Students have their say on learning

As recipients of your ‘curriculum offer’, the students themselves can give invaluable insights into what really works for them. Although one of the current trends in education is to pay more heed to student voice, some would say that those who create the national initiatives, which curriculum managers then have to make work in their school context, are not listening enough to the views of pupils. So this recent research review from the National Foundation of Educational Research (NFER) could make useful reading for policymakers as well as the schools themselves.

NFER researchers have trawled through reams of research carried out between 1989–2005 to identify key themes and findings on what students think about the curriculum. Pupils’ experiences and perspectives of the national curriculum and assessment is the final report of this six-year project, offering invaluable insights into what students think about such issues as the vocational relevance of the curriculum, the value they place on different subject areas, and what type of learning activities they enjoy and benefit from the most. Other topic areas were included in the project focus along the way, reflecting new curriculum priorities. These include assessment, careers education and work-related learning.

What do pupils enjoy?
Researchers found that students’ enjoyment of the curriculum is associated with a sense of ease, fun, newness, progression and appropriate challenge. Use of teaching and learning styles tend to have a greater impact on enjoyment than subject content. The school environment and culture also impact on learning – school-wide policies on ‘respect’ and ‘anti-bullying’, for example, help contribute to positive attitudes towards learning. But overall, the curriculum lacks relevance to their lives.

Their enjoyment alters at different points in their secondary school career. Enthusiasm for learning wanes on transfer from KS2 to KS3. Their enjoyment and motivation to learn decreases through KS3–4. There are also dips in motivation in Year 8, which recovers slightly in Year 9. But students’ enjoyment increases in KS4, particularly in optional subjects.

These indicate key points of transition that curriculum managers need to pay more attention to (for advice on how to better handle transition, see Curriculum Briefing: All change – ensuring successful transitions, vol 5, no 3).

The research reveals key areas that pupils value, as well as aspects of the curriculum that they would like changing.

What students want

• More emphasis on skills, personal and social development, practical work, and for some of the curriculum to focus on particular trades
• More direct links between the curriculum and real-life
• More connections to be made across their learning
• Careers advice offered earlier in their school career
• More computer-based formats of assessment
• A balance between academic subjects and those that are more creative, practical or vocational
• Greater representation of subjects not necessarily offered as part of the statutory curriculum (such as philosophy and psychology)
• A broad curriculum offer — including the opportunity for choice or to take a wide range of subjects at Key Stage 4
• Variation in activities, avoiding over-emphasis on one type of task
• For continuity and progression to be made more visible within their curriculum experiences
• More opportunity for responsibility, autonomy and personal choice in learning
• Learning to be ‘fun’

What students value

• Vocational relevance
• Connections made to real life
• Participatory learning, rather than book-based or ‘chalk-and-talk’ approaches
• Groupwork
• Collaborative approaches, which they find more engaging and confidence boosting
• The chance to have a say in curriculum content and approach
• Independent working
• Teachers who explain clearly
• Teachers with a wide subject-based knowledge
• The versatility that ICT brings
• Variety in teaching and learning approaches used
• Work experience

Cross-curricular themes
The researchers found that students valued personal, social and health education (PSHE), often more so than other non-core foundation subjects. Students appreciate the role that citizenship plays in helping to prepare them for life beyond school. As for the role of school councils and seeking their views on school life, where students felt they lacked decision-making power was in what went on in the classroom: teaching and learning and how the curriculum was delivered. While not overly enthused by key skills, they did perceive them to be useful to their future working life. They seemed less aware of skills such as research or strategies for learning, pointing up an area where all teachers could improve on.

Careers education and work-related learning
Students wanted careers education earlier than they were given it. They particularly valued one-to-one advice. Overall, they expressed a need for more careers advice, particularly in informing them of the range of options available to them at 16.

Careers education lessons tended to lack relevance to those students choosing to go straight into work, rather than continue their education.

Researchers found that pupils lacked the key skills needed to make the right choices – decision-making, awareness of strengths and weaknesses, and career research skills – indicating that curriculum managers need to plan more overt opportunities for developing these skills within the curriculum. Pupils were positive about work experience, and valued being treated like an adult. But some struggled with dealing with conflicts that arose on placements, pointing up the need for better preparation prior to the work experience.

Assessment
Pupils feel that tests and exams are a valid method of assessment, and that the use of tests can provide points of motivation when used throughout their school career. But they were anxious about sitting the national tests.

Assessment for learning has been found to engage pupils more and help their progress, but these need to be used alongside rather than instead of exams and tests. Pupils want ordinal rankings for their work.

What students think about assessment methods

Coursework

• Gives opportunities to use own initiative and responsibility
• Offers chance to demonstrate individual interest and capability
• A ‘fairer’ method of assessment than that judged by ‘performance on the day’, but are concerned about fairness regarding the degree of teacher input
• Particularly valued in subjects pupils enjoyed; viewed as ‘tedious’ in subjects not enjoyed
• Demanding in terms of amount rather than level of difficulty
• Would value better guidance on the amount of work required and on how marks are gained
• Preferred more by girls than by boys

Written exams

• Provide a clear-cut indication of how they are doing
• Concerned about fairness of exam conditions — such as nerves, time pressures, performance on one day, a test of memory
• Preferred more by boys than by girls

Practical exams

• Gives chance to put skills into practice
• Pressure to ‘get it right’ can prevent them from getting the best results
  

Modular courses

• ‘Helps break it up a bit’
• Prevents rush at the end of the course
• Offers chance to accumulate marks

Action for schools
The report makes key recommendations for action, including that schools do more to:

• harness the high levels of enjoyment pupils gain from learning with information and communications technology (ICT)
• promote connections between classroom and informal or other learning experiences
• make greater reference to the relevance of learning to study, life and work
• do more to engage the student voice in future curriculum developments.
  

Download the report via: www.nfer.ac.uk