ABSTRACT
Apart from being sensitive and meaningful, methods of eliciting pupil perceptions have to be indirect and quite structured. Discussing it can also give the pupil a chance to find out whether what he believes his friends think, is in fact the case what evidence he used to credit them with those views. Looking at difficulties from the point of view of a pupil will involve a change in the terminology that is used to describe problems. Pupils perceptions of schools and teachers have been shown to be significant in explaining the behaviour of children in certain situations, and the manner in which teachers themselves rate pupils. Teachers can gain a better understanding of the difficulties encountered by pupils by looking at life from their point of view. They had to be led via the use of open questions to consider specific issues and pin point exactly what and why they felt as they did.
