Q: Working in FE I often find that after the census date there is precious little we can do about low level, persistent issues like poor punctuality, patchy attendance, poor commitment to handing in homework and general lack of work ethic. Myself and my colleagues use the sanctions available to us - letters and calls home, putting students on "report", reviews with tutorial managers etc as well as providing rewards to students with good studentship. However, we cannot give detentions, temporary exclusion only serves to put students further behind and is practically a reward for a kid who can't be bothered to come into college, and as retention is the major factor that impacts on our pay, continuation of our employment and general esteem within the workplace, realistically, students will not be excluded for this kind of issues. We attempt to remove any students who, after being set targets and encouraged still seem like they just can't be bothered before the census date but this doesn't entirely solve the problem at all. Any tips?
A: If punitive sanctions prevented reoffending the prisons would be empty, the police eating donuts and I would be out of a job.
It would be worth auditing the positive reinforcement that you use to see if there are tweaks that you could make. How many students, for example, have had positive communication with home since the beginning of term? Do colleagues use positive referrals? How often? Does everyone have positive notes to give? Is positive reinforcement written and held or spoken and lost? Could you tweak the culture within the department to make behaving well and turning up more attractive? How are you building positive relationships with the ‘hard to reach' students? What about the students who turn up every day, on time, prepared, determined and committed, how are they rewarded and reinforced? How is success celebrated within the department? Are displays fantastic or flopping? Is there a sense of community, belonging even? I know that the students who don't meet your expectations won' t immediately fall into line because you focus on rewarding appropriate behaviour. It does however send a clear message. It creates a consistently positive environment and sets a high expectation. Over time it is irresistible.
Think about the behaviours that are most damaging to achievement and focus on one or two over the course of the term. Give emphasis to teaching students behaviour. I know that it seems odd to teach a 17 year old how to behave but if you don't they go into HE and employment and fail. Teaching behaviour can be as important as teaching professional skills or academic content.
The truth is sanctions only work when they are designed to improve behaviour not simply to manage it. In classrooms where sanctions are used to re chalk the boundary lines, negotiate appropriate behaviour, repair trust and concrete agreements for future conduct then they can have a sustained impact. When they are personal retribution, revenge or born from an adult's emotional response they are remembered for the wrong reasons.
Punitive sanctions that satisfy the desire for mild revenge make students resentful. This includes loss of time that is delegated to others (right you are sitting next to Mr Savage for the next three weeks'), repeated sanctions that are subsumed into the student's day (‘I stay behind every day because I am naughty'), humiliating or disproportionate sanctions (‘Right that is the second time I have asked you to sit down, go and wait outside the Principal's office') don't set the right model or have a positive impact on behaviour.
You might want to consider using a Reparation meeting to hold up the mirror for the student and encourage them to take responsibility for their behaviour. If retention and engagement are the priorities then repairing trust and building relationships are worth investing time and energy in.
A reparation meeting should take no longer than 15 minutes and must be held with the adult who dealt with the original rule breaks. It isn't a prelude to the student apologising. It should be a genuine conversation. In many institutions this has been introduced in place of traditional detention systems. The change in emphasis has had a profound impact on teacher/student relationships and significantly reduced the number of students leaving courses.
Reparation will not give you the instant satisfaction that comes from pure punishment. It will give you a platform to build relationships that change and improve behaviour for the long term.
The Reparation meeting is often structured in 6 steps as follows:
1. What's happened?
2. What was each party thinking?
3. Who feels harmed and why?
4. What have each party thought since?
5. What behaviours will each of us show next time?
6. Reaffirm your commitment to building a trusting relationship