S ummary . Despite the function of problems in initiating thought towards solutions and the effect of the quality of problems on the quality of solutions, little is known about how problems are envisaged and formulated. The present study investigated the content of school problems as posed by secondary pupils, the quality with which the problems are formulated, and the relation of the content and quality to the intellectual characteristics of the pupils. Among the results were: (1) although the content of the problems included peer relations and institutional restrictions, the salient content involved the affectivity of teachers; (2) the quality with which the problems were formulated was predominantly ‘egocentric’ rather than ‘socially‐sensitive’; (3) the content and quality of the problems were related to specific intellectual characteristics of the pupils.
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Getzels et al. (1983) studied this question.