A brief update

I haven't posted in awhile, as it's been a pretty busy end of term. However, I have finished all of my interviews for this year, and have one more left to transcribe before I'm done the data collection part of the process.


I thought I'd briefly update with some notes I've made about the one student researcher interview that I've done so far.

Common themes that occurred within student-researcher interview:

• Students find constructive feedback useful
• Targets should be simple to understand/clear and transferable
• Students feel they benefit from working with their targets often
• Recording and keeping track of targets is useful
• Teachers should ensure students consult and use their targets often in order to get more out of them
• Students who work often with their targets express more confidence about their targets and learning goals
• Peer assessment can be a negative process if students are not properly trained in how to do it
• Clear targets and success criteria are needed – the language needs to be simple enough for students to understand
• Clear expectations from the teacher result in students who know what the teacher is looking for when marking their work – less focus on things like SPaG
• Feedback has positive and negative effects on ego

 Things I’ve learnt about using student researchers:

• Need more training, especially in terms of following up questions and extending student responses
• Need to take a more ‘professional’ stance – they can be friendly, but don’t try to be their friend
• Be objective – don’t lead responses by giving your own opinion
• Need to simplify the questions they are asking – even less ‘teacher speak’ – must be clear to all levels
• Two student researchers would probably work better, as they would encourage more of a conversational environment – doing the interview one-on-one didn’t garner extended responses or probing
• Levels of comfort were definitely higher – more relaxed, less pressure