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Comparison to student-reported difficulties
Table TT2.6 below contrasts teacher and student responses to four similar items. Note that, while the items explored the same difficulties, they were worded differently and were on different scales. Teachers were asked to assign each issue to a series of five experience buckets, while students were asked to indicate how often they were experiencing the same issues on a four-point scale. The scales, therefore, are different, which complicates comparison. However, they are sufficiently similar to allow exploration of common and divergent perceptions across student and teacher respondents.
Percentages of students experiencing particular difficulties as reported by students and identified by teachers
- Standard errors appear in parentheses.
On average, teachers in Tonga identified smaller proportions of students experiencing hunger and tiredness than students reported themselves. For behavioural difficulties, teachers reported similar proportions to what students reported. For concentrating and focusing attention, teachers and students reported similar proportions at the year six level but not at the year four level. Teachers reported greater proportions of year four students experiencing difficulties with concentrating and focusing attention than students reported.
What does this mean?
Teachers observed a substantial minority of their students experiencing difficulties that may affect their learning. Of these, teachers identified behavioural and cognitive difficulties as the most common.
Teachers’ responses cannot be directly compared to students’ responses in similar areas but, when looked at together, it is clear that there is a range of behavioural and physiological difficulties experienced by a substantial minority of students.
