ABSTRACT
In the ORACLE study, parallels to Pollard's categories of pupil behaviour can be seen in the various pupil types. Teachers in primary schools have attempted to build up good personal relationships between themselves and their pupils in the hope of improving the children's academic self-concept. The pupils' need to please the teacher by attempting to offer the answer that they think the teacher wants is illustrated by the experiments reported by Donaldson with respect to 6-year-old children who were being tested to discover whether they were able to conserve number. One weakness of both Rowland's and Nias's accounts of teaching by negotiation is that the presentation of this key concept of ownership is unproblematic. The final explanation for the failure to implement progressive or informal practice can be termed the 'ambiguity' theory. A greater ambiguity in setting classroom tasks stems from the fact, as Doyle points out, that tasks have not only an academic content but also a behavioural purpose.
