ABSTRACT
Children in school observe 1,000 hours a year or more of teachers at work. They may be less mature than adults, but they witness teaching at first hand every single school day. As was pointed out at the beginning of this book, children as young as three and four already have a good idea of which adults are likely to explain something to them more clearly than others. Yet research into teaching often neglects to study their views and experiences. Other studies in the Teaching Competence Project, reported in previous chapters, have shown that complaints from pupils, directly or through their teachers and parents, often form one source of information for those, such as head teachers, who deal with allegations of incompetence.
