recovering potential: factors associated with success in engaging challenging students with...
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This article was downloaded by: [Ohio State University Libraries]On: 06 November 2014, At: 16:12Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
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Recovering potential: factorsassociated with success in engagingchallenging students with alternativepre-16 provisionGaynor Attwood a , Paul Croll b & Jane Hamilton aa University of the West of England , UKb University of Reading , UKPublished online: 10 Dec 2010.
To cite this article: Gaynor Attwood , Paul Croll & Jane Hamilton (2005) Recovering potential:factors associated with success in engaging challenging students with alternative pre-16 provision,Educational Research, 47:2, 149-162, DOI: 10.1080/00131880500104259
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Recovering potential: factors associated
with success in engaging challenging
students with alternative pre-16
provision
Gaynor Attwooda, Paul Crollb*, and Jane HamiltonaaUniversity of the West of England, UK; bUniversity of Reading, UK
The study focuses on a group of young people for whom conventional school placements had
broken down and were attending vocational courses at an FE college while still of compulsory
school age. The students had been excluded by, or had failed to attend, their schools or had
achieved at very low levels in the academic curriculum. Over half successfully completed the
vocational course at college. Many factors conventionally regarded as predictors for poor
educational outcomes were not associated with completion and non-completion. For example,
students who had been excluded, who had statements of special educational needs and had been
involved with the criminal justice system were as likely to complete their courses as other students.
However, students who had very poor attendance records at school also tended to drop out of
college. The results suggest that the increased flexibility, guidance and elements of work-related
learning promised in current 14 – 19 developments may help meet the needs of this group of
students.
Keywords: Exclusion; Disaffection; 14 – 19 curriculum; Further education
Introduction
This paper draws on a study of innovative provision in a college of further education
to consider some characteristics of young people for whom conventional school
placements had broken down. It also considers the factors associated with the
successful completion of a college course by students who had presented considerable
challenges to conventional educational provision in their schools. The study was of a
programme (the Early Entrants programme) that admitted students who would have
normally been in Year 10 or Year 11 of the secondary school to a range of FE
vocational courses. Many of these students had been excluded by or had persistently
failed to attend their schools. The college place was generally regarded as a ‘last
chance’ by the schools, the young people themselves and LEA agencies responsible
*Corresponding author. Institute of Education, University of Reading, Reading RG6 1HY, UK.
Email: [email protected]
Educational Research, Vol. 47, No. 2, June 2005, pp. 149 – 162
ISSN 0013-1881 (print)/ISSN 1469-5847 (online)/05/020149-14
# 2005 NFER
DOI: 10.1080/00131880500104259
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for them. Students studied on vocational courses on an in-fill model. This meant that
they took up spare places on regular courses and were taught alongside regular FE
students by regular course tutors and not as a separate cohort. In the academic year
2001/02, 90 early entry students took part in 16 vocational courses involving 28
tutors.
The context for the research is provided by a variety of interrelated developments in
educational provision for 14 – 19-year-olds and in further education more generally.
These include: a growing awareness of problems of social exclusion associated with
young people dropping out of education both pre- and post-16 (Social Exclusion
Unit, 1999); the development of a variety of forms of alternative educational
provision for disaffected young people (Cullen et al., 2000); recent government
initiatives on the education and training of 14 – 19-year-olds (Ofsted, 2000; QCA,
2001; DfES, 2002, 2004); and a shift in emphasis from further education to lifelong
learning, as yet not very clearly defined (Edwards et al., 1998; Brookes, 2002).
We have presented elsewhere (Attwood et al., 2003a) student perspectives on the
programme, and shown that the programme has achieved considerable success with
many students who have used the opportunity to re-engage with education. We have
also discussed the perspectives of the tutors teaching and supporting the students on
working with challenging students who are younger than the normal FE clientele
(Attwood et al., 2003b). In this paper, we shall consider some of the reasons for the
young people coming on to an Early Entrants course and some of the factors
associated with whether or not they completed the course successfully.
The data presented here relate to the young people who were on the Early Entrants
programme in the academic year 2001/02. They are based on:
1. College records, in particular, the application for admission forms designed
specifically for the Early Entrants programme and the standard registration form
completed by all students.
2. Personal interviews conducted by a member of the research team with a sample
of 34 of the young people. Interviews were conducted in a private room at the
college using a structured interview procedure during the first two terms of the
course. Students were selected for interview at random, but were selected from
those students present at the college on particular days. Consequently, poor
attenders and students who left the course very early may be under-represented.
Six students were re-interviewed at the end of the year. No student refused to be
interviewed and interviewees were given a £10 CD voucher to thank them for
their time.
3. Questionnaires sent to all tutors working with early entrants during the 2001/02
school year. The questionnaire included both structured scale items and open-
ended questions and dealt with various aspects of the experience of teaching early
entrants and on characteristics of the students. The 28 tutors who had a direct
teaching role with the early entry students were sent questionnaires and 21 were
returned, a response rate of 75%.
4. Personal interviews with the college staff involved in managing the programme
and giving non-teaching support to the students. Eight college staff were involved
150 G. Attwood et al.
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in this way. All were interviewed formally at least once using a semi-structured
interview procedure. In addition, members of the research team had extensive
discussions with these colleagues over the course of the project. Personal
interviews were also conducted with local authority staff such as district
children’s officers with responsibility for the young people.
The students
All of the students on the Early Entrants programme were there because their
placement in secondary school had become problematic or because school places
could not be found. The reasons for this breakdown in school placement were varied
and the young people themselves had a range of personal characteristics, educational
and other difficulties, and personal strengths and interests. A summary of some of the
characteristics of the young people and the reasons for their leaving school prematurely
is given in Table 1. The data in the table come from the college application for
admission form, not from the personal interviews which will be discussed later in the
paper. This form was completed by the person making the referral, either an education
welfare officer, a district children’s officer or a senior member of staff in a school.
Reasons for placement
The young people had come to the Early Entrants programme in a number of ways,
mostly connected with a school placement breaking down, but also because of non-
availability of school places and occasionally because of the positive attraction of the
vocational element of college. The columns of Table 1 present data for different
categories of student and the column headings give the reason for the college
placement. From the application forms it is possible to identify five categories of
reason for students applying for a college place:
1. Exclusion: these were young people who had been permanently excluded by a
school, mainly for violent conduct or disruptive behaviour but, in a few cases, for
drug-related reasons. For most of these young people an application for a place
was made by the District Children’s Officer or sometimes by a Pupil Referral
Unit.
2. Disaffection: these were young people seeking a college place for less clear-cut
reasons than the exclusion group. Many were judged to be at risk of exclusion
and therefore overlap with the exclusion category. Others had personal problems
in school and other sorts of personal difficulties. These children were referred for
a college place by their school or by an Education Welfare Officer, either as a way
of avoiding exclusion or because it was hoped that a change of setting would help
them to cope with their difficulties.
3. Non-attendance: these were young people who had been persistent non-attenders
at school. Many had rarely been in school during the preceding year or more, and
others had been intermittent attenders over a long period of time. In several
cases, legal action against parents had been taken or threatened. Referral for a
Recovering potential 151
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Table 1. Some characteristics of the early entrants
Exclusion Disaffection Non-attendance Vocational Other All
N= 23 25 25 7 10 90
Male 14 (60.9%) 13 (52.0%) 12 (48.0%) 6 (85.7%) 6 (60.0%) 51 (56.7%)
White 16 (69.6%) 21 (84.0%) 22 (88.0%) 5 (71.4%) 8 (80.0%) 72 (80.0%)
Free school meals 10 (43.5%) 9 (36.0%) 9 (36.0%) 0 3 (30.0%) 31 (34.4%)
Statement of SEN 9 (39.1%) 4 (16.0%) 6 (24.0%) 3 (42.9%) 4 (40.0%) 26 (28.9%)
Criminal justice system 8 (34.8%) 5 (20.0%) 6 (24.0%) 0 0 19 (21.1%)
Learning difficulty 10 (43.5%) 7 (28.0%) 9 (36.0%) 7 (100%) 3 (30.0%) 36 (40.0%)
Concern over:
Disruptive behaviour 22 (95.7%) 16 (64.0%) 8 (32.0%) 2 (28.6%) 1 (10.0%) 49 (54.4%)
Non-attendance 7 (30.4%) 5 (20.0%) 25 (100%) 0 2 (20.0%) 39 (43.3%)
Anxiety, low self-esteem, mental health 5 (21.7%) 13 (52.0%) 13 (52.0%) 1 (14.3%) 6 (60.0%) 38 (42.2%)
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college place came mainly from the District Children’s Officer or Educational
Welfare Service but, in a few cases, application was made by the school.
4. Vocational: these were young people, unlike other students on the programme,
who had come to college because of ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ factors. These
students have all been referred for a college place by their school because it was
thought that a vocational course would be more suitable for them than the GCSE
courses they were taking at school. All of them were on courses reflecting their
particular occupational aspirations. Nevertheless, although school placements
had not broken down for these students in the way they had for the others, their
experience at school had still proved in some respects unsatisfactory. In all cases,
these students had very low levels of attainment in the academic curriculum, as
well as having an interest in a vocational course.
5. Other: these were students who had come to college for a variety of reasons not
matching the categories listed above. They included the non-availability of a
school place following a family move or, in one case, a move to the UK from
abroad. Referrals had come from a variety of sources including directly from the
students’ families.
The exclusion, disaffection and non-attender groups, above, were of similar sizes and
each made up just over one-quarter of the total of the early entrants. The vocational
and other groups were smaller and together account for less than one-fifth of the
students.
Characteristics of the sample
In Table 1, the rows on the left-hand side, present various characteristics of the young
people involved. These include gender, ethnicity, eligibility for free school meals,
whether they had a statement of special educational needs, or if they had been
involved with the criminal justice system and whether they had a learning difficulty.
The data on ethnicity come from a form the students completed on admission, not
from the person making the application. A student is described as having a learning
difficulty if this was specified on their school’s register of special educational needs.
The final three rows Table 1, under the heading ‘Concern over’, also relate to data
from the admission form but are possible concerns expressed by the person making
the application (from a checklist of possible concerns), rather than descriptions of the
young people. As such, they are a subjective set of concerns (although often based on
detailed knowledge of the student) and should be treated cautiously.
The data on these characteristics of the students are given for all 90 of the early
entrants in the final column in Table 1. Over half of the students were male and four-
fifths were white. Just over one in three were eligible for free school meals
(information on free school meals eligibility is not always reliable for young people of
this age, however, and this figure may be an under-estimate). The over-representation
of males is common in studies of young people with difficulties with schooling,
although it should be noted that in this study a substantial minority of these students
were female. The figures for white and ethnic minority young people matches fairly
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closely that of the geographical areas covered but not necessarily that for young
people who leave the school system prematurely. There was a concern among staff
managing the project that some black young people who were potential clients for the
programme were not coming forward or being put forward for admission. However,
this was an intuitive feeling rather than based on clear evidence. The figures for free
school meals entitlement are about double the level of entitlement among this age
group nationally. To some extent therefore, white males from poor backgrounds were
over-represented among the students. However, the main feature of the sample was
its variety, and there were also significant numbers of female and non-white students,
and the majority were not from families poor enough to qualify for free school meals.
Almost by definition, the students have experienced difficulties in school and this is
most apparent in the figure of almost 30% having had statements of special
educational needs. This figure is about ten times that for the school population as a
whole (Ofsted, 2004). Exactly 40% of the early entrants had learning difficulties
specified on the school register of special educational needs and over one in five had
been involved with the criminal justice system in some way, although only half of
those had formal convictions. As suggested above, the occurrences of ‘concerns’ are
subjective and should be treated cautiously. However, in well over half the cases
concern was expressed over disruptive behaviour; in over 40% of cases concern was
expressed over non-attendance; and in a similar number of cases concern was
expressed over issues of anxiety, low self-esteem or mental health.
Characteristics of the different groups
Table 1 shows various characteristics of the different groups of students. It should be
emphasized that the numbers in each group are small for statistical analysis.
Percentages have been calculated in order to facilitate comparisons across the groups
but these should be treated cautiously and percentage differences will only be
commented on where they are substantial. (As this is an exploratory rather than a
hypothesis-testing analysis and the students are not sampled from a wider population,
levels of statistical significance for differences have not been calculated.)
The 23 students who had been excluded were, to some extent, a group with
multiple difficulties. All but one of the students were described as disruptive, a high
proportion had statements of special educational needs, mainly arising from their
behaviour and over one-third had been involved with the criminal justice system.
Many of them also had learning difficulties and a majority were male.
The 25 students who had been characterized as disaffected were more varied than
the excluded students but were, in some ways, a less extreme version of them. Two-
thirds were described as disruptive and one in five had been involved with the
criminal justice system. Unlike the excluded students, however, over half had given
rise to concerns over aspects of personal adjustment such as anxiety and low self-
esteem.
The 25 students who had come to college because of their refusal to attend school
were the only group not to be predominantly male. Just over half were female and, as
would be expected, concern about possible non-attendance was expressed for all
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these students. In just over half the cases, concern was also expressed over issues of
personal adjustment such as anxiety, low self-esteem and mental health issues.
The seven students who had come to college specifically to study a vocational
curriculum were a distinctive and somewhat separate group. Almost all were male, all
had learning difficulties and, in almost half the cases, these were serious enough to
have resulted in a statement of special educational needs. Typically they did not have
other difficulties with school although, in two cases, concerns about disruption were
expressed. These were young people whose placement had come about almost
entirely because of very low achievement in the academic curriculum.
The final group consisted of ten students who had come to college for a range of
reasons that could not be classified into straightforward categories. Although the
reasons for applying for a college place were diverse and usually did not reflect a
breakdown in school placements, many of these children had clearly experienced
difficulties within the school system. Forty per cent had statements of special
educational need and the same proportion had learning difficulties, although there
was only limited overlap between these categories. For six out of ten of these young
people, the highest proportion of any group, there were concerns over anxiety, self-
esteem or mental health.
Course completion
By the end of the academic year 2001/02, 50 of the young people (56% of those who
had started) were still attending their courses. The remainder either stopped
attending or had their places withdrawn by the college following problems with
behaviour or attendance. There are no directly comparable figures to contextualize
this completion rate. Kidd and Wardman (1999) have quoted completion rates in
further education ranging from over 90% for A-level courses to 80% for the first year
of Intermediate GNVQ and 65% for Youth Training courses. In a recent Adult
Learning Inspectorate report (2002), 63% of students on NVQ programmes were
found to stay in learning for at least a year. These are all higher figures than the early
entrants’ completion rates, although the lowest of these figures is only eight
percentage points higher. However, none of these programmes was directly
comparable with the Early Entrants programme. The great majority of young people
of the same age (i.e. compulsory school age) complete Year 11 at school. However,
more than 90% of the students interviewed said that there was no possibility that they
would have completed Year 11 (or, in some cases, Year 10) in school and the teachers
and LEA officers responsible for them all regarded the college place as a ‘last chance’.
It this context, it can be argued that a 56% completion rate is substantially better than
any other likely outcomes for these young people.
In Table 2 completion rates are given for the different groups of students identified
above and also for different groups in terms of personal characteristics. The main
picture to emerge from the table is the overall similarity between different groups in
completion rates. For example, the students who had been excluded from their
schools had slightly higher than average completion rates. This was despite their
behaviour in school having been judged to be unacceptable and their other
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educationally unpromising characteristics and behaviour. The group characterized as
disaffected had the same level of completion as the excluded group. It might have
been expected that the students who had come to college because of the vocational
curriculum would have particularly high completion rates as the vocational
curriculum had been a ‘pull’ factor and they had not, for the most part, had
difficulties with behaviour or attendance at school. However, this group of students
had the same sort of completion rate as those who had been excluded. The only group
to have completion rates well below that of others were those young people who had
come to college because of persistent non-attendance at school.
The second half of Table 2 shows the completion rates for students grouped by
other characteristics. Male and female students had virtually identical completion
rates and students living in poverty, as indicated by free school meals entitlement, had
the same completion rates as others. The only socio-demographic differences in
completion rates were the substantially higher rates for ethnic minority students
compared with white students. As with the different reasons for the college
placement, student characteristics that might have been expected to be problematic
with regard to completion were not typically associated with lower than average
completion rates. For example, students who had learning difficulties signalled on
their school’s register of special educational needs had average completion rates and
students who had been involved with the criminal justice system had higher than
average completions.
Having a statement of special educational needs was also not associated with below
average completion rates. However, further analysis of different groups of pupils
revealed a more complex picture. Of the 23 students who had been excluded from
school, nine had a statement of special educational needs which, in every case, was
principally concerned with behavioural problems. Six of these students successfully
Table 2. Completion rates for different groups
Percentage completing
(numbers in parentheses)
All students 55.6 (50/90)
Exclusion 60.9 (14/23)
Disaffection 60.0 (15/25)
Non-attendance 44.0 (11/25)
Vocational 57.1 (4/7)
Other 60.0 (6/10)
Male 54.9 (28/51)
Female 56.4 (22/39)
White 51.4 (37/72)
Ethnic minority 72.2 (13/18)
Free school meals 54.8 (17/31)
Statements of SEN 61.5 (16/26)
Involvement with criminal justice system 73.7 (14/19)
Learning difficulties 55.6 (20/36)
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completed the course. Of the seven students who had come to the college because of
the vocational curriculum, three had statements of special educational needs focused
on their learning difficulties. None of these students completed their course. These
numbers are small and the results should be treated cautiously. Nevertheless, they do
suggest that a new environment and college atmosphere had enabled many of the
young people whose behaviour had been unacceptable at school to re-engage with
education. On the other hand, a vocational course had not been able to address the
needs of the young people with serious learning difficulties.
Tutor perspectives on student completion and non-completion
Tutors were asked about features of the course and the college that contributed to
successful outcomes for young people; and they were also asked about reasons why
some students completed the course successfully while others did not. All but one of
the tutors identified some aspects of the course or college that were associated with
student completion. About half of the tutors said that aspects of the course content
were related to student success. These were most typically that students perceived the
vocational relevance of the course and its value for future employment. Factors
associated with this were the ‘hands-on’ and practical nature of the vocational
courses, in contrast to the more academic courses at school and the students’ own
interest in this sort of practical work. Other aspects of the course and college that were
seen as relevant to student success were personal relationships and the personal
development of the students. Important factors here were being in an adult
environment and being ‘treated like the other students’. These were mentioned by a
third of the tutors. Aspects of teaching approaches and course organization, such as
an appropriate level of work, good induction and small group work, were also
mentioned by almost one-third of the tutors. Finally, over one-third of the tutors
mentioned levels of tutor support: students were seen as succeeding on the course
because of the high levels of tutor input on their courses. All of the factors mentioned
by tutors can also be seen in the interview data from students who had completed
courses. In particular, the emphasis on positive relationships and an adult atmosphere
and on the vocational relevance and practical content of courses came out strongly in
the student interviews (Attwood et al., 2003a).
The tutors’ perspectives on reasons for non-completion tended to emphasize
problems in personal adjustment that were, to a great extent, reflected in some of the
reasons for success. Students were often seen as not completing because they could
not cope with an adult atmosphere, a less rigid regime and a new environment. There
was relatively little emphasis on the nature of the courses, although a small number of
tutors identified a poor match of course to student interest and the fact that even
vocational courses had to deal with theoretical aspects of the subject as a reason for
non-completion in some cases.
Almost all the tutors also identified characteristics of the students themselves as
factors associated with completion and non-completion. By far the most common
factor identified was that of personal motivation. Over 80% of the tutors said that
levels of motivation, or similar attitudinal characteristics (‘a positive attitude’, ‘self-
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belief’, ‘wanting a second chance’) were factors in student success and non-success. A
few tutors specifically mentioned attendance, ability or behaviour as factors, and three
said that the young people had already been so ‘damaged’ or ‘traumatized’ before
coming to college that they were unable to respond to the new opportunities.
The third area that tutors commented on was that of the relevance of outside
factors in completion and non-completion. Well over half of the tutors said that good
family support was a factor in completion or that lack of support and associated
problems at home were reasons for non-completion. Other outside issues identified
with regard to non-completion were problems of travelling to college, financial
problems (sometimes linked to travel) and students leaving because they had found
jobs.
Overall, the tutors had explanations for completion and non-completion by the
early entrants that involved characteristics of the students and their personal
circumstances, and also characteristics of the courses and the college. There was a
high degree of agreement that ‘within student’ factors, especially that of motivation
and commitment, were important in understanding why some students completed
and others did not. There was also a high level of agreement that supportive and
stable home circumstances were positive elements in leading to completion. Both of
these results match evidence from studies of schools on the extent to which teachers
attribute student difficulties to ‘within pupil’ and ‘within family’ causes (Croll &
Moses, 1985, 2000). Positive factors within the college included the nature of the
courses, especially their vocational and practical content, an adult environment and
the effort made by college tutors.
Student perspectives on the college placement
The overall perspective of the students was one of a positive response to college,
which generally confirmed the perspectives of the tutors on features of the college
experience that led to successful outcomes. As with the college tutor comments, the
two themes that emerged were those of personal relationships and a vocational and
practical curriculum. The students valued the adult atmosphere of the college, the
presence of older students and the absence of what they saw as ‘pointless’ rules in
school. In particular, most of the students reported better relationships with the
college tutors than they had experienced with teachers, although they were not
universally negative about their school teachers. The students were also very
positive about a work-related curriculum that was directly preparing them for
employment.
Although positive personal relationships enabled the students to remain in an
educational setting, it was the vocational outcomes which provided the longer-term
motivation to remain in college. Motivation among the students, as indicated by their
interview responses, was very high. For example, when asked: ‘How much does it
mean to you to do well at college?’, 68.1% said that it meant a ‘great deal’ and 28.3%
said that it meant ‘quite a lot’ (Attwood et al., 2003a). These figures can be compared
with a national sample taken from the British Household Panel Survey, where the
equivalent figures for young people in Year 11 asked the same question about their
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school were 61.8% and 32.3% (Croll & Moses, 2003). The comparison shows that
the young people on the Early Entrants programme were at least as motivated to
succeed educationally as other young people of their age and that very few said that
doing well at college was not important.
As the earlier discussion shows, there was a good match between tutors’ and
students’ perceptions with regard to the positive features of college that supported re-
engagement with the educational system. However, the perceptions of the tutors with
regard to characteristics of the students that are associated with completion or non-
completion did not always match the data on the students to emerge from interviews.
The tutors saw levels of personal motivation and family support as key factors
differentiating successful and unsuccessful students. However, while these factors did
arise in individual cases, the process of non-completion was more complex, varied
and unpredictable. In this sense, our data show a similar picture to Hodkinson and
Bloomer’s (2001) study of dropout among regular FE students which concluded that
‘many of the factors influencing non-completion lie beyond the control of both the
educational provider and the learner’. This is illustrated by some of the accounts
below of students who failed to complete the college course.
Student A was a young woman who had stopped going to school following bullying
and, in particular, her sister being bullied. She also described medical treatment for
panic attacks and was unhappy about fights and drug use at her school. Her parents
had removed both sisters from the school and the college place had been her parents’
idea. There was some suggestion in the interview that she may have felt pressurized
into it. Nevertheless, she was enjoying her hairdressing course and was happy in a
friendly and adult atmosphere. She expressed strong motivation and said that it
mattered ‘a great deal’ to her to do well at college. But after two terms, she was
expressing a lack of confidence and soon after her parents removed her from college,
despite threats of court action for non-attendance by the LEA.
Student B was unusual, in that he was virtually the only student interviewed who
regretted leaving school. He said, ‘I just wanted to be back in the same school, I miss
everyone . . . miss school things’. He had been excluded for what he acknowledged
was unacceptable behaviour, ‘always causing trouble . . . being a little rat’. He had
opted for a plumbing course at college but the course was full and he was studying
motor vehicle mechanics. He expressed strong motivation saying that it mattered a
‘great deal’ to do well at college and planned further education or training, ‘I don’t
plan to be in some dead-end job, so obviously I expect to’. But despite these positive
attitudes, B’s behaviour in class deteriorated and he was eventually removed from the
course by the college.
Student C was a young man who had come to the college because of an interest in
computing, although he had also been in trouble at school and had been suspended
but not excluded. He had learning difficulties at school and said that he had ‘given
up’ in class because he could not keep up. He enjoyed the course and was happy in
college. He said that it was ‘quite important’ to him to do well at college. However,
his ambition to become a computer engineer was not compatible with his attainment
on the course. C dropped out of the course because he could not cope with the work.
However, although this is a non-completion, he is now taking part in another
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alternative education project, a motor vehicle related course for students with
learning difficulties.
Student D was a young woman who stopped attending school after she felt teachers
did not respond appropriately when she was struck by another pupil. She had found
the school curriculum interesting and useful and said that, ‘When I was there I tried
hard to catch up on what I had missed’. She enjoyed the college atmosphere and her
hairdressing course and said that it mattered ‘a great deal’ to her to do well at college.
D stopped attending after she became pregnant. The problem seemed to be less the
pregnancy than the difficulties it created in relations with her mother. However, the
college tutors thought it likely that she would return at some point.
Student E was a young man who had been excluded from school for fighting,
following a series of exclusions. He had poor relationships at school with most
teachers and some students but found most school subjects interesting and useful.
Initially he quite liked his performing arts course at college but was much more
positive about the music technology aspects than dance and drama. He said that it
mattered a great deal to him to do well at college and that education and training were
very important. By the end of the first term E grew more dissatisfied with the course
and left after he found a place on a course at another college. However, this course
was also unsuccessful and later in the year he asked to return to the Early Entrants
programme. This was not agreed, partly because of the way he had left the course and
a view by the staff that he would not stay for long.
These accounts give a sense of the complexity of the reasons for young people
joining the Early Entrants programme and also of the reasons for leaving it
prematurely. As we have argued elsewhere (Attwood et al., 2003a), the young people
on the Early Entrants programme are by no means uniformly negative about their
school experiences. There are many aspects of school that they liked and valued and
relationships with teachers were typically mixed rather than uniformly hostile. The
view of the tutors that personal motivation was a key issue in explaining completion
and non-completion is not supported by the accounts of the young people presented
here. Most of the students who failed to complete the course showed strong
motivation to succeed, both when asked directly about it and also indirectly in
comments about employment and their futures. There is rather more support for the
tutor view that family support is important for success on the course. In the case of
student A and student D, some aspects of family relationships were involved in the
students not continuing at college.
Just as the statistical data in Table 2 show few systematic patterns of difference in
the characteristics of students who completed and those who did not, the students
described above seemed similar to other students who went on to finish the
programme. The learning difficulties experienced by student C were greater than
those of most students and it may be that a poor match of course choice to his
aptitudes was the main reason for non-completion. (This was noted as a general point
by some tutors.) Student D’s pregnancy precipitated a problem with family
relationships, while other students who had become pregnant completed the year
successfully. Student E appeared to have been particularly inflexible in expecting
course content to exactly match his preferences, and it is unclear why student B’s
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behaviour deteriorated while other young people who had misbehaved in school
adapted well to college.
Current policy developments
The results reported here emphasize the importance of flexibility in educational
provision both pre- and post-16 and the difficulty of imposing rigid accountability
procedures with regard to course completion. Attempts to locate responsibility for
non-completion, either with colleges or with the students themselves, fail to take
account of the complexity of the processes of completion and non-completion. It is
only because the college staff in this study were prepared to offer opportunities to a
wide variety of students that well over half of the students who had been extremely
unlikely to finish their compulsory education at school were able to complete a
vocational course. And although a substantial minority did not complete their
courses, the accounts given here suggest that some of these will re-engage with
education and training in the future.
Much of this study is highly relevant to the ongoing policy developments in relation
to curriculum and assessment for 14 – 19-year-olds and the interim proposals of the
Tomlinson Committee (DfES, 2004). The proposals for increased flexibility in
learning with regard to the pace, type and location of learning match some of the
aspects of the college experience which helped this group of young people. If the
proposals can make it feasible for young people experiencing personal and
educational difficulties to be less constrained by particular age points (such as 16)
and more able to move between institutions and other sites for learning, then some of
the barriers these young people have faced may be reduced.
Another feature of the proposals is an emphasis on guidance to help young people
find their way through the demands of the educational system. The value of this is
likely to depend on the kind of guidance offered. For some of the young people in our
study a substantial amount of tutor time had been involved in supporting them and
enabling them to cope with the demands of the learning environment. However, this
was very much internal to the college and related to the difficulties with personal
relationships that had been responsible, in many cases, for their difficulties with
school. Although guidance of the sort provided, for example, by Connexions about
appropriate learning placements may be useful to young people, it is not a substitute
for the kinds of personal support within the college that had been important for some
of the early entrants.
Work-related learning is a feature of the proposals from the perspective of the
young people in the present study. This played a part in re-engaging these young
people, both with regard to providing very practical learning experiences and
demonstrating the relevance of learning to future occupations. What is less clear is
the likely implications of changes in the qualification regime. A set of
arrangements for 14 – 19 educational provision which is heavily driven by
assessment and certification is unlikely to successfully engage disaffected and
excluded young people and may make education providers less willing to offer
opportunities to them.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the staff and students of the college in which the fieldwork
was conducted. The research reported here was supported by a grant from the
Lifelong Learning Foundation. We are grateful for the advice and support of Dr Chris
Brookes, the Chief Executive of the Foundation.
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