Pathways Through the Junior Cycle: The Experiences of Second Year Students

May 18, 2006

News

18/05/2006

 

Pathways Through the Junior Cycle: The Experiences of Second Year Students

By Emer Smyth, Allison Dunne, Selina McCoy and Merike Darmody

Embargo: 4.30 p.m. Thursday 18 May 2006. Download Press Release PDF

Members of the Media are invited to attend a Media Briefing on Thursday 18 May at 3.30 p.m. in the Westin Dublin Hotel, College Green, Dublin 2. Pathways Through the Junior Cycle is being launched by Professor Tom Collins, Professor of Education in NUI Maynooth and Chairperson of the NCCA. The book explores school from the perspective of students themselves and highlights what schools can do to enhance student learning and engagement. It draws on on-going research following young people from first year upwards, the first study of its kind in Ireland. Some of the main findings of the study are:

 

  • Second year of post-primary education has often been seen as one in which students ‘drift’ and is seen by school staff as the most ‘difficult’ year in the junior cycle. Students have settled into the new school setting but are not yet faced with the Junior Certificate examination. Compared to first year, second year students are less positive about school and their teachers, are less likely to receive praise from their teachers and are more likely to be ‘given out to’ by teachers.
  • Second year emerges from the study as a crucial time in young people’s schooling career. Two distinct groups of students emerge at this stage, one investing more time and effort in their studies, the other drifting or even actively disengaging from school life.
  • A clear ‘gender gap’ is evident: girls are generally more positive about school while misbehaviour is more common among boys and they tend to have more negative relations with their teachers.
  • Streaming also has a strong influence on student experiences. Students in lower stream classes have more negative attitudes to school, find the teaching pace too slow, spend less time on homework and are more likely than other students to be disengaging from school life. Student disengagement at this stage of the junior cycle is likely to have longer-term implications for achievement and retention.

The study shows, however, that some schools can be successful in maintaining positive attitudes and an engagement in learning among students:

  • The informal climate, that is, the quality of interaction between teachers and students, emerges as a key factor in maintaining positive attitudes to school among second year students. Students who have experienced praise or positive feedback from their teachers are more positive about school life and themselves as learners, and are less likely to feel isolated or anxious within school. It is important, therefore, that schools develop measures to promote student involvement and engagement informally, through sports and other extracurricular activities, and formally through student councils or other consultative structures.
  • From the student perspective, good teachers are ones who explain lessons clearly, are approachable and do not go too quickly or too slowly with the class. Traditional ‘chalk and talk’ approaches are generally less popular with students indicating the need for teachers to adopt a greater variety of teaching methods in junior cycle classrooms. Positive relations between teachers and students also emerge as key in student learning.
  • Second year students tend to favour subjects with a more practical orientation, such as Art, Materials Technology (Wood) and PE, and are more likely to find these subjects interesting. They are less positive about the languages (Irish, French and German) and tend to find Maths difficult It is important that student access to practically oriented subjects be facilitated at the school and class level to enhance student engagement with school.

Speaking at the launch, Professor Collins noted that research of this kind into the experiences of students in classrooms and schools can provide vital information for the process of curriculum and assessment review. He continued: ‘It also challenges some of our deeply held assumptions about what we think is good for young people to learn, how we think they should learn it, and how we should organise the schools where they learn’.