Graham Price

Interactive group activity: a socially mediated tool for opening an interpretive space in classroom research

An ongoing challenge in classroom research is to understand children’s perspectives on their learning. While learning is highly individual, it is also significantly social and this raises methodological challenges. An Interactive Group Activity (IGA) is one of several data collection strategies used during the action research phase of the Connecting Curriculum, Connecting Learning project (2010–2011) focusing on arts-based curriculum integration. This article concentrates on the IGA tool as a means of uncovering children’s meaning making following an extended period of learning. Of particular note is the use of an arts pedagogical device to introduce the IGA to children, a device that frames the purpose of the task. In effect, the IGA acts as a group assessment device underlining the socially mediated nature of children’s learning. This article describes how the IGA tool evolved, gives its form and structure, argues for its affordances and suggests possibilities for its wider use.

Examining and disrupting rituals of practice in the primary classroom

Much of what happens in primary classrooms reflects a number of rituals and routines that have largely become an unconscious part of teachers’ repertoires. While these ‘rituals of practice’ provide a framework or structure to learning in classrooms, they are often left unexamined. These taken-for-granted ways of teaching require close examination in order to ascertain their merit or otherwise for childrens learning. This paper outlines some rituals of practice in primary classrooms in the Arts (dance, drama, music and visual art). It outlines the nature of these rituals and discusses how some were disrupted by teachers-as-researchers in collaboration with their university colleagues in a joint research project. The findings suggest that research partnerships of this nature provide a supportive environment for questioning assumptions and enacting alternatives that promote learning.