Student Voice
Do your students have a say in what, when, where, how and why they learn? Listening to students’ needs, interests and concerns has had a big impact on school life and classroom practice.
Promote your students and get the best from them.
Each month, Andrew's students discuss different aspects of school life and learning at an open forum. “We look at positives, then negatives, or areas we could improve as a school. It’s a great opportunity for students to learn about forming and voicing opinions and for us to gauge how successful we are, individually as teachers and as a school.”
His students enjoy learning more; have grown in confidence and sharpened up their key skills as a result of this simple change.
Discover how educators worldwide are developing Student Voice in the posts below. You can also request to post as a Hot Topics Contributor and share your ideas.
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Student Voice
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Student Voice
I have recently been involved in a course sponsored by the Toronto District School Board in conjunction with TakingITGlobal called Empowering Student Voice in Education. When I first heard of this course I immediately knew that I wanted to be involved in it. I am a middle school teacher working with students who are on the Autism Spectrum, and I wanted to learn about student voice and how to hear it! As we discussed the topic I always took it back to my particular setting. How did each of the ...
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Student Voice
What does student voice mean to you?
As an educator, it is important to reflect on what student voice means to you when taking that first step to empower student voice in education. At TakingITGlobal, we recently asked educators that exact question. One educator readily noted that “student voice means students have a say in things that matter to them - education is something they participate in - not something that happens to them”. In response, another educator suggested that “we need to step backwards a little... a voice worth ...
Student Voice
Student "Center of the Educational Process"
In our school, the focus is on our students in the learning and teaching approach; where our students are eager to have their voices heard in all categories and communicate with the local and international communities. In order to create a change and leverage up their personalities, skills and become young productive leaders. In addition to that, our students keen to learn through the latest innovative approaches and gain the knowledge from different cultures and perspectives. As in the youth ...
Student Voice
Integrating technology everywhere leads to every student learning
At Darcy Ribeiro Public School, Brazil, a Microsoft Pathfinder School, integrating technology and promoting group actions that enable all students to acquire a high-quality education, is critical in student learning.
For students
Give students instruments to help them develop personal and collective projects by focusing on learning specific skills.
Involve students in their own learning and citizenship-building processes.
Help students develop self-assessment and autonomy in decision-making,...
Student Voice
Student Voice and Peaceful Ghanaian Elections - The Organisation of the Project
Student Voice and Peaceful Ghanaian Elections by Samuel Afoakwah, teacher at Twene Amanfo Senior High/Technical School, Ghana.
A few weeks ago, I’ve laid out the purpose and overview of my project. For todays’ post, we will dive into the execution and work flow of the project. If you haven’t read my previous post, you can find it here:
To begin,
Students administered questionnaires, conducted interviews, analyzed and evaluated results on their authenticity and validity. This required students ...
Student Voice
Putting money behind Student Voice - Ontario's SpeakUp Grants!
I've had many people ask for concrete examples of policies at the government level that can encourage and support student voice, and I wanted to share one that I'm particularly proud is happening right in my backyard in my home province of Ontario, Canada.
Over the past few years, the Ontario Ministry of Education has funded over 5,000 SpeakUp projects across the province, providing funding to students who submitted ideas and proposals for ways to make their schools better places to learn.
In ...
Student Voice
Beeing Entrepreneurs: A Student’s Perspective
Our school’s motto is “Strong community, stronger individuals”. Patamäki Primary School has put extra effort in that this semester. Not only being a Pathfinder school in PIL network, which has given us a lot of new ideas, but a wake-up call from the teachers wanting to update their working culture and evaluation methods and of course offer 21st Century skills for the students.
We know how critical the dialogue between the teacher and the student is, and how easily communication can be a ...
Student Voice
Student Voice in Evaluation
There’s a saying: When you have a hammer, everything suddenly becomes a nail. It is not surprising that student surveys, as a tool analogous to the hammer, are suddenly viewed through the lens of usefulness when applied to teacher evaluations.
Student surveys provide valuable feedback for teachers that contribute to professional development and can result in improved classroom practices. But when it comes to teacher evaluations, implementation is – as always - fraught with unforeseen ...
Student Voice
Student Voice and Peaceful Ghanaian Elections by Samuel Afoakwah, teacher at Twene Amanfo Senior High/Technical School, Ghana.
Young people have unique perspectives on events and things that are going on around them and often would like to be able to express their thoughts and convictions. They would love at the end of the day, to express themselves and solicit the responses of adults, particularly when it comes to important topics such as the general elections. In doing so, they learn so much more beyond the classroom that we can imagine. We at Twene Amanfo Senior High believe that students should be afforded the ...
Student Voice
What are the strongest indicators of Student Voice in schools?
Here at TakingITGlobal we're working on a new certification program called Future Friendly Schools. We're currently running a global to define indicators across the values of global citizenship, student voice, and environmental stewardship, and we want to make sure that the design of the program is based on the priorities and ideas of as many education stakeholders as possible.
We've love on the indicators that have been suggested by our global network of educators and students so far.
What ...
Student Voice
Peer Influence to Reduce Bullying
Adolescents listen to their peers and try to fit in. It is developmentally “their job.” Therefore, individuals can influence the group culture the moral tone of a peer group can influence individuals greatly. The group can favor respect for diversity and striving for success or dominance of one group or person over another to gain success. This dynamic pits a philosophy of “I must be better than everyone else in any way possible” against one of “I want to lend a helping hand to my neighbor so...
Student Voice
The Aftermath of Being Bullied and Its Effects on the Child,
by Dr. Claudio V. Cerullo
Bullying is a difficult subject to address not only for teacher and school officials, but also for parents and students alike, as often it is conducted covertly, leaving both the victims and the bully themselves distanced from support and intervention. However, a lot of research and critical thinking has gone in to the issues arising from the aftermath of being bullied, to the extent that we have a better and clearer grasp on the long-term effects to being bullied, and also what can be done to ...
Student Voice
What Can Educators Do to Stop Bullying?
Dr. Claudio V. Cerullo, President and Founder of Teach Antibullying, Inc.
Bullying is a direct form of violence common among children. Bullying can be found in schools, neighborhoods, and homes throughout the United States. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice, bullying is frequently misunderstood by adults as an unavoidable part of growing up and, as a result, often occurs in the presence of adults who fail to do anything about it. The focus of this article is about bullying at school and what can be done about it.
Bullying affects a school and students in ...
Student Voice
Setting the Stage With the Youngest Learners
As classrooms around the world become more student centered, students must learn to think and communicate clearly for their voice to be meaningful and productive. I teach first and second graders to examine points of view and problem solving through . Using actual plastic hats, the young students learn to discuss issues and express their opinions as they try on different hats and change their thinking accordingly. As they learn flexibility in thinking, they also learn creativity in problem ...
Student Voice
Boynton Alternative High School and Student Voice
Authentic youth voice, what is it, why are the students engaged, how does one teach youth voice, what is the impact, and how do we measure their success? These are the questions I am most asked. There are no easy answers because the answers themselves depend on so many factors such as input from the community, by in from the teacher and students, and resources available. What is easy to state however is that students want a voice and demand that people listen. They have a difficult time ...
Student Voice
"From Learner Voice to Emerging Leaders"
At the this morning in London, England, TakingITGlobal collaborated with Cisco and Promethean in bringing together over a dozen students from around the world to share insights on student voice with a audience of global policy makers. I'll be sharing the video from the event shortly!
My colleague Sara also announced the release of a new whitepaper, authored by three of us at TakingITGlobal alongside our colleague Gavin Dykes, a respected educational consultant.
provides what we think is a ...
Student Voice
Student Voice: Welcome to our journey towards greater student engagement!
Around the world, the concept of ‘student voice’ is gaining ground as a hot topic in education circles. But what does student voice actually mean?
David Hargreaves defines student voice as a process by which learners come to play a more active role in their education. Adding to this, Pat Thomson suggests that voice is the right for students to express opinions, access people who influence decisions, and exercise active participation in educational decision-making processes. Considering both of ...
