Student voice: How would you like to learn?

D. Baker

Student voice is defined by LDP (2009) as the ‘process of consulting students in order to help improve the school experience’, it therefore aims to give students ownership of their education and provide them with some influence and responsibility in the improvement of it. Nevertheless, the way that student voice has been interpreted in schools is wide ranging and its focus can vary greatly from being on the learning in a particular classroom, to a more general focus on teaching and learning across a school, and in some cases even encompassing an input on management decisions.

The implementation of student voice can therefore be very controversial as there are some who suggest that allowing students to affect change on a management level produces outstanding learning (see example of Beauchamp College (John, 2009)). While others such as Keates (2009) hold completely contrasting views stating, ‘young people attend school to learn, not to teach or manage the school’. Hence, it is suggested that observing teachers or having influence on the promotion of staff is a completely inappropriate interpretation of student voice that goes beyond ‘thoughtful and reasonable contributions to school life’.

This post will focus on the far less controversial area of student voice within the classroom, looking at the impact that it may have on developing outstanding lessons. The purpose of this is well expressed by the LDP (2009) which states that student voice should allow “teachers to understand and respond to key issues and challenges … rather than having to react to the symptoms”. While on a whole school level this may be achieved through student councils or groups working towards formation of anti-bullying policies; in the classroom it is suggested this should take the form of personalising learning to the needs of individuals.

A clear example of how this is already being addressed at Haywood Academy is the production and use of pupil passports, which give students a forum for expressing their views on how they learn best, something that can then be implemented in lessons to enrich their learning. While effective, such a detailed approach is clearly not feasible to be rolled out across all students and such it is integral to find alternative ways in which the opinion of all students is gauged and acted upon. 

The green pen feedback system can also be seen as a critical element of student voice. It achieves this status through provision of an opportunity for students to reflect on their own learning in a highly personalised way, as well as helping construct a meaningful dialogue with students. Nevertheless it does not address the requirement of enabling students to feedback on their everyday experience of teaching, in order to constructively influence classroom practice.

The task at hand is therefore to decide upon what further steps can be taken to implement student voice in a way that effectively achieves the aforementioned goal. It is widely agreed that students are quite knowledgeable when it comes to their own learning and are able to identify ways in which they learn well, in addition to identifying barriers to their own learning. Consequently, it is suggested that student voice can take a range of forms including small group interviews, learning logs, whole class discussion, anonymous post-boxes for ideas or asking students to complete surveys.

The overriding aim is therefore that once the teacher has decided what is to be learnt the students get an input on the how. As such this may also entail giving students a choice of how to display their understanding, deciding on the appropriate level for them to be working at or the appropriate amount of time which they should be allowed to complete a task. All these methods are key to giving students ownership of their learning and engaging them in the process. Nevertheless simply asking is only half of the job, findings must be acted upon and students must be able to see that engaging with student voice is an agent for change in their classroom; the value of their opinion must be acknowledged and utilised.

McIntyre et al (2005) recognise that committing significantly to student voice does often require a shift in the balance of power in a classroom. However, reassuringly it is also noted that considerable agreement is often found between pupils in their views on teaching and learning, so adapting learning to the needs of students does not require laborious planning to meet a hugely diverse range of views. Instead a number of underlying key principles are often found; students prefer lessons that are less teacher led, more interactive and provide a greater range of opportunities to collaborate with peers.

A starting point is needed to begin the process of embedding student voice in classroom practice. When reading the literature, a figure from the work of MacBeath et al (2003) was particularly notable as a useful and elegant way of displaying the opinions of students. Its production involved students being surveyed about the frequency of different classroom activities as well as students’ perception of how each activity aided learning. The data was then plotted to create the graph below (figure 1) creating a clear foundation from which the teacher can then act to change the frequency of different activities in a lessons to maximise the learning of students.

Figure 1: Graph to show effectiveness against frequency for a range of classroom activities (MacBeath et al, 2003)

Therefore, moving forward a range of teachers will now be implementing this strategy across a range of subjects and ability groupings to provide all students with a voice within their classroom.  It is hoped that through this endeavour students will gain a greater ownership of their own learning, with a resultant positive impact on student motivation and progress.

References:

John, G. (2009), ‘Power to the pupils’, Extending to Communities. [Online] 17. Available from: http://www.learning-exchange.org.uk/files/schoolsetc/student_voice__power_to_the_ pupils [Accessed: 27^th October 2013]

Keates, C. (14 August 2009), ‘Should we push pupil voice further’, TES. [Online] Available from: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6020426 [Accessed: 27^th October 2013]

LDP, (2009), Using Student Voice: a guide for English departments. [Online] Exeter. Available from: http://www.babcockeducation.co.uk/ldp/content_view.asp?did=8763&backto=u_search3.asp&curpa ge=&search=student%20voice [Accessed: 27^th October 2013]

MacBeath, J., H. Demetriou, J. Rudduck and K. Myer (2003), Consulting Pupils: A Toolkit for Teachers, Cambridge: Pearson Publishing.

McIntyre, D., D. Pedder and J. Rudduck (2005), ‘Pupil voice: comfortable and uncomfortable learnings for teachers’, Research Papers in Education, 20 (2), 149-168.

Reinventing Teaching and Learning group

I. John

The Teaching and Learning group has reinvented its approach this year in an attempt to draw upon the expertise and knowledge of all staff, not just NQTs and other trainee teachers. The fortnightly meetings of the group now take place in the staffroom so as to encourage a more open and informal forum for discussion. We would like to remind staff that you are welcome to drop in for as much time as is convenient to you: a five minute discussion can easily provide ideas that might even be used for period 5, that day! 

Our discussions are now based on a fortnightly focus, which is a topic that can be applied to all subjects. Each fortnight, a question or theme is written on a flip chart in the staff room; staff are encouraged to write their ideas up and engage in written dialogue about how best to approach that focus. So far this term we have considered the best way to consolidate learning and how to make success criteria meaningful and engaging. Our current focus until half term is the best way to set homework. It has been very encouraging to see the contributions and we hope that even when staff are unable to attend the group itself that they take full advantage of the presence of the chart to share (and "steal"!) ideas to inform and develop their own practice.  

As the year goes on, we hope that more staff from all specialisms and departments will consider attending the group. More experienced staff are able to lend valuable insight on a particular idea in terms of how it might be achieved and what other factors should be taken into account. Similarly staff of any experience can always benefit by simply taking a new idea, trying it out and feeding it back. We hope to see more staff coming along to share best practice in the near future. 

This blog will record the findings of the Teaching and Learning group, as well as reporting on the progress of the Outstanding teaching research group as it investigates the pedagogy behind outstanding teaching - watch this space!