Facilitating metacognitive talk: a research and learning tool

This paper describes a research tool which aims to gather data about pupils' views of learning and teaching, with a particular focus on their thinking about their learning (metacognition). The approach has proved to be an adaptable and effective technique to examine different learning contexts from the pupils' perspective, while also acting as an aid to reflective dialogue between pupils and teachers as part of the teaching and learning process. A range of templates have been created as psychological or semiotic tools. They form the basis of a mediated interview by providing an image of the learning environment or activity on which the research is focused. The image then becomes the stimulus for a three‐way interaction between the researcher (or the teacher), the pupil and the template. This paper provides examples from a number of research projects where the technique has been used to gather data in classrooms.     

Teachers as writers: learning together

This paper reports upon the insights gained through working with teachers as writers at their own level. As part of a two‐year research project into the development of children's voice and verve in writing, a group of fourteen teachers' reflective journeys as writers were documented. Two other groups of teachers and one group of student teachers also took part in writers' workshops across the same period. The data encompassed: questionnaires, observations and teacher commentaries on their own writing, as well as interviews. A number of issues emerged, including: the tension between public and private writing and the security of the writing environment; authenticity in modelling writing; the importance of re‐reading writing at the point of composition; the significance of choice and autonomy in writing and the potency of drama as an ideational and reflective tool. The consequences for classroom practice are also considered. It is argued that in order to enhance the teaching of writing, teachers and student teachers need real opportunities to write at their own level and reflect upon the process.     

Using stimulated recall to investigate pupils' thinking about online bilingual communication: Code‐switching and pronominal address in L2 French

This article demonstrates how evidence related to performance in computer mediated communication (CMC) can be used as a vehicle for researching pupils' thinking about using and learning a foreign language. The analysis is based on a qualitative study of pupils from two contrasting schools who had taken part in a multinational CMC project involving learners of French and English as a foreign language. The analysis focuses on the pupils' explanations and intuitions about their decisions with regard to two areas of their interaction in particular: code‐switching and pronominal address. The findings suggest that the English learners of French had an implicit set of communicative priorities in which interpersonal objectives tended to dominate over ideational objectives. Evidence from the study indicates the need for further research‐informed educational development in two areas: a reappraisal of the framework for foreign language teaching in England on the basis of greater emphasis on second language (L2) use within the framework; and more developed theoretical understanding of pupil cognition in relation to foreign language learning.     

Story Links: working with parents of pupils at risk of exclusion

This paper presents the results of the evaluation of the 20‐month Story Links project delivered by the University of Chichester in collaboration with the Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting and funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). Story Links is a ten‐week intervention that involves pupils at risk of exclusion and with poor literacy, along with teachers and parents, in co‐creating stories that address the pupils' emotional and behavioural issues. These stories are then used to develop the pupils' reading skills. The theoretical background draws on Bowlby's concept of attachment and research that highlights the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement. Analysis of the co‐created stories showed a high correlation between the story metaphor and the child's presenting of emotional issues as identified by the parents and professionals. The findings also showed a significant increase in parental involvement in their child's learning and improvement in both pupils' behaviour and pupils' attitudes to learning.     

Primary pupils' creative writing: enacting identities in a Community of Writers

This paper focuses on a Community of Writers creative writing project where 25 primary school pupils from lower socio‐economic backgrounds took part in creative writing workshops over a 2‐week period at a higher education institution. Using practitioner enquiry and discourse analysis, this paper views identity as participation in ‘figured worlds’ and highlights the relationship between the children's creative writing outputs and their shifting identities (Holland et al., 1998 ). A case is made that children's authentic creative writing can be nurtured by a community that promotes intertextuality and ‘hybridity’ (Bakhtin, 1981 ) as well as balancing pedagogical ‘structure’ and ‘freedom’ (Davies et al., 2012 ) in order to provide textual space for writers to enact different identities. At a time when the global figuring power of performativity (Ball, 2003 ) actively restricts the ways in which teachers and children interact, this paper also presents an informed argument for the value of school–university research partnerships.     

Exploring variations in teachers' work,lives and their effects on pupils: key findings and implications from a longitudinal mixed‐method study

This article outlines the research design of a large‐scale, longitudinal research study in England intended to describe and explore variations in teachers' work, lives and their effects on pupils' educational outcomes. The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and incorporated into the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) as an ‘Associate Project’, used an innovative mixed‐methods research design to create case studies of 300 teachers in Years 2, 6 and 9. The research was conducted over three consecutive academic years and collected a wide range of data through interviews, questionnaire surveys of teachers' and pupils' views and assessment data on pupils' attainments in English and mathematics. The text summarises the main findings from the research in relation to four interconnected themes of the study: Professional Life Phases; Professional Identity; Relative Effectiveness; and Resilience and Commitment. The influence of school context, in terms of level of social disadvantage of pupil intake, is also investigated. Key findings and their implications for policy and practice are highlighted.     

How EPs record the voice of the child

Legislation, literature and research have recently advocated the importance of establishing and representing the views of children and young people. This study aimed to establish how Educational Psychologists (EPs) in one authority ascertain and present children's views in written reports. Content analysis was undertaken on the pupils' view section of 30 Year nine transition reports to determine the themes represented. Additionally focus group interviews helped identify EPs' methods for collecting, selecting and reporting pupils' views, indicating a wide variety of practice. EPs are challenged to explore report writing practices, in terms of representing the voice of the child, within their professional contexts.     

Writing the Unseen Poem: can the writing of poetry help to support pupils' engagement in the reading of poetry?

This article discusses a small scale project investigating the role of writing poetry in order to strengthen pupils' responses to reading and analysing poetry. This takes place within the context of preparation for a question on unseen poetry in a high stakes examination, in a contemporary climate where creative responses to poetry are reported to be less prevalent than analytical responses within an assessment‐focused curriculum. The project investigates strategies to inspire pupils to write their own poetry and to analyse the work of their peers in order to ‘put themselves in the shoes’ of the poet, supporting them in preparing for the examination question. It also involves teacher‐modelling of the writing and reading processes to support pupils in feeling part of a reading and writing community.     

Defining professional needs in early childhood education

This article describes a research project, ‘Improving Learning: The Pupils' Agenda’ (supported by the Nuffield Foundation) in which a team of researchers from Homerton College, Cambridge and the University of Keele, investigated how schools were listening and responding to pupils' perspectives on effective teaching and learning. An account of the project is presented, outlining how the team carried out the investigation and the three themes on which was based. The article goes on to look at the strategies being developed in primary schools, using extracts from the data to illustrate the impact of these strategies in schools. In conclusion it is suggested that the answer to the question posed in the title — can listening and responding to pupils' views give new directions for school improvement — is clearly ‘yes’ and that the advantage of taking this approach lies principally in its potential for improving pupils' attitudes to learning.     

Pre‐adolescents' Perceptions of Competence,Motivation and Engagement in Art Activities

This article presents the findings from a small scale qualitative study which focused on pupils' perceptions of competence and motivation towards art experienced in school. These are considered as very important in shaping learning and teaching processes. In particular, the article focuses on the role that perceptions of competence play on pupils' quality of involvement and achievement in art. Participants were chosen based on age, gender and their stated perceptions of competence. Sixteen 11‐12 year olds were interviewed in groups and individually. Pupils' perceptions of competence are identified as a key factor in determining pupils' initial engagement and level of engagement with art activities. Moreover they are thought to be important in shaping their learning preferences at an age when pupils' uncertainty about their abilities in art making is getting stronger. The results are situated within the framework of achievement goal theory and have implications for teaching strategies and for ways of responding to pupils' learning preferences.     

Pupils' word choices and the teaching of grammar

The idea that formal grammar teaching leads to improvements in school pupils' writing has been a popular one. However, the robust and extensive evidence base shows that this is not the case. Despite this, policy initiatives have continued to suggest that grammar teaching does improve pupils' writing: the Grammar for Writing resource is the most recent example in England. Educational analysis on the subject of grammar has moved from a focus on whether grammar teaching improves pupils' writing to reflection on the rational for teaching knowledge about language, and subsequently a focus on a wide range of language topics. The study reported in this paper analysed the way that eight children made word choices during the writing process. Theory is presented to support the idea that contextualized learning of grammar is significant. Five significant influences on word choices are reported. Strong links between text‐level influences on word‐choices and the use of unconventional language at sentence and word level were found. It is concluded that writing pedagogy should be re‐evaluated in order to consider the balance between individualized support and support for groups during the writing process.     

Using pupil perspective research to inform teacher pedagogy: what Caribbean pupils with dyslexia say about teaching and learning

The transformative potential of pupils' voices is well documented in past research by Pedder and McIntyre; and Cooper and McIntyre. In this qualitative research, I utilise a social constructivist framework by Vygotsky to ask pupils with dyslexia about the kinds of teacher strategies that they find helpful to their learning at secondary school in Barbados. This study utilised direct observations and individual interviews as part of a multiple case study strategy of 16 pupils with dyslexia from two secondary schools in Barbados. Findings suggest that there are regular teachers' strategies like more detailed explanations, demonstrations, drama and role play, storytelling, asking questions and enquiry‐based approaches that pupils find facilitative of their learning. This research is guided by the following questions: (1) what do pupils mean when they refer to teacher strategies as helpful?; and (2) what pedagogical approaches do pupils with dyslexia find helpful to their learning at secondary school?     

Boys as writers: perspectives on the learning and teaching of writing in three primary schools

Boys' attitude to writing is widely perceived as an issue in English primary and secondary schools. Prior research has identified a link between negative attitudes to writing and lower achievement and raised the issue of the stereotyping of boys as underachievers in literacy. The study reported here suggests that if we are to understand the problems associated with the underachievement of boys, we should take into account boys' perspectives on their experiences as literacy learners. In this study, boys aged 8–11 drawn from three London schools in the UK, were interviewed in small groups annually over 3 years of their primary schooling. The boys' teachers were also interviewed separately. These interviews generated insights into the teachers' views of the boys and the boys' views of themselves as literacy learners, especially as writers. The data indicated the boys were highly sensitive to the social situation in the classroom. The boys responded best to their literacy learning when their teachers treated them as individuals, valued their ideas and incorporated strategies for developing learner agency into their daily classroom practice. This article concludes that a teaching approach that includes consulting children about what helps or hinders their learning and a fresh teacher focus on gender issues would increase gender awareness.     

Whose writing is it anyway? Issues of control in the teaching of writing

In the UK, teachers have moved from a process approach to the teaching of writing to a more didactic and objectives led programme. This has given rise to concerns about the suppression of creativity and enjoyment. Writing is a convention bound activity where spelling, punctuation and expectations about different text types imply a right and wrong way of writing. On the other hand, the best writers are able to use and subvert conventions in creative and individual ways. Teachers of young writers are faced with the difficulty of teaching the correct conventions at the same time as encouraging individual responses. This paper considers evidence from a small‐scale study that may shed some light on how teachers cope with these potentially opposing demands. Evidence points to teachers giving very clear guidance to pupils about what is expected of them and carefully scaffolding pupils' learning. However, scaffolding implies a stage where control is handed over to the learners and in this study there was little evidence of these teachers handing over the control. It is argued that for children to learn the conventions at the same time as developing confidence to use these conventions in individual and creative ways, this handover of control is essential.     

Learning about domestic violence: young people's responses to a Healthy Relationships programme

This paper reports on an evaluation of a drama‐based Healthy Relationships programme on domestic violence delivered on a pilot basis to Year 8 pupils. The programme included a play delivered by a local theatre‐in‐education company followed by a series of weekly workshops. Eighty‐five pupils in a secondary school located in an area with high rates of social exclusion participated in the programme and the evaluation. Pupils completed questionnaires immediately before and after the programme and one year after the programme had finished. Thirteen pupils also took part in gendered discussion groups, which considered their views and opinions concerning the play and the workshops. The evaluation indicated that the programme was successful in enhancing pupils' understandings of domestic violence up to one year after delivery. Pupils responded well to the use of drama as a medium for learning, and some young people were able to demonstrate that they had developed positive ideas about healthy relationships. However, there was evidence of uncertainly for some young people with regard to the gendered nature of domestic violence following the programme. The discussion highlights this issue and identifies additional recommendations for both future research and future programmes.     

Along the Write Lines: a case study exploring activities to enable creative writing in a secondary English classroom.

This article arises from a four week study of a class of 14‐15 year old students. The study explored students’ perception of themselves as writers and the effects of a variety of teaching and learning strategies on their creative writing responses. The aim of the project was to enhance the students’ creative writing, whilst ascertaining whether there were particular activities or types of writing that would lead to students perceiving more satisfactory outcomes in their writing. It answers the research question: What do I observe, and what do my students say, about the experience of different classroom based creative writing tasks?     

Learning: The pupil's voice

Summaries are given of research on the learner's role in learning and pupils' attitudes to school and it is argued that few studies have collected the views of young children on learning. This provides the rationale for a pilot study which probed the perceptions of a sample of 44 Year 2 and Year 6 children in schools in and around London. The findings indicate that children as young as seven can conceptualise 'learning' and are able to articulate learning strategies and processes they use. It is suggested that the pupil's voice is an increasingly important element in furthering our understanding of teaching and learning more generally.     

The study of teachers' written feedback to students' writing: changes in theoretical considerations and the expansion of research contexts

This paper identifies four successive phases in the study of written feedback to students' compositions. The studies included in these phases are distinguished by views of writing instruction reflected in their theoretical frameworks: the view of writing instruction as a series of teacher provided stimuli and students' responses to these stimuli; the view that the writing class is a rhetorical community, where teacher and students interact as readers and writers over texts; the view of learning to write as a phenomenon both natural and problematic, where school may interfere with students' natural development; the view that learning to write, like all other learning, depends on successful student-teacher interactions within student's zone of proximal development. While reviewing recent studies of written feedback, the paper shows how these changing views of writing instruction are accompanied by changing theoretical perspectives for the study of the provision and processing of written feedback as well as by a gradual expansion of research contexts for looking at this problem. Finally, in view of such a line of development, it suggests an agenda for future research.     

Alternative Frameworks and the Concept of Task. Cognitive Constraints in Pupils' Interpretations of Teachers' Assignments

Halldén, O. 1988. Alternative Frameworks and the Concept of Task. Cognitive Constraints in Pupils' Interpretations of Teachers' Assignments. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 32, 123‐140. If we are to understand a learning outcome, we have to take into consideration the learner's conception of the learning task. Task is here defined as the means a teacher utilizes when trying to communicate an assignment to a pupil. The pupil's interpretation of such a task is called a problem or a project. It is the pupil's attempts to solve such problems or to complete such projects that account for the learning that takes place. Two qualitatively different types of problem are identified: procedural and content‐related. Factors influencing pupils' task interpretation are discussed and implications for research on pupils' alternative frameworks are considered. One such implication is the identification of two different levels of alternative frameworks.     

Can the Process of Transition for Incoming Secondary Pupils be Supported through a Creative Art Project?

Children's learning involves, in the simplest terms, assimilating knowledge and understanding and acquiring skills though being, doing and feeling. This requires a connection at a personal level. Furthermore, learning is given to fluctuation determined by the needs of the individual and the requirements of the educational system. This research project is concerned with the specific needs of pupils in the UK who undergo the process of transition between primary (Key Stage 2, age 7–11) and secondary schooling (Key Stage 3, age 11–16). It is at a time when there are reported increases of anxiety that affect pupils' self‐esteem where perhaps a different kind of learning is required. The project suggests that a modified curriculum will support the pupils' transformation, through a visual arts creative learning framework.