Pupils as active participants: Diamond ranking as a tool to investigate pupils’ experiences of classroom practices

This article is based on a pedagogical action research initiative carried out in a Finnish primary school. Twenty-four 5th grade pupils and their teacher participated in the study. The research initiative was guided by two questions: (1) How do pupils experience their classroom practices? (2) How can pupils participate in the process of developing classroom practices through diamond ranking? Photographs, diamond ranking and written narratives functioned as mediating tools between the pupils’ experiences and the narratives of their classroom experiences. Drama lessons were the experiences that were most appreciated by the pupils. The pupils ranked experiential learning, learning games and group work activities as medium-level experiences in the learning projects. They ranked activities that were strictly structured, such as tasks from a book or notebook exercises, at the bottom of the diamond. In sum, the study reveals that diamond ranking, together with written narratives, worked well as a tool to capture the pupils’ experiences of classroom pedagogy. The activity gave each pupil the opportunity to participate in the process of gathering and analysing data, and to acquire agency in evaluating and developing classroom practices.