“I Learned to Cooperate with my Friends and There Were no Quarrels”: Pupils’ Experiences of Participation in a Multidisciplinary Learning Module

ABSTRACT

In this article, we analyse how and if participation affects the learning experiences of pupils. Our research questions are: (1) What constituted positive learning experiences for pupils in a multidisciplinary learning module? (2) How do the methods used in this study give pupils an opportunity to express negative emotions and participate in developing learning experiences?. The data of this practitioner research consists of 80 photographs, 23 picture books and 23 interviews. The positive experiences of the project were social interaction, autonomy of peer groups and sense of capability and competence which relate to social participation. The picture book-interview method revealed pupils’ negative experiences that related to learning how to work in a group and perform the tasks at hand.

KEYWORDS:

• Participation
• curriculum
• multidisciplinary learning module
• peer relations
• practitioner research

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.