Improving school learning: The student perspective

Students are powerful determiners of the learning that occurs in their classrooms. Understanding why they learn well or poorly is predicated upon clearly understanding their perspectives on learning. [But] we still know little about how these perspectives influence students' academic performance. ... [To fill this research gap, the author conducted a study of elementary students' perspectives on learning, using an ethnographic observant participant methodology, focusing on three questions]: 1) Is learning important for elementary students? 2) If so, what collective thoughts and feelings do they develop about their learning? 3) What collective reactions do they develop in response to these learning-related thoughts and feelings? ... The driving premise of the study was that students themselves ... could tell us best what was wrong with their learning experience and how best to fix it. (DIPF/Orig./Bi.).