INSTALACIÓN DE SANEAMIENTO 1 OBJETO

A significant feature of Sadler’s (1989) theory is that assessment is only formative if students use the feedback to positively impact on their learning. The implication of this position is that researchers need to be cognisant of the understandings students have of how assessment information can be used formatively. To achieve this, the current research included the ‘students’ voice’.

Educational researchers are increasingly interested in understanding students’ perspectives of learning, teaching and assessment. It has been argued that if we want to have a positive impact on students’ lives, we need to include their perspectives as a central feature of research and policy development (Vaughan, 2003). This is best achieved through research that consults students directly about aspects of their schooling. As Gipps and Tunstall (1998) contend, “the pupil’s voice has come to be seen as crucially important to understanding the complexities of learning in school. Naturalistic research approaches which are grounded in pupils’ accounts are needed to probe this” (p. 149). A number of recent studies within the New Zealand context highlight the value of the ‘students’ voice’ (e.g. Alton-Lee & Nuthall, 1990, 1998; Alton-Lee, Nuthall, & Patrick, 1993; Anthony, 1994; Bishop, 2003; Bishop Berryman, Tiakiwai, & Richardson, 2003; Bourke, 2000; Kane & Maw, 2005, Nuthall & Alton-Lee, 1993; Nuthall, 1999a, 1999b, 2002; Rawlins, 2000). For example, recent research by Kane and Maw (2005) began with the premise that “to improve classroom practice in secondary schools we need to ask for, and attend to, the needs and views of students” (p. 311).

Listening to what students have to say about their school experiences is part of a growing movement worldwide, largely driven by changing perspectives of teaching and learning (Fielding, 2006). Students’ understanding of their own role in the learning process has been highlighted as an area for prospective research by a number of influential researchers in education (Tunstall & Gipps, 1996; Pollard et al., 2000). Contemporary perspectives of learning re-conceptualise the roles of the teacher and the student. Increasingly, children are seen as consumers of education, making

77 decisions about what and how they would like to learn and how they are going to be assessed.

Indeed, research in mathematics education has identified that students and teachers often hold differing views of what is, in essence, a shared experience (Anthony, 2000, Brown, 2002; Rawlins, 2000). For example, Brown (2002) identified tensions with teachers and students continuing to ‘talk past each other in terms of their conceptions of learning’ (p. 72). Given the sociocultural learning perspective adopted in the current research, it is reasonable to expect that the ‘reality’ of the classroom appears differently to these two groups who bring different learning, social and cultural histories to the classroom. Research into students’ perceptions of the classroom is complicated by the interdependence of teachers’ practices and students’ views of learning. Although research has recognised that effective teachers’ practices must be aligned with the ways students learn (Alton-Lee & Nuthall, 1998), students’ views of learning are heavily influenced by the nature of the activities that they are exposed to in the classroom, and the perceived values these activities convey (Brown, 2002). In other words, students construct views of learning in ways they have been socialised to do so through their perceptions of what teachers value, perceptions which may be at odds with the actual values held by teachers. Research must be cognisant, therefore, of how students’ learning is shaped by their classroom experiences, including their assessment experiences (Kane & Maw, 2005). Researching only teachers’ perceptions provides us with a partial, and perhaps biased, picture of the impact their pedagogical practices have on students’ learning. The students’ voice is critical; it provides us with an opportunity to understand a different perspective of how teachers’ activities affect students’ learning (Nuthall, 2002).

Involving students in research often has surprising results, highlighting issues that teachers had not thought important. Additionally, students often benefit from such research in indirect ways. Fielding (2006) claims that because they are respected, listened to and taken seriously, students become more confident and more positive about learning and about school. “Once you start to have faith in young people and give them the opportunity to have a say, teaching and learning can be a joint activity” (Fielding, 2006, p. 12).

78 Research involving students’ perceptions potentially raises a number of validity issues with regard to data generation and interpretation that must be addressed. For example, student participants may mould their reported perceptions to meet what they consider to be the goals of the research. Within this research, two reasons for this behaviour can be proposed. Firstly, the students may want to satisfy the researcher and may pick up on subtle clues as to what the researcher is hoping to find out. This concern is especially valid during the focus group interviews and measures taken to counteract this threat are discussed in more depth in section 3.7.1. Secondly, students may be concerned that some of their views will not be well received by the school, and may choose not to put them forward. This is an ethical consideration and is discussed in more depth in section 3.8.2.

A second validity issue concerns the trustworthiness of students’ reports of particular classroom events. This does not imply that students created ‘realities’ are necessarily inaccurate or wrong. Indeed the interpretivist perspective adopted in this research validates their perceptions and memories of particular classroom events. But it is useful to contextualise their perceptions through the use of classroom observations and interviews with the teachers.