Project Material: IES Miguel Catalán

1. Investigation on opinions

1. Temporal distribution: The investigation on basic values will be carried out in two phases for two years and with the same group of students.

2. Objectives of the investigation: Degrees of assertiveness, tolerance and violence in the classes and its evolution throughout two school years are being studied.

3. Target students: Students pertaining to 4º of Compulsory (O levels), 15 years, in the present course 2004-2005. They will study for A levels, 16 years, in the next course. It has been considered that those two years are fundamental in the formation of the personality with respect to the incorporation and evolution of basic values.

4. Methodology: The investigation is made from raised questionnaires to students of several groups of 4º of Compulsory Education. The questionnaires have been adapted to the specific conditions of age and circumstance of these groups. The ones in charge of presenting questionnaires have been their own tuition teachers. The students have been committed to the homogeneity in the conditions in which they have to answer the questionnaires concerning seriousness and sincerity necessary to obtain trustworthy conclusions.

5. Conclusions: Once the questionnaires have been answered by the students, the project coordinating team will try to obtain results with statistical foundation.

6. Activities: After the conclusions of the study of the "year one questionnaires", discussions on cases will be carried out with the group of students.
- Case one: a situation in the classroom.
- Case two: a situation in the school.
- Case three: a situation outside the school.

7. Follow up of the investigation: In the same dates of the following school year, questionnaires will be presented to the same group of students and the variations taken place after a year with respect to such values will be observed.

Conclusions year one

1. Questionnaire 1: Social atmosphere.

The questionnaire raises 22 questions about the frequency the students perceive to happen some negative (conflictive) behaviour in their class environment. The answer A means "never", B stands for "sometimes", C for "often" and D for "very often - almost always". So, answers A and B are better ("I've never or very rarely seen this behaviour") and C and D are worse ("I've seen often or very often this behaviour").

We can classify this negative behaviour in four categories concerning relationships of the students with:
1. Study materials (items 3, 4, 8, 19)
2. Classmates (items 1, 2, 7, 18)
3. Teachers (items 6, 12, 13, 15, 16)
4. School (items 5, 9, 10, 11, 14, 17, 20, 21, 22)
Although we think it's important to study every single group of students separately, we show the results of the complete group of 140 students to make the presentation more feasible:

Click the numbers below to view a pie chart

1. Study Materials

A(never)	B(sometimes)	C(often)	D(always)
55.4%	29.9%	11.4%	3.3%

2. Classmates

A(never)	B(sometimes)	C(often)	D(always)
42.5%	37.2%	13.5%	6.7%

3: Relation with the teachers:

A(never)	B(sometimes)	C(often)	D(always)
50%	32.3%	11.6%	3.6%

4: Relation with the School:

A(never)	B(sometimes)	C(often)	D(always)
45.3%	29.8%	18.2%	6.5%

2. Questionnaire 2: Assertiveness (Scale ADCA-1)

Scale ADCA-1, report of assertive conduct, has the purpose of identifying the passive, aggressive or assertive cognitive typology that regulates the social behaviour of the individuals. This scale registers what we can denominate the "social abilities" and allows us to identify the degree of assertiveness of the students in comparison with normative social groups.

The students whose conduct can be considered assertive are characterized by the direct expression of their own feelings, legitimate needs, rights and opinions, without intimidating or punishing the others. These individuals control better their social atmosphere and therefore their relations.

The students with a conduct predominantly dependent do not express their thoughts, feelings and opinions suitably, avoiding the conflict at the cost of abandoning their legitimate personal rights.

The aggressive students behave socially defending their personal rights at all costs, many times in an unsuitable way, violating the personal rights of the others.

The scale also allows us to identify students with assertive deficit, the ones that do not know their own personal rights and are incapable to defend themselves.

It seems evident that in those social groups where the predominant conduct of the individuals is the assertive one, their conflict level should be low. On the other hand, if the predominant type of conduct is aggressive, passive or with assertive deficit, this level should be higher. For that reason we have tried to evaluate the group with respect to this variable showing us the following results:

Unlike in the previous questionnaire, we haven't grouped the results because in this case it is very important to study every single group separately.

GROUP	N	ASSERTIVE%	DEPENDENT%	AGRESSIVE%	ASSERTIV DEFICIT %
4ºA	13	38,5	23	7,6	30,7
4ºAD	12	41,6	16,6	16,6	25
4ºB	21	71,4	9,5	14,3	4,7
4ºC	27	59,2	14,8	18,5	7,4
4ºD	23	60,8	0	26	13
4ºE	24	50	25	12,5	12,5
4ºF	21	52,3	28,5	0	19
TOT	141	55,3	16,3	14,1	14,1

At this point we considered important to compare these results to the data of "objective" conflicts in the same groups. We have made a measurement of the number of warnings and reprimands made by the teachers of every group, although we know this is not a perfectly objective measurement of the conflict level. The results are:

GROUP	Students	Warnings
4ºA	13	3
4ºAD	12	4
4ºB	21	1
4ºC	27	3
4ºD	23	6
4ºE	24	10
4ºF	21	10
TOTAL	141	29

Of course, this kind of "objective" measurement provides very little evidence for extracting definitive conclusions. As the course will go on, more data will be available to compare the theoretical previsions and the real behaviour of the students.

Cases on "Basic Values"

Click to view IES Miguel Catalán's cases