ABSTRACT
All secondary schools in all countries structure their time around the study of ‘subjects’. In fact the curriculum has a familiar look from one country to the next – languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Subjects, Art, Music – timetabled in periods with classes of students – a school structure that would be comfortably recognisable to an octogenarian returning to her old school. The variation from school to school is primarily in the range of subjects studied, length of school periods and balance of subjects within the school day but the underlying similarity does allow for a common set of data as to the preferences and dislikes of school students, male and female. In this chapter data are presented on what students said about their school subjects. One of the most interesting findings is on reasons why some subjects appeal more than others – intrinsic interest, and why subjects are least liked – pressure for extrinsic grades. There are echoes here of Csikzentimihalyi's (1998) study of motivation which showed that the top three reasons for engagement in school subjects were, in order, enjoyment, satisfaction in getting better at learning, and interest.
