COGNITIVE STYLE, PERSONALITY & SCHOOL LIFE QUALITY

Relationship between Cognitive Style, Personality & Primary School Life Quality



Relationship between Cognitive Style, Personality & Primary School Life Quality

Introduction

Child school adjustment has traditionally focused on outcomes related to academic achievement, with little attention devoted to effective and experiential outcomes (Hegarty, 1994; Epstein, 1976). However, more recently there has been growing awareness of the importance of effective and social outcomes of schooling or quality of school life (QSL). Even as school and educational departments advocate that the schooling of students is undertaken across a diversity of outcomes, school reform has in the past emphasised achievement and academic outcomes at the expense of the broader educational curriculum. Schooling forms a major part of life for children (Ainley & Bourke, 1992) and school and classroom environments have many attributes of adult workplaces (Leonard, 2002; Schofield & Bourke, 1997). Thus, quality of school life should be accorded special significance by educators because it is viewed as important in its own right and also because of the relationship between students' quality of school life and their academic achievement.

Reduced levels of satisfaction at secondary school have been found to be positively linked to behaviour problems, poor school achievement, detachment, early leaving from school and absenteeism (Leonard, 2002; Law & Soliman, 1988). Furthermore, little satisfaction and student opinions of their quality of school life as being pitiable are the major causes of increased stress in students and, if unchecked led to decreased capacity to cope, reduced functioning, increased illness and increased student absence (Schofield & Bourke, 1997). Thus poor QSL relates to various risky behaviours. Poor Life satisfaction has also been shown to be negatively associated with mood disorders, such as depression, anxiety and stress (Gilman et al, 2000).

Quality of School life

For some scholars quality of school life has been accorded special significance because it is viewed as important in its own right and also because of the relationship between students' quality of school life and their academic achievement (Halpern, 1993; Bourke, 1993). In line with the definitions of quality of life provided by various authors (Hart & Conn, 1996; Pelsma, Richard, Harrington & Burry, 1989, Ainley, 1995; Goodlad, 1984; Law & Soliman, 1988; Leonard, 2002; Schofield & Bourke, 1997), quality of school life is used as an indicator of students' welfare and is defined as a synthesis of positive experiences (satisfaction), negative experiences (stress), and other school related factors and educational experiences, resulting from students involvement in school life and their engagement in school environment (Goodlad, 1984; Law & Soliman, 1988; Leonard, 2002; Schofield & Bourke, 1997).

As the contexts in which individuals develop play influential roles in promoting their adaptation and adjustment, schools are important contexts for children's development because of the degree to which they influence children's experiences and self-perceptions, and their potential to affect children's life courses. Almost exclusively, considerable attention in the literature has been given to general adult life satisfaction, job satisfaction and upper secondary school students' satisfaction at the neglect of ...