Pupil voice: comfortable and uncomfortable learnings for teachers

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How did the teachers select which ideas to use?

The teachers applied quite demanding criteria to their pupils’ ideas before they would consider using them. Pupils’ suggestions needed to be:

an accurate account of classroom life;
practical – for example, fitting in with the requirements of the National Curriculum and the available time and space;
popular with, and likely to be effective for, most or all members of the class; and
educationally desirable.

Pupils’ suggestions tended to be acceptable to teachers when they:

asked their teachers to extend their existing or previous practices (for example, making more use of role play and games);
encouraged their teachers to persist with innovative ideas; and
seemed to be good ideas – sensible, practical and purposeful.

For example, one teacher commented:

‘I think one thing that came out was they’d like to discuss wrong results more, which I think is a fair comment really … perhaps I’ll try to make an effort to at least do one piece of investigational work where we spend a lot of time evaluating it and so forth’.

The teachers were also responsive to suggestions that they should not do things that they usually did, or that they should do less of these things, for example talking too much. In a few cases, the teachers felt uncertain about an idea, but suggested that they might try it out:

‘If it’s a disaster, it’s a learning experience for them and it’s a learning experience for me’.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction What did pupils suggest helped them to learn? How did the teachers select which ideas to use? What happened when teachers tried using their pupils’ ideas? What can be learned about pupil consultation from the teachers’ experiences? How was the study designed? What are the implications for practitioners? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader Pupil voice: comfortable and uncomfortable learnings for teachers This digest found in Pupil Voice Send to a friend Word doc 60KB Printer friendly Collate for later How did the teachers select which ideas to use? The teachers applied quite demanding criteria to their pupils’ ideas before they would consider using them. Pupils’ suggestions needed to be: an accurate account of classroom life; practical – for example, fitting in with the requirements of the National Curriculum and the available time and space; popular with, and likely to be effective for, most or all members of the class; and educationally desirable. Pupils’ suggestions tended to be acceptable to teachers when they: asked their teachers to extend their existing or previous practices (for example, making more use of role play and games); encouraged their teachers to persist with innovative ideas; and seemed to be good ideas – sensible, practical and purposeful. For example, one teacher commented: ‘I think one thing that came out was they’d like to discuss wrong results more, which I think is a fair comment really … perhaps I’ll try to make an effort to at least do one piece of investigational work where we spend a lot of time evaluating it and so forth’. The teachers were also responsive to suggestions that they should not do things that they usually did, or that they should do less of these things, for example talking too much. In a few cases, the teachers felt uncertain about an idea, but suggested that they might try it out: ‘If it’s a disaster, it’s a learning experience for them and it’s a learning experience for me’.