Working with education practitioners and children to set priorities for research that matters

In this paper, we describe and reflect on a consultation and co-production project designed to identify key developmental science research questions of relevance to pupils and education professionals. The paper reflects a collaboration between an academic research centre (Cardiff University Centre for Human Developmental Science), a science centre (Techniquest) and primary school pupils and education professionals based in South Wales, UK. We began by distributing a questionnaire to education professionals (primary school teachers and educational psychologists) to identify key themes for subsequent phases. Based on the feedback from this survey, we then delivered two types of school workshops (based on themes of sensory processing and of humour and wellbeing) for pupils. Finally, we brought pupils and teachers together for a co-production workshop to review the outcomes of the school workshops and identify new research questions. We reflect on the positive outcomes (e.g. positive teacher and pupil feedback, new questions to explore) and areas for improvement (e.g. low number of schools participating, managing power dynamics) and consider how to improve similar projects in the future. Our findings will benefit researchers and schools interested in co-producing research.