Q:As a 61 year old who started a PGCE when 57, my viewpoint on negative behaviour is that it is sometimes a truthful reaction to teachers who are trying to impose a pseudo world on the young(er), not least as a result of a lack of experience outside education. Classically we had a dreadful thing called COPE or Certificate of Personal Effectiveness, which we tried to impose on year 12 and 13. They in my view quite rightly - and in our case politely - rejected it over the year. My main subject is maths, and again I wonder at our attempted imposition of getting across the D/C boundary which is subsequently of use neither to further education nor employment, but critical in league tables for the status of the school. I wonder sometimes whether the pupils can see through it and we can't. There are so many cases, and the pupils seem to have often prematurely so much experience that what masquerades as bad behaviour is perhaps an inarticulate insistence on the truth.
However, I really liked your clip about the parents being the best to know the reward, and shall redouble my efforts at ringing home.
A: Pupils can see what is happening as clearly as teachers can. They learn the game at a young age and are taught to the test for the benefit of league tables in Primary schools. We teach them to play the game and some are surprised when they play it skillfully and differentiate between subjects that mean something and those that don't. Look at the difficulty that FE colleges are having with Functional Skills. When students see that the work they are asked to do is not examined, not directly relevant to their exams/interests and not helpful to their study they vote with their feet, or in this case with their behaviour.
I know that the C/D borderline matters for the league tables but it also matters for FE and employment. Particularly in English and Maths. These are gateway subjects. I want my students to get a C or above not because I want to satisfy the data trolls but because I know how limited choices are if you have a D or below. I understand that employers and FE complain that the curriculum is not relevant for their needs, they have done for the last 30 years. They probably will do for the next 30.
I sense that you are feeling the pressure of top down decision-making: tasks and targets that are imposed on you from above. Nobody is motivated by being told what to do. Your students are the same. When they have responsibility for their own learning, for directing their own study and controlling their destiny they are enthusiastic learners. When they are shown hoops that have no logic they are no more inspired than we are.
PS. I really like the phrase - ‘Inarticulate insistence on the truth'. It sounds like the title for a new Michael Moore movie.
