Introduction PART I The Big Picture 1 The Big Picture: what children told us about their work with trainee teachers 2 Why children’s perceptions? The context for the inquiry PART II Roles and responsibilities 3 Drama: pupils’ perceptions of the power game 4 Student teachers in the infant classroom: many hands make light work? PART III Do pupils learn what trainee teachers teach? 5 Geography: can’t you tell us the answer Miss? 6 The properties that matter: children’s perceptions of student teachers in science 7 Technology: wheels within wheels 8 1066 and all that!: pupil misconceptions in history 9 Literacy activities: purposeful tasks or ways of keeping busy? 10 Mathematics: can trainees count? PART IV New faces, new ideas? 11 Art and design: a view from the classroom 12 Music as you like it? 13 Information and communication technology: who dares wins! 14 Physical education: challenging stereotypes PART V Themes, dimensions and issues 15 ‘Oh no – not Jonah again!’: is aversion to ‘Bible story’ inevitable? 16 ‘Solicitous tenderness’: discipline and responsibility in the classroom 17 Please Sir! Yes Miss! 18 Miss, why are you brown?’: some children’s perceptions of black and Asian trainee teachers in ‘all-white’ schools Afterword