other way. For example, look at the evaluation results of the Norwegian government’s so-called six-year reform, or the subsidy program designed to promote more practical teaching, as well as the introduction of new reforms in primary and lower secondary education,” he said.

Why are boys’ perceptions of injustice so strong?

“I think there is a link here with disciplinary sanctions taken by schools and teachers in response to disruptive behavior and acting out, to which boys are more prone,” explains Lundemoen. “It’s less common for girls to act out so visibly and physically when they’re frustrated. This allows them to be more resilient to their environment,” he says.

Lundemoen also points out that boys spend a lot of time playing and participate less in organized activities outside of school hours.

“I think there may be a disconnect between what boys do at school and what happens at home,” he adds. “Maybe as parents we are too good at organizing things for them. Boys fail to learn enough of the social and emotional skills they need to deal with the challenges and resistances they encounter in the school environment”, explains Lundemoen.

Need for targeted action

The SINTEF researchers conclude their study with a certain number of propositions.

“Schools need to take a holistic view if they are to address the many factors that contribute to students’ experiences in a poor school environment,” says Mari Gunnes. “We also think it is appropriate to target the measures at certain groups of students, focusing particularly on boys and students of both sexes in higher grades,” she says.