Institute for Democracy and Economic Analysis

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Learning by torture or by play?

A new IDEA study presents the key results of a research paper (CERGE-EI, Discussion Paper 2014-227) by Miroslava Federičová and Daniel Münich that analyzed pupils’ satisfaction with school and enjoyment of learning mathematics.  

 The international survey PISA 2012 showed that almost 80 % of 15-year-olds feel happy at school.

Out of 64 countries, the happiest students seem to live in Indonesia and Albania (96%, 94%), whereas on the other end are students from South Korea, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, among whom only 60%, 63% and 64 %, respectively, are content with school.

The authors included all European countries that took part in the last cycle of TIMSS testing and they found out that in all countries, satisfaction with school and enjoyment of learning decreases as pupils move up through grades, and boys display less enjoyment than girls.

For a more detailed summary, please follow this link.