Incorporating the learner’s voice in a local authority raising achievement strategy

Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Sussex at Brighton, September 2 - 5 1999

Draft paper: please ask permission to cite or quote

Contact details:

Jill Duffield

Institute of Education

University of Stirling

Stirling FK9 4LA

Scotland, UK.

Tel: 01786 467605

Fax: 01786 467633

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INCORPORATING THE LEARNER’S VOICE

IN A LOCAL AUTHORITY RAISING ACHIEVEMENT STRATEGY

Jill Duffield and Julie Allan

Institute of Education, University of Stirling

ABSTRACT

Research investigating pupil voices ranges from producing managerialist ‘ethos indicators’ to explorations aimed at establishing an active pupil voice as a pre-requisite for supporting children as autonomous learners. This paper reports findings from interviews with children aged 11 and 14, in which they were asked about learning and teaching. A local authority Raising Achievement Strategy set ‘process targets’ in response to national policies, and pupils were invited to consider the relevance of these to their experience of learning. The possibilities of schools’ incorporating the pupil’s voice and developing a discourse of learning within their responses to the strategy are explored.

INTRODUCTION

Educational research exploring the learner’s voice is not new; its messages tend to be those already familiar to teachers and researchers and to be remarkably consistent over time in spite of dramatic changes in educational policy and economic contexts throughout the United Kingdom. In Scotland twenty years ago, Gow and McPherson (1980) presented the words of school leavers collected in a series of national surveys as unheard ‘voices from the edge’, focusing on the then thirty per cent of Scottish pupils who followed non-certificate courses. Many young people’s comments about learning experiences reported by Gow were similar to those of pupils today, especially in research exploring the perceptions of ‘disaffected’ pupils (e.g. Keys and Fernandes 1993; Bleach 1996; Kinder et al. 1996), notwithstanding the abolition of corporal punishment in the mid-1980s and the extension of certificate courses to all pupils. Issues of identity and relationships, emphasising being treated with respect (Kinder et al, 1996, 14) seem to be as salient for today’s pupils as for their parents’ generation.

Interest in the pupil’s voice has increased in recent years, with a developing emphasis on teaching and learning processes (Rudduck et al 1996; Flutter et al 1998; Reay and Wiliam 1999). In spite of the lack of novel revelation (Rudduck, 1996, 175; Duffield et al, forthcoming), we and other researchers seek to investigate and reflect

everyday oral-based knowledges which to some appear more spontaneous, more direct, less mediated and so more ‘authentic’ than traditional knowledge from specialised written sources (Bernstein, 1996, 169).

Emphasis on the learner’s voice stands in contrast, and arguably in conflict, with the educational managerialism dominant in recent years, especially with the ‘standards agenda’ intensified by the Labour Government which attained power in 1997 (Duffield et al forthcoming). The thrust towards raising standards of attainment for all pupils by means of targets for test and public examination results has applied throughout the UK, including Scotland where our work is based (SOEID 1996a, 1996b, 1997, 1998; SEED 1999). An early official move towards taking account of pupils’ views (SOED 1992) left little room for the agency of the learner, but defined pupils’ opinions among performance indicators for measuring school ethos. Reay and Wiliam (1999) argue strongly that the standards agenda of national testing in England undermines pupils’ confidence in their learning. The project upon which this paper is based brought the learner’s voice to bear upon a local authority raising achievement strategy, one of many initiatives in Scotland responding to Scottish Office target setting. We present the project and its key findings, before discussing a range of possible interpretations of their relevance for schools and teachers, for the local policy managers, and for the overall goals of educational research.

An initial caveat is that the relationship between the researchers and the local authority was not neutral. The project was proposed to the local authority as a means of taking forward the raising achievement strategy, not as a critique or ‘objective’ evaluation of it. We draw attention here to our strong disincentives to approach the research with guns blazing. Neighbouring local authorities to our university are important players in the strategic dissemination of educational research by ourselves and colleagues, acting as a potential bridge to teachers and schools (from whom teachers are recruited to MEd and other post-experience courses). Departmental relationships with local schools are in any case crucial to the success of school experience for undergraduate students; for the same reason, the local authorities and schools are represented on the department’s professional advisory group, involving credibility with the Scottish Office and the General Teaching Council for Scotland. The intention, in addressing the politics of motivation for ‘supportive’ research’, was to maintain awareness in order to keep hold of research integrity. The ties between university departments and local authorities in the same areas are likely to be similar throughout Britain.

THE RESEARCH

The research design built upon earlier phases of work for the same local authority. Phase One (1996-97) addressed the nature and causes of ‘underachievement’ in the early secondary years by means of interviews with teachers and classroom observation; Phase Two (1997-98) explored perceptions of learning, teaching and support of S1-S2 pupils and levels of attainment in the science curriculum (Allan et al, 1998).

A local policy document, Raising Achievement, was presented to the Council’s Children’s Committee in May 1998 as ‘an essential component of the quality assurance policy’ approved by the Committee in January 1998. This in its turn was relevant to ‘the government’s framework for setting targets for specific and measurable improvement in attainment by schools for the development planning period 1999-2001’ (i.e. SOEID 1998). The Raising Achievement strategy set ‘process targets’ derived from How Good Is Our School? (SOEID 1996b). (It might be considered that a ‘process’ is essentially different from a ‘target’ so that the phrase constituted an official device for facing in two directions at once). The ‘process targets’ included a number of areas addressing the quality of learning and teaching, including engaging children more directly in decisions about their own learning at all levels, mentioned among the terms of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

The aims of the third phase of the research (Allan, Duffield and Turner, 1999) were:

• To investigate children’s perception of their role as learners

• To identify ways of achieving process targets relating to children’s learning.

We also have a longer term aim, of involving teachers in the research process.

Single gender groups of pupils in two primary and two secondary schools were interviewed three times (six boys and six girls per school, 48 pupils in all). The schools identified willing pupils in accordance with researchers’ guidelines as to year group, mixed levels of attainment, and gender. We chose single gender groups mainly for ease of eliciting unconstrained contributions as far as possible. While the dynamics of boys’ and girls’ groups differed, gender differences were not a prime focus. The pupils were aged eleven (P6, the penultimate year of primary school in Scotland) and fourteen (S3, the third year of secondary school. Standard Grade examinations are taken by all Scottish pupils in S4). In the first two interviews, issues of learning and teaching were discussed using a flexible schedule. The third meeting took the form of a workshop in which children produced ideas and personal examples in answer to questions based upon the process targets. The workshop questions dealt with:

1.Encouraging pupils to expect more of themselves

2.Improving learner confidence

3.Learners’ participation in decisions about learning

4.Increasing opportunities for peer collaboration

5.Enhancing teacher communication with learners about their learning.

FINDINGS

Children’s ideas about optimising their learning emphasised

  • high expectations, fostered by praise, encouragement and guidance on how to improve
  • confidence, enhanced by teachers who explain clearly, listen to the pupil and give detailed feedback. Reciprocity of confidence and learning
  • having a say in matters affecting them as learners, including school organisation and a voice in decisions about what and how to learn.

Each of these themes involves the overarching concern of this paper, that of effective two way communication and dialogue between teachers and pupils.

High Expectations

Overwhelmingly, the pupils considered the use of praise and encouragement to be essential to enable them to expect more of themselves. Teachers had to show the pupils that they expected a great deal from them, and also that they were able to give the support needed to realise these expectations:

They can praise you and make you think you can do even better than what you’ve done (S3 boy)

In English the teacher often calls you up individually to discuss your work and explains all the good and bad, talks about making the bad, good, and the good, brilliant (S3 girl)

Mrs X said ‘you’ll get the hang of it because you have got the hang of every other single one’ . . . she gave us sheets and cut out pieces and said, ‘right, here are six pieces, take three away, what have you got? So, right, it’ll be a half’ (P6 boy)

High expectations could be experienced negatively by some as ‘pushing’ or ‘pressure’ to achieve highly in tests and to retain or improve their placement in ability groups or sets (it kind of gives you a fright: P6 girl). More challenging work and the prospect of ‘being moved up’ was motivating to others who relished the idea of competition.

Confidence

The relationship between confidence and learning was reciprocal, according to the pupils. Achieving something which they thought they were not capable of boosted confidence. Equally, tasks could be tackled more easily when they began with some confidence in their ability. They were clear that teachers could help build confidence by starting new work with clear explanations and demonstrations of activities, and by checking for understanding:

I felt more confident when I was learning the time in P3. . . Mrs J encouraged us. I thought I was never going to be able to tell the time but after a while you got the hang of it, I knew my o’clock, my quarter past, my half pasts, my quarter to, and it was very exciting. Doing the time you felt like you knew better than everyone else and it was a very nice feeling to know your time (P6 girl).

You sometimes think you are the only one to have trouble. It helps when everyone knows what they are doing (S3 girl).

Trust in the teacher’s encouraging support was a vital element in tackling work confidently. According to some P6 boys, some teachers:

just sit in a chair and dinnae tell you what to do and if you go up and ask they just say ‘go and do it’; if you ask for help they don’t do anything, just say ‘figure it out’(P6 boys).

Another teacher, however, is

the best teacher we have had, if you are stuck she is always there just like that to help you; you don’t even need to put your hand up or go out

(P6 girls).

Having a say

A minority of pupils suggested that their opportunities to make choices and express views were minimal (I have never had my say in school, I never will). One older girl recalled primary school as a time when:

you never did anything for yourself; you had to ask [permission] to turn over a page (S3 girl).

Nevertheless, the majority cited examples relating to aspects both of school life and of learning in which they expressed their views and were able to participate in decision-making. One girl, whofound that her recommendation about kitchen hygiene had been adopted, said:

I felt I was being heard and had a restored faith in the school and wanted to learn as I felt part of the school (S3 girl).

A class enterprise project entitled ‘The Candle Crew’, discussed with great enthusiasm by P6 girls, had proved to be a major vehicle for entrusting pupils with decision-making:

- all of the class [had the idea of making candles]

- if you wanted to be accountant etc. you would fill out an application form and we done interviews

- A got the job of accountant because she had counted her mum’s money, her mum deals with money; J put in for accountant as well but we thought A would be better

- we thought S would be a good manager because she was caring

- a boy is the other manager

- we have groups like the marketing team, design and production teams

- the personnel officer left the school so D got it as well as secretary

- me and the assistant manager thought she had the right attitude to get the job

- at first we didn’t think she would get it, but she was working really fast and helping the other girl before she left

- when we stood up and said her name she went pure red

- there was a boy but he doesn’t know how to spell words very properly

- secretary had to do a lot of things, keep the money right and keep the people right and get the letters away

- she has done really well (P6 girls)

Boys at another school explained the problem with stories, in which apparent opportunities for individual choices were in practice constrained by implicit restrictions:

- we do horror stories, ghosts, brain transplants, this phantom went into a pub and got this boy . . .

-I’m like, what am I going to do, you might write something that you think is funny and the problem is it might not be suitable for the teacher

-sometimes you think of something and she says no, I don’t want horror, I want Jim and the Ball

-you only write two sentences because you can’t use any of your ideas

-one time [a girl] wrote ‘you sod’ in a story and [teacher] got mad at us all and said you can’t use words like that

- so what words can you use, she doesn’t let you write ‘sugar’ because that stands for a swear word

- I thought of some words and thought, no, not them, so I came up with words like ‘twerp’ and since the story was funny she didn’t notice it and wrote ‘good’

- if you are sensible she’ll let us do it (P6 boys).

A real difficulty existed here, of extending the awareness of older primary pupils of writing appropriately for an audience, and tackling questions of taste. In this instance, the pupils had perceived the issue more as a disciplinary than a learning one.

DISCUSSION

The pupils in the study were highly responsive to the invitation to discuss questions about learning. Primary pupils, in particular, found the situation novel and exciting. One group likened the idea of the confidentiality of the data to a conspiracy and, as the researcher explained further, to say gleefully, ooh, we’re researching ourselves. Nothing in the data highlighted here, on expectations of achievement, confidence, and participating in decisions about their own learning, differs greatly from the pupil perspectives presented by Jean Rudduck and colleagues (Rudduck et al 1996; Flutter et al 1998) or by other researchers including Ted Wragg, according to a report in The Independent ( 30/8/1999). The pictures of good teaching and the kinds of teacher-pupil interactions supporting pupils’ personal learning goals, expectations of success, and confidence, are highly consistent with those of our own earlier research, with other age groups in different schools (Allan et al 1998; Duffield et al forthcoming).

The common theme of effective dialogue links all the findings in this paper. High expectations were positively fostered, not by pressure but by clear initial explanation and task-setting, rigorous and precise guidance on how to improve, and an understanding of the individual’s stumbling blocks which demanded keen observation and listening to the pupil on the teacher’s part. Confidence was developed by the same clear task-setting together with praise and encouragement.

Giving pupils more control over their learning, and more voice in the organisation of the school, involves teachers being willing to listen and respond to pupils, entailing an element of relinquishing control. The pupils’ expressed desire to have their voice heard, and the enthusiasm, wit and candour with which they engaged with the research discussions, confirms the findings of others that they were well able to participate in talk about the learning experience. Having a voice in school, according to the predominant viewpoints in the data, could enable children to become more committed learners.

Linking this study to a local authority policy initiative might be interpreted in various ways. One interpretation could be that bringing together the disparate issues of the learner’s voice, and the local authority raising achievement strategy provided only an indigestible mixture of incompatible elements. Reay and Wiliam’s study (1999) of children talking about the impact of English national testing found quite damaging evidence about learner identities of pupils under pressure; while the children were well able to talk to the researchers, there seemed to be little chance of their schools being able to engage them in dialogue about learning.