Commonality in teachers' and pupils' perceptions of effective classroom learning

This paper reports preliminary findings of a qualitative study of teachers' and year 7 pupils' perceptions of effective classroom learning in English and in history. The focus of this paper is the extent of commonality between teacher and pupil perceptions. The findings indicate that there is a high level of commonality between teacher and pupil perspectives of what constitutes effective teaching. Of particular interest is the richness of pupils' accounts of the associations between teaching methods and learning strategies. The findings point to the value of constructivist theories of learning.