inDEPTH ENGAGING THE
Are wider changes in society, the economy and the curriculum responsible for a rise in learner disengagement and associated behavioural issues? Peter Rook investigates and asks how practitioners might respond
o-one goes into further education and training to deal with behaviour. You go into a tough secondary school if you want to deal with that,” education consultant Paul Dix says.
Dix, who is chief executive of Pivotal
Education, a consultancy specialising in behaviour and classroom management, says that dealing with disengagement and the behavioural issues that often accompany it, presents unique challenges for FE and skills practitioners.
Part of the problem, he says, is that because
FE attracts teachers from such a wide range of different backgrounds – corporate, industrial, public sector, the self-employed, the military, the secure estate, and so on – it can be dificult to establish consistent strategies for managing behaviour and addressing learner disengagement. “I go into providers and ask teaching staff to put their hands up if they have read the behaviour policy. Fewer than five per cent will raise their hands,” Dix says. And it is not just teachers and trainers who lack clarity on these issues: senior managers can confuse the situation by failing to provide focused guidance. “Providers will have 120 rules in a document. But most behaviour policies are merely disciplinary policies full of regulations. It needs to be put on one sheet of paper,” Dix says. Dix also believes that the recent changes to maths and English education – making it compulsory for students who fail to gain a grade C or above at school to continue studying both subjects in FE and training – is fuelling frustration among learners. Phil Beadle, the author of 10 books about
teaching and learning and an expert in behaviour management, agrees. “FE teachers may not realise that schools in year
12 ISSUE 27 •SPRING 2017 INTUITION
10 and 11 have chucked everything at these kids in English and maths,” he says. “Having failed, young people are coming into
an environment where it’s not certain that the FE teacher can provide a better education. “They feel like failures anyway, and so they
won’t engage.” Sarah Farrow is progression and programme manager at the Inspire and Achieve Foundation (IAF), a charity supporting young people in the Mansfield and Ashfield areas of the East Midlands who are not in employment, education or training. “Maths and English terrifies the people we work
with,” she says. “I have seen numerous young people excelling in
their work experience placement, but withdrawing from vocational courses as they either choose not to attend the maths and English element or don’t complete the work.” Professor Susan Wallace, author of a new book,
Motivating Unwilling Learners in Further Education, says that the teachers she speaks to suggest that learner disengagement is increasing, and that there are many reasons for this. “Many learners in FE haven’t had a particularly
positive experience of school, and so they come to classes with a negative mindset,” she says. “Many learners are also in the sector to gain
vocational skills, and yet there is no guarantee that working hard and gaining a qualification will get them into employment.” Paul Warner, director of research and development at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) , also thinks that disengagement may be on the rise. “Independent training providers are reporting that
there are more identified issues of mental health which can have a bearing on both disengagement and behaviour in both learning and work settings,” he says.
Cameron Law
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