Variables of the Educational Success of the Boarding-school a Model of the Boarding-school Educator in the Pupils’ Expectations

Abstract

The article undertakes an analysis of the conditions in which the boarding-school as an educational-tutelary institution works. Special attention is paid to the interdependence between the features actually perceived by the pupils and those expected by them from the educators. The analysis undertaken in the article are made on the basis of studies of two groups of subjects: pupils (girls) staying in a state run boarding-school and in a private one run by nuns. The results of the studies of this population do not generally reveal significant differences between the description of the educators given by the pupils (by choosing features from a suggested set) and their expectations, i.e. the so-called desired model. A relatively high level of convergence between the features perceived in the educators and those expected by the pupils has been found. Also the results are not significantly different in the two studied groups. A more thorough interpretation of the state that was found is not undertaken in the article - suggestions point to conditionings related to the level or type of needs felt by the pupils and to the way they see the educational relation. The differences that are perceived may result from a slightly different criterion of appraisal used especially with respect to the nuns-educators as well as from the type of environment from which the girls come and from their motivation for the chioce of the given type of boarding-school.

The particular aspect taken into consideration in the studies and in the analysis, i.e. the expected and actual model of the boarding-school educator, may be treated as a possible variable of efficiency or even of educational success in such a specific type of institution as the boarding-school.