An investigation of the subject preferences of intermediate students

A questionnaire measuring the subject preferences of 296 grade five to seven students showed physical education to be the most popular subject and language arts the least. A second questionnaire investigated reasons for students’ dislike of language arts. Pearson product moment correlations and an analysis of variance were used to investigate factors which might be associated with subject preferences. General ability, achievement and the teacher did not appear to be major factors. Grade level was significantly related to preference for reading, mathematics and language, with fifth grade students expressing the greatest preference for all of these. Sex was significantly related to preference for reading, language and music, with girls expressing greater preferences than boys for these three subjects. Results from this study agreed with previous research in finding little or no relationship between preference and achievement, a decline with increasing grade in attitudes to school subjects, and a greater preference among girls than among boys for reading, language and music.Education, Faculty ofGraduat