Differences between and within schools: pupils’ and teachers’ beliefs about learning

The questionnaire that we used with pupils was composed, and tested so that we could explore a wide range of pupils’ beliefs. The results of our development were a questionnaire for primary pupils comprising 25 questions, and another for secondary pupils containing these same 25 questions, with a further 20 added. (These questionnaires are available, under ‘self-evaluation resources’ on the website – https://www. learntolearn.ac.uk – and may be downloaded for use by schools.)

Our first steps were to think about ideas about learning which pupils may hold, and to set these out as statements with which pupils may or may not agree. An example we used was:

I like doing things where I can use my own ideas.