Franc Cankar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 177 ( 2015 ) 43 – 47 45
Cronbach’s alpha measure of consistency.
3. Results and discussionThe data obtained in relation to the first objective (Table 1) shows that pupils in the international programme rated their lessons and teachers considerably higher than was the case with pupils attending the Slovenian primary school programme. We found no statistically significant differences between the pupils from the two programmes in their assessment of the school as a whole, nor in their assessment of the level of cooperation between the pupils within their respective programmes.
Table 1: Opinions of pupils from the respective programmes Area (no of indicators) Cronbach’s alpha(n=136)
Slovenian programme (n=92) International programme (n=44) t (sig.)
Lessons and teachers (16) 0.893 3.77 4.12 -3.687 (0.000)
School as a whole (9) 0.821 3.63 3.82 -1.357 (0.180)
Pupils from the same programme (3) 0.743 4.02 4.22 -1.467 (0.145)
Pupils from the other programme (3) 0.657 2.93 3.01 -0.521 (0.603)
It is no surprise that the pupils attending the international school were more satisfied with their lessons, teachers and the school as a whole than the pupils attending the Slovenian programme. On the one hand, this is demonstrated by the high level of correspondence between the expectations of teachers and pupils (Schofield, 2006), and on the other by the fact that the academic requirements applying to pupils at the international school are not enforced in a rigid manner (Stevens, 2007). Tan and Bibby (2011) report similar findings. For the second objective, we present a comparison in the levels of knowledge of pupils from the two programmes. The results (Table 2) show that pupils from the international programme attained a higher average number of marks in mathematics, society and natural sciences in the second three-year period, and in social sciences and in technical studies and technology in the third three-year period.
Their Slovenian peers were better in mathematics and environmental studies in the first three-year period, and in mathematics and natural sciences in the third three-year period. Despite the differences in the marks
attained in individual subject areas, the differences in the averages are not statistically significant; this is chiefly the result of the small samples or the number of units compared. Statistical differences do otherwise appear in technical studies and technology in the third three-year period. Table 2: Results of the tests (average no of marks) by programme Subjects by three-year period (no of marks possible in the test) International programme (n) Slovenian programme (n) t (sig.) Mathematics and environmental studies – 1s
three-year period (42) 32.00 (6) 34.18 (17) -1.068 (0.297)
Mathematics – 2nd three-year period (44) 29.71 (7) 23.64 (22) -1.549 (0.133)
Mathematics – 3rd three-year period (41) 22.42 (12) 26.19 (21) -1.437 (0.161)
Society – 2nd three-year period (30) 22.75 (8) 22.13 (24) 0.351 (0.728)
Social sciences – 3rd three-year period (24) 13.23 (13) 12.00 (22) 0.983 (0.333)
Natural sciences – 2nd three-year period (28) 20.56 (8) 18.50 (23) 1.204 (0.238)
Natural sciences – 3rd three-year period (37) 15.85 (13) 17.83 (20) -1.054 (0.300)
Technical studies and technology – 3rd three-year period (18) 10.38 (13) 8.83 (21) 1.782 (0.084)
Despite the fact that the differences established in the average marks attained in the tests between the pupils from the two programmes are not statistically significant, there are nevertheless slightly larger deviations with regard to certain tasks/content areas. Although it is difficult for us to say that the pupils from the two programmes differ in