Caroline Lodge

Engaging student voice to improve pedagogy and learning: An exploration of examples of innovative pedagogical approaches for school improvement

Abstract Drawing on some recent work in schools in the UK, this paper considers some evidence that suggests that involving students in dialogue about their own learning helps young people become better learners, and teachers improve their pedagogy. There continues to be significant barriers and challenges to the development of such innovations in schools in the UK. Chief among these are the fears of teachers relating to accountability for the performance of their students in standardised tests. However, there are many teachers who are finding and creating opportunities to develop dialogic engagement with their students, even within this context. It is from their practice that examples and illustrations are presented and some implications are drawn out for school improvement.

About face: visual research involving children

Some crucial issues in visual research involving children in schools are examined: the contradictions between the current widespread practice of visual recordings in public and private spheres and the cautious approach adopted in educational research; the dominance of adults and text in school research despite technology providing accessible ways of using visual elements and involving young people; and the use of digital photography, which also poses questions about permissions and publication. All research involving young people raises issues about access, informed consent and power relations. Drawing on examples from my own research, it is argued that it is possible to adopt a critical stance in visual research rather than continue to reflect unequal power relations.

Tutors’ and Students’ Learning or Why do Schools have Tutors?

This article explores some evidence about tutoring as an effective strategy to support young people’s learning. It is argued that the central goal of the tutor is to provide support for students’ learning. How the activities, relationships and skills of the tutor contribute to the achievement of this goal is then explored. The author emphasizes the tutor’s unique position in the school and how it can contribute to learning for students as individuals and in groups.

'Learning is something you do to children” Discourses of learning and student empowerment

Introduction Learning may be talked about in different ways and the way it is talked about promotes or inhibits students’ active collaboration in their learning and their responsibility for it. The evidence for these observations is drawn from research into the discourses of learning in four UK schools. The differences are expressed in the talk and actions of people in the schools and in their structures, routines and documentation. Some are expressed directly:

From Head of Year to Year Curriculum Coordinator and Back Again

This article is an account of the development of the course From Head of Year to Year Curriculum Coordinator? The story of its origins, its development and outcomes provides an opportunity to explore the impact of educational changes on conceptions of pastoral care, its management and organization, and how NAPCE has had to change the pattern and nature of its activities to support its members. It allows us to consider the enduring but changing role of the Head of Year. Caroline Lodge worked for 25 years in urban comprehensive schools in Coventry and London, in many different roles (including Head of Year) before moving on. She is now occupied with earning a living as lecturer, writer, researcher, teacher, consultant and trainer and is also a student.

Boys’ underachievement – challenging some assumptions about boys

W Introduction There has been much interest in and debate about boys’ achievement in the past few years. Much of it has been focused on the results of boys in public examinations and key stage assessments in comparison with girls. Research has shown that girls are outperforming boys in national assessment outcomes at ages seven, eleven and fourteen, and do better in a wide range of subjects at GCSE level (Ellwood and Comber, 1995). The research is unclear about examination performance at age eighteen, but more girls are getting top grades and more are going on into higher education.

Retired, but still a physicist

When Raymond Carter wanted to take early retirement from a position at a university in the north of England, he arranged to see his line manager to discuss his request.

REVIEWS AND UPDATE

I am beginning to grimace a little when I see the term behaviour management in the main title of books these days. It is a phrase that has its educational roots way back in the Elton Report of 1989 and my sense is that we need to move on from what was a ground breaking but now limiting expression. So, I picked up this book prepared for the usual suspects – importance of whole school policy, need for consistent use of rewards and sanctions with a liberal re-working of Bill Rogers’s techniques, and sure enough, they are all there. And, yet there is plenty more to consider and I believe that there is much to recommend this title. Derrington and Groom have developed a training programme for SENCOs to teach assistants about understanding and responding to pupil behaviour. Over the years they have refined their materials and created a programme spanning eight units. Their book provides all of the resources and guidance for SENCOs to run the course. The timing of the book is spot-on. With a growing demand for skilful assistants, increased involvement by non-teachers in classrooms and a wider engagement of para-professionals working in the field of behaviour, the demand on SENCOs to manage others is a key function of the role. I think many of the SENCOs I know will welcome this resource. For those familiar with responding to behaviour issues the authors have provided a flexible and general introduction to the topic, whilst newcomers will welcome the informative dimension of the content as well as the format. The units can be used as required and in any order. Each unit includes an overview, overhead templates for presentation and copying, additional reading suggestions and exercises to promote a sense of team development. Units cover themes including whole school policy, emotional literacy, listening skills, target setting and raising selfesteem. There are some really sound sections. I liked the material for developing team listening skills, and the detail on assertiveness is a great section. A general strength of the book is that it is well written, in an accessible style and a clear format. Essentially the authors have captured the essence of a successful training programme and it is now in a ready to roll out form. Whilst it offers an immediately robust approach to encouraging team development in managing behaviour, I have some reservations. First, one of the big steps forward in our thinking about behaviour since Elton, centres around preferred learning styles and this does not even get a mention, let alone an appropriate consideration, and I think that is a serious omission in 2004. Second, there is little on the whole school policy dimension, which some may argue is to be expected in a training programme aimed at teaching assistants. My concern is that the one unit focusing on policy context is as near as the authors get to inviting assistants to reflect on their beliefs about why children behave as they do. It is worthwhile any professional group spending time on checking out their values and insights about behaviour in order to then frame thinking about responding to difficult behaviour. Third, my experience of working with non-teaching professionals is that the behaviour most difficult to manage at times has been that of other professionals. This is an area that is only obliquely referred to in the book. The process for contracting in-class work with teachers is not addressed and whilst behavioural techniques are well considered, it is invariably in relation to the difficult behaviour of pupils. There is a clear emphasis on emotional well-being throughout the programme which is to be commended. It is therefore slightly disappointing that the unit on target setting reverts to an essentially behavioural format that inevitably discounts the validity of the internal emotional progress. A more general observation is that the content of the book is almost entirely based on the course materials. Given that the authors have delivered the course over several years it would have been especially helpful to have had a section giving some case studies illustrating issues and questions raised during training and how best to respond to them. I am increasingly convinced that effective training has less to do with content and far more to do with attending to the learning process. Consequently it would be valuable to get a sense of the authors’ experience of maximizing the impact of the materials. Overall I think many SENCOs – and pastoral team leaders – will find much to use from this book. Providing they keep an eye on covering the absent aspects colleagues have a very practical manual for building a team approach to managing behaviour.