The Transformative Potential of Pupil Consultation and Participation

How Teachers Respond to and Use Pupil Perspectivesto Improve Teaching and Learning:

School and Subject Constraints and Possibilities: summary of issues

David Pedder

The main argument that runs through the project data is that pupil consultation carries significant potential to change and improve schooling and classroom teaching and learning. However this potential is frustrated by a number of factors at the national, school and classroom levels. The main propositions that have been developed from the data with regard to pupils' capacity for commenting on and evaluating classroom teaching and learning practices are summarised below:

1. Pupils to varying degrees, but consistently, take advantage of opportunities to provide ideas which they can very plausibly suggest would improve the quantity and quality of their learning opportunities.
2. Some pupils can do this more articulately than others:

• Some provide clear rationales and clear guidance about what it is they are asking for.
• Others, inexperienced in talking about their learning, struggle to find clarity and experience difficulty putting their ideas into words.
• Able pupils demonstrate the capacity for taking the perspective of their teacher, particularly in accounts of decisions taken by their teacher that go against their private learning preferences.

1. Teachers themselves recognise the merit and educational value of the suggestions being made and the rationale behind them; for example:

• The extent to which there is clarity.
• The extent to which they can find ways of interpreting what pupils say as having practical and worthwhile potential in classroom learning.

1. Aspects of what pupils say have sufficient status with teachers to contribute to their professional learning and therefore to changing practice in order to influence pupils' learning.

Nevertheless there are barriers and limits that constrain teachers from implementing what they see as good, insightful pupils' ideas. Here I want to summarise briefly some of the key issues raised by teachers in the study in relation to school and subject constraints.

Subject Constraints

Pupils' perceptions of what is possible in a subject area did not always conform to the skills and competencies listed in curriculum prescriptions. This was particularly evident in English where there was a tension between pupils' suggestions for more opportunities to engage with text dramatically and expressively on the one hand and their teacher's need to allocate classroom time to written work with a focus on the elements of formal English grammar.

The notion that different subjects are perceived by pupils to be more and less viable sites for talking about teaching and learning was expressed by one teacher of science. He claimed that pupils have different expectations of the available scope for expressing ideas, opinions and feelings about teaching and learning in different subject areas. He tentatively suggested that the more discursive subjects such as English offer more opportunities for developing a classroom discourse about teaching and learning.

All teachers, however, reported that, with increasing demands for improved performance on attainment tests throughout the schools, the prospects for developing a more consultative pedagogy and responding to pupils' ideas were significantly diminished.

School Constraints

Teachers mentioned a formidable range of school level factors that limited scope for consulting pupils and for responding to their recommendations:

• Competing school priorities such as numeracy and literacy strategies and key skills initiatives tend to crowd out other possibilities such as pupil consultation and limit the extent to which teachers can be open and responsive to their pupils' ideas.
• Limited preparation time as a consequence of the new initiatives.
• SATs, GCSE exams, coursework requirements.
• Teachers' other responsibilities such as mentoring.
• Sharing responsibility for classes with another teacher.

Despite the educational value perceived by teachers in their pupils' comments and ideas, school and subject constraints, constraints inherent in the classroom teaching system as currently constituted, together with increasing demands being made on teachers in their classrooms, not least in the form of external prescriptions for the curriculum or for examination and testing requirements, make it unlikely that teachers will have the scope to respond to the ideas of their pupils in ways that represent radical departures from their current, skilful and highly adapted professional classroom practice.

Consulting Pupils about Teaching and Learning

How teachers respond to and use pupil perspectives to improve teaching and learning 

The project addresses the following issues:

• How teachers respond to pupil comments on their teaching.
• How they use the data to modify practice in order to improve teaching and learning.
• How teachers' perceptions of pupils change as a result of hearing their views.
• How pupils' progress and commitment to learning change as they see their teachers taking account of what they have to say.
• The range of strategies that teachers consider worthwhile and manageable within the routines of everyday teaching.