Book review: Improving learning through consulting pupils

For those of us involved in the business of learning and teaching, the idea of consulting our students, be they young children, teenagers or undergraduates, about how we teach and how they learn can stop us in our tracks. It challenges traditional models of learning and teaching and forces us to think about how we are learning as teachers and what our learners can teach us. On behalf of the TLRP Consulting Pupils Project Team, Jean Rudduck and Donald McIntyre present a very full and convincing study that demonstrates the positive impact that consulting pupils can have not only on classroom experiences of learning and teaching but also on their sense of self, identities as learners and the enhancement of teacher–pupil relationships. Areas explored within this study include beginning to consult pupils about learning and teaching, exploring the potential of pupils to act as co-researchers in learning and teaching, teachers’ responses to what pupils said, beginning and sustaining the process of consultation and what pupils say about conditions for learning. A theme that runs through this study is value. The team reported that work and subject areas valued by teachers are also valued by pupils and although it seems quite obvious, in a culture of learning and teaching where the motivation of pupils can be called into question, this idea of value can be a simple tool with which to engage and motivate learners