Are FE level one students on the scrapheap?

I hear a lot of negativity surrounding students on level one courses, teachers not wanting to teach that level, not always preparing lessons for them (they'll figure it out when they get to the lesson, it'll be fine, it's level one). Teachers saying most won't progress much after level one, that's it for them.

I'm not saying everyone thinks this way, but I do hear a lot of negativity and my experience of level one students, most if not all in the class had issues within there personal lives and if I so quickly picked up on the negativity they must as well. If nearly everywhere they turn there is this negativity can they be more than what some expect of them?

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Permalink Reply by Alex Dawson on January 3, 2013 at 6:58am

Very interesting topic. I too have felt this with my level ones and to be honest, Im not surprised if some dont progress at all given the lack of support and enthusiasm from their teachers.

On the flip side, sometimes I've felt like some students are here purely for something to do or to put off finding a job but as teachers, we need to address this and find out what the underlying causes are for their lack of motivation to try and get them off the scrapheap

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Thompson on January 6, 2013 at 8:09am

I'd agree with you Alex regarding some students maybe just there as its something to do, especially as students need to stay in education or training until they're 18 now, some students have come onto art courses as they have to do something and it doesn't necessarily seem to fit with what they want to do, or maybe they don't know what they want to do, which would seem that we do need to be asking more questions or presenting more information so they can make a better choice.

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Permalink Reply by Gina Allen on January 7, 2013 at 5:41am

Agreeing with both of you here!!

And the creative subjects have a tougher time!! Some students think i'll do art or drama or music because "it'll be a doddle", "it'll be a muck about", "it's not an important subject really". They may muck about in classes, disrupt others or not do the work. This in turn can make a teacher loose their enthusiasm for the class. "Oh, why bother with this lot?!".

This attitude from the teacher is certainly not going to change the muck-about-kid's mind in a hurry is it?!!

On top of that, the poor souls who do actually want to be there, want to learn and want to progress are left with a teacher who can't be bothered and classmates who just muck about. "If the class is going to be like this, I don't want to come next year". Before you know it - EVERYONE'S DROPPED OUT!!!

And idea of mine is to possibly intergrate job/career relevance with fun filled activities. Justify how the skills they will learn in the subject can relate to certain jobs or career paths. Couple this by keeping motivation up with more light hearted (but still topic-related) activities.

Gina :-)

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Thompson on January 7, 2013 at 6:42am

In another discussion Ann Guilder mentioned

"Essential Motivation in the Classroom" by Ian Gilbert, suggested a really good approach to motivation, and its asking the question "What's in it for me?"

So I'd agree Gina, students need to know how what is being taught is relevant to them and what future paths they could take, hopefully this would help to motivate them so they can progress.