explore reasons for these expressed attitudes towards their competence in art. The notions
of ‘easy’ versus ‘hard’ are used to express pupils’ feelings of competence versus
incompetence. Four items explore directly pupils’ beliefs in their abilities (whether they
can respond to the tasks set by the teacher and how much satisfied they are with the
results of their work). The others are connected with reasons for feeling competent
/incompetent, such as handling materials, expressing what they want, doing careful and
detailed work, which was perceived as signs of quality work by the pupils in study 1 and
2, and be able to concentrate.
Usefulness
The usefulness subscale consists of ten items. These items aim to find out whether pupils
think that art is useful and important, and reasons for these attitudes. Two items look at
pupils’ attitudes towards art in terms of importance, and there is one item that implies that
art knowledge is important. Four items deal with reasons for considering art an important,
useful subject to have in school. Three are connected with acquiring skills, ‘learning
how’, and one refers to imagination. Lastly, three items explore whether pupils believe in
art’s usefulness in daily life and in their future life.
Support needed
A set of seven items address pupils’ attitudes towards the support received by their
teachers. Again there are a few items that directly explore pupils’ feelings about their
teacher’s support and reasons for these, and others that explore these indirectly and may
be called ‘long shots’. Three items directly investigate pupils’ perceptions about the