Impact of Different Levels of Schooling on Development of Students’ Social Attitudes

AbstractOne of the expectations of society from schooling is to develop students’ prosocial behaviors having roots in their knowledge, beliefs and social attitudes.  But the assessment procedures related to students’ social thinking and attitudes are generally missing in the instructional system.  The study, therefore, to fill the gap diagnosed as whether schooling offered something that developed students’ social attitudes, a prerequisite of prosocial behaviors. Hence, the preset empirical investigation explored the impact of schooling on the development of students’ social attitudes.  A sample from 16 schools of 480 students was taken, for which a ‘social attitude scale’, having four subscales, i.e., a) concern for others’ welfare, b) respect for laws, c) respect for others’ property and d) sensitivity to social issues, was developed to collect data.  Results of data analysis revealed that the overall impact of different levels of schooling for upward positive increase in students’ social attitude was negligible, although elementary schooling contributed more, as compared to secondary level.  Similarly public sector schooling across three stages had more impact on students’ social attitudes as compared to private sector schools.Keywords: Schools, Social attitudes, Prosocial and antisocial behaviors, Public and                   Private schooling