Learning from the Student's Perspective: A Sourcebook for Effective Teaching

by Cook-Sather,Alison

• ISBN13: 9781594516948
• ISBN10: 1594516944
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2010-07-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Much has been written about how to engage students in their learning, but very little of it has issued from students themselves. Compiled by one of the leading scholars in the field of student voice, this sourcebook draws on the perspectives of secondary students in the United States, England, Canada, and Australia as well as on the work of teachers, researchers, and teacher educators who have collaborated with a wide variety of students. Highlighting student voices, it features five chapters focused on student perspectives, articulated in their own words, regarding specific approaches to creating and maintaining a positive classroom environment and designing engaging lessons and on more general issues of respect and responsibility in the classroom. To support educators in developing strategies for accessing and responding to student voices in their own classrooms, the book provides detailed guidelines created by educational researchers for gathering and acting upon student perspectives. To illustrate how these approaches work in practice, the book includes stories of how pre-service and in-service teachers, school leaders, and teacher educators have made student voices and participation central to their classroom and school practices. And finally, addressing both practical and theoretical questions, the book includes a chapter that outlines action steps for high school teachers, school leaders, and teacher educators and a chapter that offers a conceptual framework for thinking about and engaging in this work. Bringing together in a single text student perspectives, descriptions of successful efforts to access them in secondary education contexts, concrete advice for practitioners, and a theoretical framework for further exploration, this sourcebook can be used to guide practice and support re-imagining education in secondary schools of all kinds, and the principles can be adapted for other educational contexts.

Author Biography

Alison Cook-Sather, Professor of Education and Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Initiative at Bryn Mawr College, wrote and coordinated this book with educators who authored some of the chapters. Her recent books include International Handbook of Student Experience in Elementary and Secondary School, coedited with Dennis Thiessen (Springer 2007).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Learning from the Student's Perspective: Why It's Important, What to Expect, and Important Guidelines	p. 1
Students' Perspectives on Effective Classroom Practice	p. 21
Knowing Students	p. 23
Creating and Maintaining a Positive Classroom Environment	p. 32
Designing Engaging Lessons	p. 44
Respect	p. 55
Responsibility	p. 62
Strategies for Learning from Students' Perspectives	p. 71
Accessing Students' Perspectives through Three Forms of Consultation	p. 73
Accessing Students' Perspectives through Discussion Groups and Questionnaires	p. 101
Listening in Action: Educators Learning from Students' Perspectives	p. 113
Learning to Be Heard and Learning to Listen: A Preservice Teacher's Reflections on Consulting Students during Practice Teaching	p. 116
Rethinking Listening to Students: A Preservice Teacher's Revisions	p. 131
Beyond "Wiggle Room": Creating Spaces for Authentic Learning in a Twelfth-Grade English Class	p. 145
Student Voice on a High School Decisionmaking Team: A Principal's Model of Listening to Students	p. 162
A Schoolwide Model for Student Voice in Curriculum Development and Teacher Preparation	p. 176
Students E-Mailing Prospective Teachers: Listening before Student Teaching	p. 194
Students Mentoring Student Teachers: Listening during Student Teaching	p. 209
Conclusions
Returning to Perspective and Taking Action	p. 222
Translating Schools and Educators: What It Takes to Learn from the Student's Perspective	p. 228
Appendix: Research Support for Consulting Students	p. 237
References	p. 242
Acknowledgments	p. 253
Index	p. 254
About the Author and Contributors	p. 258
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