Students increasingly develop a sense of what works for them in terms of their learning, valuing certain experiences and activities over others. This might draw on the nature of the activity, the location in which it is taking place, the people with and from whom they are learning and therefore links with Section 4.4.
They attach importance to hands-on or experiential opportunities such as those encountered in subjects with a practical element such as science:
"It's an experiment. I like doing experiments; it helps me learn. Because it's practical and then you've done it yourself. You remember it better instead of just writing it down."
or when out of the classroom and school entirely:
"Well it is kind of like a normal lesson but it isn't in a way because it's some sort of guide taking them around and they're going to learn about the environment or something and they can see everything while they're talking. If it was in a normal lesson, they'd just have the whiteboard and pictures on the whiteboard, but then they can see it for themselves in real life."
Many schools, and possibly even the teachers in them, distinguish between 'practical' and 'academic' subjects, so it is no surprise that the respondents do the same. In describing the difference between two groups of images she had chosen, M noted:
"I went for practical things and academic slash book-based things."
and despite giving more thought to the matter when challenged, their initial responses can be quite telling. Discussing a group of several images, X singled one out as being different:
"All the others are learning, but this one's PE."
and whilst O acknowledges that a creative task in Art may have some value, she relegates it below discussion, giving a justification in so doing:
"In that one it looks like they're doing some clay work, like making a cup or something. I think that is important but discussion's better because you need that in later life rather than making teapots and stuff."
There's a clear distinction made between learning which takes place in, and is directed by school and that which goes on beyond the school gates. The overwhelming number of images capture learning in school or on activities organised by school, in comparison with the scant few from other situations, perhaps indicating the closeness of the link that participants create between learning and school. Related to Section 4.4, R puts it quite plainly:
"I think that being taught stuff by the teacher is important or you don't learn it otherwise. I couldn't like teach myself something."
I recognises another important reason why school makes learning more effective:
"In school there's more people around; it's sort of like more people your own age doing the same sort of things that you are. Learning the same sort of things, whereas at home, it depends how old you are. Well if you're struggling there's lots of other people struggling with the same thing."
Tied up in a simple comment from E is the observation that although learning does take place in other circumstances, it is neither necessary nor vital:
"Learning from a magazine is learning outside school and that you don't need to do, but you do to enjoy."
and possibly is more enjoyable as a result?
Being exposed to a variety of learning situations and experiences is also valued by the students, perhaps to relieve the uniformity they encounter within the classroom. O knows why that is indeed the case for her:
"Well I think I would remember it more because it's a trip because here [points to image in school] you always have lessons every day and if it's like a special trip then you're learning information by being on the trip then you're probably going to learn it with the memories."
Reinforcing the value of experiential opportunities, I echoes O's sentiment and expresses why variety is important for her:
"When you're outside, you can actually do things. Where you can actually go to a pond and actually catch a frog and things, but inside you can't do that. So it's a nicer way and it's different to normal learning in a classroom. It makes it easier to learn."
Whilst these four ways in which students ascribe worth emerged from across the range of participants/respondents, it should also be noted that the profile would be different for different people. In fact students are well aware that this is the case as exemplified in this comment by T:
"I always learn by doing, so it works for me. But some people in the class don't learn best that way."