Consulting pupils in Assessment for Learning classrooms: the twists and turns of working with students as co‐researchers

Abstract

Research literature on students as researchers demonstrates a spectrum of constructive ways in which students are being actively engaged in school and classroom action inquiries. Any identified tensions lie in the degree to which students themselves are genuinely engaged as action researchers. Increasingly, externally driven agendas for change and improvement are appropriating action research as means to facilitate teachers in developing new skills and tailor‐making national initiatives. According students appropriately democratic roles in such research processes are a lot less evident. This paper illustrates and discusses some of the difficulties, tensions and positive outcomes of engaging with students as co‐researchers at Key Stage 3 within a nationally funded project that intersects an action research policy framework supporting the introduction of Assessment for Learning throughout Northern Ireland. Issues discussed include student research advisory groups, students as data gatherers and students acting as co‐interpreters of video‐taped and image‐based classroom data.

Keywords:

• Students as researchers
• Consultation
• Second‐order action research
• Qualitative methods

Notes

1. K‐12 is the North American designation for primary and secondary education (Kindergarten through 12th grade). It is also used in Australia.

2. Consulting Pupils on the Assessment of their Learning (CPAL) has been supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme (ESRC TLRP) Extensions projects (Northern Ireland)

3. Assessment for Learning (AfL) is a strategy of formative assessment presently on the Northern Ireland policy agenda (and more globally). Viewed as a pervasive and integral part of teaching and learning (James et al, 2006, p. 2), AfL practices aim to promote the learning autonomy of pupils through making learning and assessment goals explicit. The educational policy goal is to embed the principles of AfL within the revised curriculum for Northern Ireland by enhancing teachers’ classroom practices of the four key processes associated with AfL — eliciting information, providing feedback, sharing criteria and peer‐ and self‐assessment (after Black & William, 1998)

4. Education and Library Boards in Northern Ireland (equivalent to local education authorities, UK), in conjunction with the Council for Curriculum for Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), have developed a co‐ordinated approach to support the phased introduction of AfL. Over a four‐year period, cohorts of schools opt into a professional development programme.

5. CPAL, in fact, comprises three interrelated studies described elsewhere (www.capl.qub.ac.uk). This article refers solely to Study 2.

6. All the names of participants that appear in this paper have been changed.