Researching creatively with pupils in Assessment for Learning (AfL) classrooms on experiences of participation and consultation

This paper reports on an ESRC TLRP project, Consulting Pupils on the Assessment of their Learning (CPAL). The CPAL project provides an additional theoretical perspective to the ‘educational benefits’ perspective of engaging pupil voice in learning and teaching (Rudduck et al., 2003) through its exploration of pupil rights specifically in relation to assessment issues presently on the policy agenda in the Northern Ireland context – notably Assessment for Learning (AfL). An emergent framework for assessing pupil rights, based on Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Lundy, 2007), is being used to explore the ways in which AfL classroom practice creates the conditions for increased pupil participation and consultation. Pupil views on their AfL classroom experiences and participation are explored by means of a variety of pupil-centred, creative research methods that engage and stimulate pupils to observe, communicate and analyse their learning and assessment experiences and give meaning to them. This presentation highlights preliminary data based on a sample of 11-14 years pupils' experiences of participation and consultation in classrooms adopting AfL pedagogical principles, and identifies characteristics that support or inhibit pupil participation in their learning and the expression of their views about such matters

Consulting secondary school students on increasing participation in their own assessment in Northern Ireland

The Consulting Pupils on the Assessment of their Learning (CPAL) project comprised three interrelated studies focusing on (1) the development of Annual Pupil profiles in NI in the context of giving pupils ‘a voice’ (Lundy, 2007); (2) students' perceptions of ‘AfL classrooms’; and (3) teachers' and parents' perceptions of pupils increasing participation in assessment. This paper presents the main findings and educational implications of studies 2 and 3 which consulted pupils at key stage 3 (11-14 years). It identifies teachers', parents' and students' perceptions of the increasing pupil participation in the assessment of their own classroom learning. Preliminary findings of this twenty-one month study, completed at the end of February 2007, were presented in this ECER Children's Rights Network last year (see Leitch et al. 2006). This presentation updates some of the main findings for Key stage 3 pupils. The samples included approximately 200 students and a sample of their parents (n=180) from six post-primary schools in Northern Ireland, as well as 11 teachers of different subjects (i.e. Arts, Maths, English, Geography and Science). All teachers were engaged in an in-service course to help them embed Assessment for Learning (AfL) - a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the use of formative assessment to help students take control of their own learning by being aware of where they are, ‘where they need to go to improve, and how best to get there’ (Gardner, 2006). It establishes that, where principles of AfL are embedded in practice, pupils can experience high levels of participation in their learning and assessment. However, the relationship between consultation and participation requires further clarification and there is a need is to promote greater consistency amongst teachers in understanding what consultation means from a rights-based perspective

Consulting pupils on the assessment of their learning

TLRP Research Briefing of the Consulting Pupils on the Assessment of their Learning (CPAL) Project, www.cpal.qub.ac.uk. Official URL: www.tlrp.org/proj/leitch.htmlThis project examined pupils’ participation in their own assessment from a children’s rights perspective, based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It demonstrated that when genuine opportunities for participating in and understanding assessment are presented, pupils engage in the outcomes of their learning and focus on their progress. Children show the motivation and capacity to be involved in decision-making processes where policy makers use child-centred methods to consult children directly

Consulting Pupils on the Assessment of their Learning

Despite the growing body of literature on the impact of pupil voice on school reform, there is comparatively little research on the importance of pupil participation in the assessment of learning. The overall aim of CPAL project is to understand the possibilities, processes and consequences of pupils becoming more fully participants in their own assessment in primary and post primary schools in a Northern Ireland context

Research into Information and Communications Technology in Education: disciplined inquiries for telling stories better

This article considers whether there are underlying problems in research into information and communications technology (ICT) and reflects specifically on the call for researchers to use quantitative methods more in their work. Reasons for potential weaknesses in educational and, more specifically, ICT research are discussed and the ‘quantitative deficit' is considered in the light of such key issues as ‘fitness for purpose'. ICT research needs somehow to create a measure of freedom from the pressure to examine immediate-term issues relating to ICT policy and practice. More time and appropriate research activities need to be found if we are to lay better foundations for theory building from a more cumulative and coherent research base. The authors contend that the debate about whether to use quantitative or qualitative methods is barren, and that the fit-for-purpose principle should be the central issue in methodological design. The article concludes by calling for all ICT research to reflect the principles of disciplined inquiry: ensuring that we tell our research stories better, by making our evidence explicit and the basis of our arguments open to full scrutiny