Section 1 - Substantive Policy Lessons
1.4 Improving Motivation and Tackling Disaffection
The consensus about priorities, referred to in previous paragraphs, reflects an analysis of the issues which are explicitly or implicitly shared by most of the schemes reviewed. Many of the bidding documents allude to the cycle of low expectations and low achievement, and the links to educational attainment. This analysis reflects a mutually reinforcing cycle of factors which include:
- parents placing a low value on learning;
- poor core skills;
- poor performance in other areas of curriculum;
- low expectations by parents and teachers;
- low aspirations, reflecting perceptions of local opportunities;
- low motivation;
- low standards of behaviour and attendance;
- little participation in vocational training;
- vulnerability to unemployment; and
- associated poor parenting skills and little contact with schools or involvement in children's learning.
In School
The sample includes a variety of projects designed to tackle the linked issues of motivation, disaffection and participation. These are often seen as critical, particularly since they are associated with truancy, exclusion from school and drop-out from post-16 education and training.
Evidence
In Speke Garston, two projects (from a much wider suite of educational interventions) directly address these concerns.
- Invest in Excellence: a training programme designed to help participants improve their self-esteem and thus become more effective in their personal and professional lives. There are different versions of the programme for staff (whose experience of teaching in depressing environments, particularly where schools may be judged as 'failing', frequently undermines their confidence) and for students in Years 10 and 11.
- A Quiet Place: aimed largely at children whose family circumstances create stress and anxiety which impedes their learning. A Quiet Place is a dedicated room in which a variety of counselling, emotional and therapeutic activities take place.
Similar concerns have put pupil motivation at the centre of learning strategies in the Co. Durham Partnership for Young People Scheme. Again there are two linked projects.
- Positive Intervention and Enrichment Links (PIEL) - this is a multi-strand programme with secondary, primary and special schools to support young people who are at the edge of disaffection, are underachieving and may be disrupting classes.
- Looked After Children (LAC): aimed at children in care or otherwise involved with Social Services. It offers a variety of discreet, individual support to help them realise their potential. The process of establishing this service has brought together, in partnership, agencies that previously had little to do with one another.
Tyneside Challenge uses short bursts of vocational experience to stimulate the interest and motivation of under-achieving Year 11 pupils. The experience also helps them to develop and apply their abilities in school, for example, by building their confidence and communication skills.
Interventions to maintain motivation and to keep at-risk students participating in learning are not necessarily restricted to areas of extreme disadvantage or to the disruptive and those at risk of exclusion. The Hertfordshire County Programme, for example, has established a series of local 'Study Centres', which offer co-ordinated programmes aimed at pupils thought to be at-risk of under-achievement or dropping out.
Based on the observations of teachers or students, all of these projects are showing encouraging early signs of making real impact, and offer some important lessons.
Key Lessons
For all their variety, there are common strands running through the projects which suggest some of the key elements of good practice.
- Provided they are properly structured and integrated within a wider programme, non-educational interventions can contribute to the achievement of educational goals.
- Tackling disaffection and demotivation is assisted by a multi-agency approach. 'Joined up thinking' is important, but 'joined up working' is critical.
- The early identification of problems and early intervention can lead to significant subsequent savings.
- Programmes work best where students participate voluntarily and are treated as equal partners.
