Lincoln’s perceptions of student voice mapped onto his perceptions of effective teaching so extensively that I have merged them here in this presentation of data. Lincoln’s perceptions of effective teaching and student voice incorporated six dimensions:
1. Collaborate with students to co-construct learning direction and relevant curriculum;
2. Negotiate classroom expectations; 3. Hands-on learning;
4. Incorporate digital technologies, web 2.0 tools and online collaboration;
5. Extend the learning environment beyond the classroom; and 6. Students as teachers.
Lincoln took a photo to show how he worked to enact effective teaching and student voice practice by making opportunities available within the class programme for students to work collaboratively together (Figure 23).
Figure 23 Students Working Together LN1
So thinking of student voice, what comes to mind? That one’s … relating to students collaborating and working together. (LNI1, p. 21)
Collaboration included also Lincoln and the students co-constructing decision- making together.
Giving them an opportunity I guess to co-construct things together. It’s not all just always coming from the top. That they feel that their ideas and their input is being valued and if there’s an opportunity that maybe rather than you making the steps a to z and them working through them, if there’s an opportunity whereby some of the students can … share where their interests are and the things that they want to work with. (LNI1, p. 22)
Lincoln introduced online collaborative spaces for learning and the expression of student voice within his classroom. Students were encouraged to post in online class forums and in other forums within the general internet to engage with the perspectives of others.
Given the experience that a lot of the students have had using cell phones and computers at home and gaming and different computers and things, when they’re able to use that different medium to share their ideas and their thinking, often they can come up with some really exciting things. So I think having an understanding of that can lead to utilising technology well and allowing the students to display some of that potential. (LNI1, p. 6)
Lincoln referenced his e-learning-influenced student voice practice back to societal changes in communication and knowledge construction facilitated by the internet.
The nature of knowledge is different … 40 years ago you got the full set of encyclopaedia Britannica’s and you tried to memorise them and you had all that knowledge in your head … now with mobile technologies and also the internet, the access to the information is bigger than it’s ever been before … So what becomes important is how you engage with that material and what new meaning or new learning you can make from that yourself. (LNI1, pp. 22-23)
This e-learning discourse influenced his thinking about student voice and effective teaching practice to address broader societal changes.
Lincoln described co-constructing classroom pedagogy and curriculum with students as an important aspect of effective teaching practice. He utilised the metaphor of a car journey to illustrate how students and teachers could work with each other co-constructively. Figure 24 depicts a stationary car containing a
frazzled looking driver surrounded by monkeys pulling out luggage from within a suitcase. For Lincoln the teacher was the driver and the students were the
monkeys inside and outside the car.
Figure 24 Car Journey LN11
If you’ve got your ideas and you’re trying drive them through and your kids have got completely different ideas and different expectations then it could lead to, yeah maybe a little bit of carnage like in the picture. Whereby I think with understanding your students and their prior knowledge and experiences, and interests as well, and allowing them to maybe grab the wheel now and then … I think you might find you’ve got more of the monkeys inside the car than outside tearing it apart. (LNI1, p. 5)
From his perspective students who were included in classroom decision-making became ‘excited’, ‘interested’, and ‘on-board’ (LNI1, pp. 11-12).
Students sharing expertise and teaching each other was a central dimension of Lincoln’s beliefs about student voice and effective teaching for the young adolescent age group. This aspect was depicted in an image of two students sharing expertise on ipod touch devices (Figure 25).
Figure 25 Students Sharing Expertise and Teaching LN13
Part of effective teaching for this age group would be identifying the philosophy of students as teachers as well. Identifying the strengths and utilising those, and giving those students an opportunity to work with each other. (LNI1, pp. 8-9) Lincoln described how positioning students as teachers required a shift in his professional identity. He exemplified this in an image showing him standing on the sidelines in relation to his class (Figure 26).
Figure 26 Stepping Back LN7
At times I see myself as being able to take a step back and almost working as a facilitator. So identifying students’ experience and skills within the group and where possible, yeah working with the students as teachers. So this is a boy that’s played rep hockey for years and as well as supporting him and having two other students that were also supervising the drills and giving pointers. This student had vast amounts of experience than I did and through him demonstrating some of the skills, the students were engaged. (LNI1, p. 19)
In contrast, Lincoln contrasted scaffolding student voice through negotiating classroom possibilities with students with a ‘top down’ authoritarian teacher identity. He parodied this identity,
I mean like I’m the boss and you’re going to do what I say. ‘Cause I went through four years of teachers college and I know everything so you’re going to sit down and shut up and this is how it is. And I’ve got all the knowledge and I’m going to impart all my knowledge on you. (LNI1, p. 22)
Lincoln promoted individual student learning that contributed to the learning of everyone in his class.
It’s allowing for students to maybe branch off a little bit but then bringing that back to collectively share that with each other as well. (LNI1, p. 24)
He illustrated this idea with a practice he had completed with his class about the value of sharing learning.
We drew it up on the board the other day that if each of the students finds out three good ideas and puts it down in a book then they’ve got three good ideas in their book. If we make up a class wonder wall [www.wallwisher.com] and they each have three different good ideas on there then we’re going to have 90
different notes on that web page … So yeah it’s just finding out ways for students to share their input and have it valued. (LNI1, p. 24)
In sum, Lincoln promoted student collaboration as a central dimension of
effective teaching practice and student voice. He linked his practice to e-learning discourses, in particular to the changing nature of knowledge and the potential students bring to school as participants in a broader social media context beyond school. Involving students as teachers formed a central expression of his
commitment to collaboration as well as engaging with students to co-construct curriculum in the form of the class programme.
5.6 Chapter Summary
All three teachers advocated students’ participation as teachers within their class programmes as a dimension of effective teaching practice and enacting student voice. Each teacher discussed the implications of students acting as teachers for their role as teachers. The teachers variously described this as: letting go, stepping back and as a process of co-construction between students and between students and teachers. They identified needing to respond to the influence of
social media and students’ increasingly technologically connected world beyond school as an imperative for student voice. Inquiry learning and assessment for learning also featured in their thinking around student voice and effective practice for the young adolescent age group. Betty also introduced the contextual tension that the introduction of National Standards into the New Zealand education context generated for perceived possibilities for teachers’ engaging responsively with the espoused needs of their students in classrooms increasingly required to address arbitrary student achievement standards.
Chapter Six: Action Cycle One: Students’ Perceptions of Effective
Teaching and Conditions for Engagement
This chapter presents the sense the three participating teachers made of the twelve Student Research Group (SRG) members’ perceptions of good teaching, and conditions for student engagement and disengagement with learning at school at the end of Action Cycle One (see Figure 2 in section 4.3.2). The themes and dimensions within these were identified by the teachers, but I have expanded out each of these to illustrate the richness of the student perspectives that informed the teachers’ thinking about effective teaching across the research. The analysis was distributed amongst the teachers as a summary at the end of the data analysis day (see section 4.11.3). The analysis summary was vital to the ongoing research because it became the touchstone that the teachers returned to, to reflect on their practice and beliefs during the research, to anchor discussions with the students in their classes, and to plan their class action research projects in Action Cycle Three (Chapters Eight, Nine and Ten)
The data presented in this chapter addresses Research Question Two ‘How do early adolescent students perceive effective teaching in relation to their needs, interests and aspirations as learners?’ The data was referred to throughout the project as ‘the initial student voice’.