Students A Fair Perception, To Adapt Teaching Strategies

Through interviews and questionnaires, the students' perception of fairness to teaching practices was studied. The results showed that:(1) When every practice was paired with every other practice, students' choice of the fairer practice indicated that helping was the fairest at all grades, and the next was enrichment. Eleven graders saw acceleration as fairer than the youngers and waiting as less fair.(2) Content analysis of students' justifications showed that fairness meant different things at different ages. 9 years old students (3 graders) emphasized the equality in the amount of schoolwork completed and their conceptions of fairness were at level 2. 11 to 15 years old students (5 to 9 graders) believed that learning was the most important good to be distributed in school and everyone should learn the same material equally well: simple equality of learning was fair. Their conceptions of fairness were at level 3. 17 years old students believed that those capable students could learn more than others and their conceptions of fairness were at level 5.(3) The perceptions of fairness of students (mathematically gifted, normal and disable students) to teaching practices were different. Gifted and normal students saw acceleration as more fair and waiting as less fair than disable ones. Normal and disable students saw helping as more fair than gifted ones.(4) Although all graders believed that helping was the fairest practice, the teachers seldom used it.