School Improvement

First published in 1996, School Improvement provides, through the recorded words and experiences of pupils themselves, a picture of how teaching, learning, and the organisation of secondary schooling might be improved. By presenting first-hand the pupils' own thoughts on crucial areas of school life, the authors emphasise the contribution that pupils can make to the quality of learning. Observations on the positive aspects of school and schoolwork are balanced by comments on the anxieties and difficulties that pupils have in coping with increasing pressures and living up to other people's expectations of them. Drawing on a wealth of data from interviews with eighty pupils over a four-year period (1991-5), supplemented by data from smaller studies, the book will help teachers to gain insight into pupils' perceptions of schooling and recognise their capacity for constructive analysis of their school experience.