Student+Poll+Jenna+07

Student Poll
Curriculum is primarily planned //for// students.

What do //**they**// think they should be learning about in schools?

Post the responses you received to the student poll you conducted.

Please use a subheading (including your name) as part of your contribution.
 * __Student Poll - Jess Langdon __**

I conducted my student poll in my place of work. I work in an Outside School Hours Care Program, that cares for children aged 4 to 12 years. There were 6 students that participated in my student poll, and they were aged between 8 and 11 years.

I was actually really surprised about the feedback I received from the children. There was not any negative comments involved in the conversation that took place between the children and myself during our discussion about there thoughts regarding school. Each of the children were enthusiastic learners and generally LOVED going to school.

The children had different idea's when it came to favorite subjects, but when one child would make a comment like ' I really love science, because we get to really fun experiments', another child would then say ' Oh yeah I remember doing that last year, that was the best'. So even when there was a difference in opinion, whether it be with a teacher or subject, all the children generally agreed one way or another.

It was interesting to here about the environment in which they learnt in. Some made comments about there classrooms, in the way the furniture was arranged and how they have there desks arranged in different shapes and the class gets to change it around once a month. Some students said they spent most of there time on the floor doing activities throughout class time. One of the students said how she loved it best when her class was outside, as her teacher allows them to complete some of there class activities outdoors.

Out of the children that participated in the poll, they all had a large interest in the subjects that involve creativity, movement, active participation, as well as activities that are hands on. These subjects include; Art, Sport, Science, Creative Writing and Music. Whilst they favored these subjects all the students said that they couldn't pick a subject that they didn't like at all because at some point throughout the year they get to do really fun activities in all the subjects, so who can complain about that.

I love to here that these students are such enthusiastic learners. In my opinion it is absolutely vital that students learn but just as important that they are all happy and having fun while they learn. I believe that if you can have fun and learn at the same time, then you will love to learn and be good at it!

**Katie Newman - Student poll** The students I questioned in this section were of various ages. Some students were in prep, others in lower high school and some were from year ten through to the start of univeristy. It was intesresting to note the differences in answers across the age groups. The majority of children in prep were able to identify what subjects they enjoyed, with most saying that they liked art, music and PE. Some of the children mentioned that they liked all the things they learnt at school; but enjoyed school the most when they were drawing, painting and outside playing in PE. When I asked these students what they thought they should learn about at schools there were some interesting answers. Most of the students simply repeated their answers form the previous questions, mentioning the subjects they liked; with art, music and PE the most popular answers. One student said they would like to learn about food.

The elder students from high school mentioned that they think they should be able to learn the subjects that interest them, but also mentioned that they understood it was important for them to learn english and maths. Some of these students mentioned that they would like to learn more about geography and the different countries of the world, which I thought was an intersting suggestion. Some of the high school students mentioned that subjects such as science, art and music should occur more than 2 or 3 times a week. I asked them if they thought that these subjects were as important as english and maths and all students said that they thought english and maths were vital skills, but felt that science should have equal importance in school. As for art and music, they felt that it may not be as important, but still thought that the ammount of time they spent on these subjects currently is not enough. The students also said that they would like to see some life skills taught more at school, such as cooking and driving.

The students from college had a the suggestion that children should be taught social skills in primary school. I thought this was an intersting, but valid point. One student said that children need to be taught 'how to get along with people.' They also suggested that there should be more PE in schools, occuring more regularly than once a week.

I also took a poll from students who had recently left college and were studying at university, as well as a few parents and adults. The adults whom I questioned said that they thought children needed to have more time for PE at school, suggesting that PE should be a daily activity. The parents also highlighted their concerns about the lack of geography they believed is taught in schools and felt that children should learn more about the countries of the world and where the countries are situated. One adult I spoke with, who left college 2 or 3 years ago also thought it was important for children to learn social skills at school. She said that after entering the workplace after school, she felt it was vital that all children learnt social skills early on in their education. She also thought that there should be more PE in schools, not just physical, but also time spent on healthy eating and lifestyle choices.

Student Poll. (Emma Callanan)

Today I conducted my student poll; I spoke to a selection of both boys and girls in a Grade 2/3 class.

When I asked the students about what they like learning about in class I got three answers: mathematics, science and art. When I asked them what topics were they studying at the moment that really interested them I got one answer from all: Antarctica and then when I asked what they thought they should be learning at school I got a few different responses: science, construction, animals, mathematics and motorbikes.

Currently the class are working on a big unit all about Antarctica and most of their class work is revolving around this. They have doing a lot of science; art and literacy activities about Antarctica and the class have had scientists in class with them. I think that this has had a strong influence on their answers today.

I was interested to discover that most of the students said they enjoyed mathematics and I believe that this is because of the way the class maths lessons are ran. The class have maths workshops and the subject is taught in a much more hands on approach. I think it is good that the children want to learn maths and science as correlates with many views in the media about what should be taught.

Student Poll (Belinda Vallerine)

I conducted my student poll between 2 age groups (prep-grade 2 boys) and a selection of boys and girls in years 11 and 12. The students in the prep-grade 2 boys loved school and particularly enjoyed art and PE. They wanted more maths and science and preferably no singing (especially choir) One boy thought soccer should be incorporated into the curriculum every day.

The older students all agreed the curriculum covered all what they needed to know however I thought they had some great extra suggestions. Topics such as First Aid, Self Defence, Politics and Manners were some of the suggestions and thought they all had valid points and something I hadn't thought of. For these older students whom often look disengaged I was really happy with their responses and thoughts to this question.

Student Poll (Kirsty Hughes)

I interviewed 6 students ranging in ages from 5 (prep student) to 11 (year 5 student) years. When I asked the question ‘What do you think you should be learning at school?’ to the 5 year old, she thought about it for a little while before replying ‘I don’t know’. I thought that maybe she didn’t understand the question, so I asked her a couple of different ways, hoping that it would become clearer, but I still received the same response. Maybe I was expecting too much from a 5 year old to know what they should be learning at school. I don’t know? As the ages of the students increased, I started receiving the information I was looking for. Nearly all of them said they should be learning how to read, write and do math, while one student said they should be learning how to care for animals because they wanted to be a vet when they grew up. When it came to what they were learning in class at the moment, it ranged from learning about shapes and corners (how many corners a particular shape has), space, the history of their suburb and one student mentioned they were learning about Cambodia. All were pretty enthusiastic about what was happening in their relative classrooms and only one said they thought Math was boring. All of the students I interviewed said that they like going to school and their favourite things ranged from P.E, Art, playing in the home corner and playing with their friends.

Student Poll - Jarrod O'Donnell-Adams

When questioning children about what they should be taught in school I endeavoured to question from as vast an age range as possible. This was done so that I could get a picture of how perceptions of what children are taught and why changes with age. Exactly the same question was put to each child, “What do you think you should be taught in school.” Nine children were questioned from Kinder to grade 11. What was most apparent from the results of this sample was that as the age of the children increased they were more focused on their needs as individuals and the realisation that there were certain skills to be developed as they were about to launch into society. This is best reflected by the following quote from Imogene, a year 10 student, //“I think in school I should be taught subjects suited to my personal interests. I think that my learning and subjects should be relevant to my individual needs. In the school environment, I should be taught, and the school should enforce, morals which support accepting Australia's diverse culture and society. I believe that education of a person should be holistic.”// And Caitlin a year 11 student, “//I think that we should be taught to research and analyse sources. I think this is important especially in our media saturated society, to understand the implications and subtleties of a text. We also need to show discretion with regard to sources. I think that apart from the obvious, maths and English... that History should be taught, because hopefully we will learn from our predecessor's mistakes, or if we don't it breeds in us a spirit of humility, we are no better than them, also it helps us understand the society we live in and the part we have to play in that.”// Children of mid high school seemed much more focused on the need to learn literacy and maths but interestingly there was some thought paid already to what would be needed or not in future life as reflected by Morgan, grade 8, “//I think we should learn things that would help us in life, not random facts. Reading and writing and basic maths is good, however I don't believe that I would need to learn advanced maths if I'm not going to be using it in the career I pursue.”// Younger children sampled appear to base their answers upon what they have already experienced in school and did not really look beyond what they thought would be fun as opposed to being cognisant of the need to acquire skills and learning that would help them in later life. As evidenced by this answer from Mack in Grade 3, “//Maths and sport so we can work in a team. Science and reading. Learn to play games.”// And Amy in Kinder, “//Draw pictures. We should do singing and dancing so we can learn how to sing and dance. I would want to put stickers on paper and stuff like that and I also want to do cutting and we do cutting at school.”// There were exceptions however with two children in lower grades seeing the social programmes in their schools as a way to equip them for later life as discussed by Emma in grade 1 “//I think I should learn maths, because the more numbers I learn the better I’ll get at counting. I think I should learn how to be a better good girl and how to get along better with my friends”// and Liam in grade 4, “//Learning values helps you before you go into the outside world.”// All up an interesting exercise which demonstrated that even from a young age children are forming their own opinions about their own education and feel a sense of ownership in that experience. They were thrilled to be asked about their opinions and I couldn’t help but feel that the authors of curriculum could do well to further involve what are vitally important stakeholders.

STUDENT POLL - Simon Moore I share the time in my educational setting between a grade 1 and a grade 3/4. Similar to the students in Jarrod's poll, all the students I asked were really excited to be asked their point of view. I even think that some students in the grade 1 class thought that I carried some sway with regard to future curriculum decisions!! The students that I polled were asked individually as they were going about their normal classroom activities and were both male and female. To guage the students opinions, I asked them two questions. What do you enjoy learning about at school? and What would you like to learn more about at school?

The students polled gave a wide variety of answers when asked what they enjoy learning about at school: The students responses when asked what they would like to learn more about at school included:
 * Writing - I like to make my writing look nice (grade 1)
 * Soccer/PE - when we learn how to play games in PE I practice at recess and lunch and with my brother at home. (grade 1)
 * How to be nice to people - it is important that everyone is nice to everyone else at school. (grade 1)
 * Science - science experiments are fun but we don't get to do it very often. (grade 3/4)
 * Art - I like having time to make artwork to take home (grade 3/4)
 * News - It is good to hear what other people do and I like to tell everyone what I do (grade 1)
 * Italian - I want to learn how to speak italian because I am half italian. (grade 1)
 * Cooking - Some people get to do cooking but not everyone has had a turn yet. (grade 3/4)
 * Swimming - Some classes get to do swimming but we haven't yet. I do swimming practice after school instead (grade 1)
 * Footy and rugby - I watched some people play rugby on saturday but we don't play it in PE (grade 1)
 * Japan - Japan seems like an interesting place and I want to learn how to speak more. I have learnt some from my brother (grade 3/4)
 * Motorbikes - because I like them (grade 1)

The way that all the students answered these questions so enthusiastically shows the benefit of teachers, schools and other curriculum planners involving students. Whilst not all of these ideas are possible like teaching grade one how to play rugby, students seem to be very sure about what they enjoy and what they want to learn more about. As a future classroom teacher needing to structure learning around a curriculum, this exercise made me realise that it is possible to regard students interests when considering activities. Despite the curriculum being planned for students, it cannot cater for the individuals in each class, in each school or in each community but all it takes is a few questions from an interested teacher!

My student poll was taken from a variety of age groups starting from 5 through to 38 years of age. When I asked my 5 year old “what do you like at school” he responded by saying “recess, lunch and going home” This made me laugh than I rephrased the question by asking “What are the best things your teacher does with you”. He had a think about it and responded by saying music, reading, and drawing and to just play games. I like this as young children do need to just play sometimes. With the eight year old he commented on science, mathematics and cooking experiences. He also went on about learning football and about Ancient Romans. This was a very interesting response. I got the opinions from 2 thirteen year olds of opposite sexes and they basically shared the same thoughts. That being they thought mathematics, learn to spell, art, sport and to learn more about the world. It was a pleasure to see sport high on there list as they feel physical education is important. I was very surprised with the answers that an eighteen year old male would suggest things like being taught life experiences and how to live life to get the best out of it. History was another subject that he thought should be taught to get more understanding of the world. Having asked a group of adult students I received a wide variety of responses, that being from only focusing on the basic subjects (maths, spelling, reading and writing) and having less time on all the others subjects. Another group of adults were more concerned about the social connection with the community and also having the skills and ability to budget, parenting, employment, and computer and communication skills. They also felt that mathematics, reading, writing and spelling are very important to the curriculum. After hearing all the different responses I can see that all age groups share the belief that core subject like numeracy and literacy are a necessary skill to have. It was interesting to see that art was mentioned in the responses from the younger groups and with the older group life experiences was more important. I saw that the younger children were more concerned about what they like and are involved with in the present and the older groups commented more about what they would need to develop to survive in there future life.
 * __Student Poll - Karina Frank__**


 * __STUDENT POLL BY ERIN BOWERMAN__**

I polled 6 students of various ages ranging from kinder through to grade 10 to identify what they think should be taught in schools. Each student was asked exactly the same questions;

1) What is your name? 2) What grade are you in at school? 3) Do you normally like going to school and learning new things? 4) What are you learning about at school this week and is it interesting? 5) What have you liked learning about at school most so far this year? 6) What other things do you think should be taught to you at school? 7) If you were in charge of your school what would be the 3 most important things you would teach?

Firstly I must say that just getting some of the polled students to understand the questions was an effort. I thought that I had written them quite clearly and to cater to even younger children but I honestly don't think they were used to being asked their opinion about things that often. I also detected some suspicion in some of the older children, and some hesitancy in their answers as if they were trying to make sure they were going to say the "right thing"! The responses were quite varied and I will summarise each question from 3 onwards (1 and 2 were really just for my own reference);

//**3) Do you normally like going to school and learning new things?**// The most enthusiastic response was from my own son and one of his peers who both gave almost identical responses, that is that they "love school" and "wish they could go every day" (they are both at kinder 2 days a week). The least enthusiastic response was from a boy in grade 10 who basically told me that if it wasn't for the fact he had signed a contract with his school to attend he wouldn't bother turning up anymore as "no-one could teach him anything anymore".

One of the younger students told me he was learning this week not to wipe snot on his hands because if he touched his eyes they (his eyes) could get sick. And yes he did think it was interesting because he didn't want to get sick because then he had to stay home with his sisters. So his learning experience was very practical! A student in grade 2 told me that she is learning about the environment this week and that it is very interesting because her class got to go on a field trip and do some planting of trees. The grade 10 boy told me that this week they were learning about the Holocaust at school and he actually was dreading it as he had just found out he was of Jewish descent. He acknowledged that it might be interesting but he argued that he didn't understand why "kids" had to be taught about horrible things. I found this fascinating, particularly considering the fact that he may have living relatives who either experienced the Holocaust first hand or who are children of that era. A grade 8 girl told me that this week they had been doing a lot of work on plants and studying them through a microscope and she thought that was "cool" because this kind of scene was depicted in the popular movie "Twilight"!
 * //4) What are you learning about at school this week and is it interesting?//**

The grade 10 boy most enjoyed learning about vocational education opportunities available to him after this year. He made it very clear to me that he wants to get out of high school and into an environment where he can learn subjects he enjoyed. He nominated photography and graphic design as those subjects. His class went on a field trip to a college and he really enjoyed that. My own son, a 5 year old in kinder has most enjoyed about learning about school. When I quizzed him on this he told me he just loved knowing that he was now a "big boy" and that when he is at school his teacher is like his mummy and looks after him and teaches him and every day he will learn more things. (It was a bit of a *sigh* moment!). A girl in grade 2 told me that the best thing this year had been when their class had made a relationship with a sister school (class?) in Japan and the lovely things she had learned through that experience.
 * //5) What have you liked learning about at school most so far this year?//**

//**6) What other things do you think should be taught to you at school?**// The grade 10 boy thinks that "kids at school" should be taught more "normal" things and he identified these as being how to drive, how to bank, how to vote, how to get a job, how to leave home etc. He definitely came across to me as non-academic and very strongly felt that more life skills rather than academic subjects should be taught. A grade 8 girl thought that students should be taught more about how to stop bullying and how to help each other. Yet again, another life skill. The two younger boys were slightly over-enthusiastic about this and both launched into a diatribe on all the wonderful things their teacher could teach, or in fact they could teach the students if she let them ........ things like vital information about Ben 10 aliens, rocket ships, plasma fields, dinosaurs, lego creations, science experiments, fighting (like martial arts!), X-Men, Wolverine, chasing people (apparently there are "rules" about this), getting a crew together and so on. By the way, I "interviewed" both boys separately! A prep boy told me that he thinks "kids" should be taught more "stuff" about Australia and politics and voting. He also told me that he thinks teachers should sometimes let the "kids" say more "stuff". I got the feeling that this child came from a very free-thinking, politically and socially aware family!

//**7) If you were in charge of your school what would be the 3 most important things you would teach?**// Once again I'll lead off with the grade 10 boy, quite fascinating response ...... 1) how to get through high school without killing yourself 2) how to get through high school without being picked on and bullied 3) how to get through high school to get out into the real world. The grade 8 girl seemed to mimic possibly her parents in her answer when she said "the 3 R's". When I asked her what they were she looked at me as if I was simple and said "Reading ....... then she went bright red because she suddenly realised that she didn't know of any other subjects that started with R! I gave her time to think about it and she told me the other two were to do with writing and maths. I told her that I thought that the phrase "the 3 R's" was a play on the sound the three words started with, reading (which she got), wRiting and (a)Rithmetic. She thought that whoever thought that up was stupid but she still thought that reading and writing and maths were the most important subjects. The grade 2 girl strongly felt that she would teach all about the environment, there were no three things for her, just one.

So overall I felt that if you believe the media reports that state that schools are letting this generation down with regards to the "basics" then that may well be true based on the feedback from the 6 students I polled. Only 1 of them ranked any academic subjects as ones of merit, the rest all strongly felt that more experiental or life skills based learning was important. I think the differences exist because it isn't this generation (ie the ones at school like those that I polled) that are worried about the future, not yet at least. It is their parents and their parent's parents that are worried. Perhaps they look back at their own more formal education and wonder if it were taught the same today would a lot of our society's problems be solved. The people creating and carrying out the curriculum aren't the people experiencing it, not as we know it at least. The students that I polled are all undoubtedly being taught within our state's curriculum but they are each getting something very different out of it, depending on their own personality, their age, their background and their education experience. I thought it very interesting that all but 1 of the students was generally excited about school and saw value in continuing their education.


 * Student Poll (Simon Calvert)**

I chose to question a broad range of students from primary school through to university. I found the answers that I got in reply varied greatly between the age groups.

The primary school students who I interviewed were from grade six. These students provided the least feedback and seemed genuinely happy with the subjects that they were learning. They couldn’t think of any new subjects or subjects which they thought should have more emphasis placed on them in the new curriculum. The subject which they were most excited to go to was physical education.

The next group of students I questioned were from grade nine and ten. In general they wanted more emphasis on a practical curriculum with “maths that you’re actually going to use, not algebra crap”. The boys were most excited about wood work and least excited about maths. The girls were interested in there being more creative fashion subjects and the subject which they were excited to do was drama.

The one grade twelve girl I talked to said she would like there to be more practical classes such as cooking and sewing, as well as more science excursions. She thought environmental science should be compulsory from grade 7 onwards because we’re facing a changing world. The subject which she was excited to attend was environmental science; in her opinion the rest were a waste of time.

A couple of uni students who I talked to said they would have liked more history and geography included in their curriculum. They felt that their knowledge from school about various cultures and locations of countries should have been better. They also thought maths and English were vital but need to be taught in a way which they can apply them in real life. They were most excited about sport classes.

Student Poll
I have interviewed a range of students girl grade 5 girl grade 6 boy in grade 3 boy in grade 7 girl in grade 9 boy in grade 11

All students gave me the responce that they are interested in the subjects that they like. The subjects that they don't like they all said are harder to pay attention in especially the high school students. The grade 6 girl said that even though she doesn't like maths and english her teacher makes it a little fun when he can. The grade 3 boy said that he likes it when they go outside to measure things. What they think should be taught in schools varies depending on age groups. The grade 3 boy would like to be involved in more writing (suprise,suprise), art, sport, music, and have the teacher read more stories to them. Both primary school girls were similar in their answers as they both wanted to see more cooking, art, and sport in school but one girl (grade 6) wanted to have more peer support training as she loves helping the yourger students. The grade 5 girl wanted to see more help with maths and english as she struggles a little in these subjects. The grade 7 boy supprised me as he wants to learn more about first aid and bush survival skills.(I feel he needs to join the scouts) Where the grade 9 girl wanted to see more work experience and more opportunities to try new and different work places to help with furture career choices. Finally the grade 11 male understood that he needed english and maths throughout his earlier schooling years, but felt that he learnt things in math that he didn't need to know as they were not relevent to his career choice. He also wanted to see more driver education oppertunities throughout school. I have covered a range of male and female responces along with different grades and age groups. These students have some interesting ideas, I do like the sound of survival skills (whatever that intails) along with the idea of first aid being offered to early high school. All of these student suggestions/ comments are great and for the most part it sounds like students are mostly content with their learning enviornment, especially in their perfered subjects. Mind you as teachers this does show that we need to be flexable in teaching children, and a change in environment occasionally can prove to be successfull. (Louise Griffiths)

= **Student Poll - Sally Medwin** = I interviewed students ranging in age from 14 – 17 who were male and female. First of all, all of them expressed that they don’t like sitting in lectures or classrooms for long periods of time and expressed the interest in being able to learn outside the classroom.

All of the students thought that subjects such as English, History, Maths, Science, I.T. should be taught in schools, but most of the students said that they actually enjoyed the subjects more that they got to choose such as drama, audio design, home economics, outdoor education and art. There were also a minority of students that said they enjoyed science or maths the most and had a view that all of the main subjects taught in school should be practical to everyday life and their careers or study after year 12 is completed.

With the older students in years 11 and 12, I found that the enjoyment factor directly related to the subjects where they saw as a career path. Such as the sciences and accounting. This outcome I saw encouraging that the students weren’t setting up careers that they did not enjoy.

The view that I saw expressed in the students compared to what is expressed in the media is actually very similar. The importance placed on subjects such as English, Maths and Science were very obvious, but it was clear that the difference was not all students actually enjoy these subjects. I believe that the difference that exists is how well these students do in the subjects and the practical aspects other subjects have. Sometimes subjects such as art, home economics and outdoor education are favoured over maths and history purely because the students are stimulated more through practical activity. (Sally Medwin)