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The days have gone when giving pupils a voice meant only finding out their views on school uniform. Now, it’s been shown that involving them in how they learn brings benefits too. Patrick Kelly has found out how.
Teaching: the GTC magazine, spring 2008
So who has done the sorting out? Not a head teacher who has successfully taken their school out of special measures.Not a minister talking up new legislation. Better than that, a Year 6 pupil.
Ten year old Kealan is one of 18 children at Victoria Road primary school in Runcorn who have conducted a remarkable investigation into their own school – an action research project that would be the envy of many a university department.
Victoria Road is just one school that is using 'pupil voice' – involving pupils in their own teaching and learning.
But it’s not a trendy fad – research shows that teachers have been involving their pupils in teaching and learning decisions in a variety of ways already. From pupil buddying andmentoring schemes, to pupil research and feedback on lessons, teachers have been entering a genuine dialogue with pupils over what happens in the classroom.
It’s not all plain sailing of course. Last term, the GTC met teachers to find outmore about how pupil voice can be delivered in practive.
And teachers raised genuine concerns:
The GTC sees pupil voice as a key factor in personalising learning, along with assessment for learning and greater flexibility for teachers within the curriculum. And it’s part of a new agenda for greater accountability to parents and pupils rather than simply to government.
There are a number of ways that teachers are involving children in their learning,says GTC policy adviser Andy Hudson.
'Essentially, they boil down to pupils playing an active role in their learning, influencing decision-making andmaking their views known about what they’re learning and how they learn.'
A recipe for chaos? Not at all, say teachers fromschools which have been pioneering pupil voice projects. Debbie Wilson, director of learning and teaching at Cedar Mount High School in Manchester, points to a pilot scheme involving newly qualified teachers sharing their lesson plans with pupils and taking on board pupil comments.
'The trainee teachers have found it brilliant to have informative, constructive and appropriate comments from students,' says Debbie. 'They say it has made their lessons more relevant and meaningful.'
Leonie: 'People are enjoying school more because they know that if they have any problems they can talk about them.'
Shannon: 'We feel a lot more confident now and we know loads of people at the school.'
Head teacher Karen Dutton joined the school in 2005.
'We asked ourselves: in the light of Every ChildMatters, do children really matter at our school?' she remembers.
The people to ask that question are the children themselves, she feels. But rather than getting researchers in, the school set up their own research team of volunteer children, then in Year 5. Together with a teacher, they constructed a framework and methodology and chose the questions. They interviewed 54 pupils and more than a dozen staff, and joined 27 lessons.
They discovered that the perceptions of children and adults didn’t always tally.
Now their findings are part of the school’s improvement plan and a similar exercise is under way for next year.
'Being listened to and being taken seriously creates a positive sense of self,' says Michael Fielding, professor of education at the Institute of Education London
University.
'That can have an enormous impact on pupils’ engagement with their learning. At last, we are talking about people again.'
But, he warns, 'listening to pupils’ voices will not always be easy. We have to be disappointed and delighted by what they say.'
See the research summary Consulting pupils
