Taking their word for it: Can listening, and responding, to pupils' views give new directions for school improvement?

• Published in: Education 3-13 2000-10, Vol.28 (3), p.46-51
• Main Authors: Doddington, Christine, Flutter, Julia, Rudduck, Jean
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0300-4279; 1475-7575
• DOI: 10.1080/03004270085200331

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.