Primary school students as co-creators of the curriculum

Abstract

The work presented here is part of the European project (Reaching the 'hard to reach': Inclusive responses to diversity through child-teacher dialogue) which aims to improve teaching practices by creating spaces for dialogue between students and teachers. The aim was to articulate more equitably the learning and participation of all students in the lessons taught by teachers in their schools. It is a collaborative action-research project with teachers and students in which students play the role of researchers in the teaching-learning processes, being co-responsible for the planning and evaluation of the lessons together with their teachers. Three primary schools (6-12 years old) have been involved. The results show that including the students in the design of the lessons can substantially change some didactic and methodological aspects of their teachers and constitute a valid way of teacher professional development.