Meeting the Learning Needs of Disaffected Boys in the Classroom

Meeting the Learning Needs of Disaffected Boys in the Classroom

I selected the topic relating to disaffected boys because I have six years experience tutoring basic skills to young male offenders and I also have my second placement in a boys’ school. My personal experience from the prison was that many British-born inmates requiring help with basic skills came from severely disadvantaged backgrounds, had poor social skills and had dropped out of school between the ages of 9 and 15. Their resentfulness and rebelliousness against authority led to underachievement and curtailment of their school life which, in turn, severely diminished their employment prospects and increased the risks of social exclusion; it could and did result in a life on benefits or crime. Although this level of disaffection was not exhibited in my first placement, I found enough disruption and disengagement to spur me to study and reflect on this critical area.
It is helpful to define the term ‘disaffected’ in educational parlance. According to Ofsted, (2008: 4) ‘Disaffected students are those who display one or more of the following characteristics. They are regularly non-compliant, but not aggressive or threatening, and cause repeated low-level disruptions. They are regularly disruptive, challenging or both, which leads to repeated entries in the school’s incident logs, recurring fixed-term exclusions or both. They are absent for 20% or more of the available school sessions in the year. They are quiet and withdrawn and uninterested in most lessons’. A shorter, and possibly, more helpful version is, ‘Pupils who display behaviour patterns that are disruptive to the delivery of lessons or those who are indifferent to the tasks planned’ (Pachler et al, 2009: 227).
There appear to be three main factors of disaffection: family and social circumstances where there is total alienation from the education system; school factors which relate to either the curriculum (especially certain subjects) or the ethos and relationships encountered there by the pupils; and personal factors (Kinder et al, 1995, cited in Klein, 1999). Where disaffection is due to family and social environment, pupils tend to come from disadvantaged homes in deprived areas where parents may not value education nor consider it is for them. Such a cycle of educational alienation can usually only be countered by a multi-agency approach that crosses the education, health, social services and criminal justice boundaries (Williams and Pritchard, 2006). It needs to be well-resourced and run over a period of several years to reduce truancy, delinquency and exclusion. The school will be only a part of the equation.
There are many causes of individual disaffection. Pupils may come from middle class stable homes and be emotionally stressed due to some family discord; pupils may be in care and moved around from one placement to another; individuals may be trying to cope with bereavement or perhaps the ‘feelings of alienation that can overwhelm less resilient young people of all backgrounds in adolescence’ (Klein, 1999:5). The school should try support the young person through their pastoral and referral system.
Those factors causing the disaffection of boys at school appear to be intertwined with underachievement, with one often impacting on the other, as will be seen below. Firstly, it is helpful to look at boys’ underachievement in the national context. There is certainly a gender gap in educational attainment. Between 1995 and 2007 there was around a 10% difference between boys and girls for those attaining 5A*- C at GCSE with boys at 53.8% and girls at 63.4%. Scrutiny of the core subjects reveal that the widest gap is in English. Additionally, girls outperform boys in the majority of GCSE subjects, A Level and Key Stage results and are more likely to remain in education beyond 16 (DFES, 2007). It is salutary to note that the statistics mask a considerably more complex picture. Not all boys underachieve; in fact achievement is more strongly determined by social class and ethnic background than by gender. Boys from middle-class backgrounds and Chinese and Indian boys do not tend to underachieve (Connelly, 2004). White working class boys, however, are a group with particularly low attainment. They make up nearly half of all low achievers leaving school with boys generally outnumbering girls by 3 to 2 (Cassen and Kingdom, 2007). Research suggests that in connection with working class boys and their schooling, ‘an interaction effect may exist between class and gender’ (Connelly, 2004: 21) which compounds the underachievement. It is thought that lack of success at school leads them to seek alternative status through the development of exaggerated forms of masculinity that, in turn, leads to the creation of strong anti-school sub-cultures’ (Connelly, 2004: 21).
So why do boys underachieve? It is argued that they mature later than girls and that this impacts on their language development. Girls appear to have more effective learning strategies and focus more on talking, collaboration and sharing (DCSF, 2004). Boys’ methods of learning may be at odds with prevailing teaching styles, and their interests do not always coincide with curriculum content. They may also perceive education as predominantly a female pursuit if they lack male role models at school (Teachers TV). Boys lacking self-esteem may protect themselves against failure by adopting an anti-learning stance. Boys also often seek to define their masculinity in their teenage years through disregard for authority and behaviour which is in direct conflict with the ethos of a school. This can be compounded by peer group pressure (DCSF, 2004).
Clearly the problem of raising boys’ attainment levels and combating disaffection is complex and cannot be addressed by the education system alone. However, the system can try to engage boys with the learning process and help them enjoy being at school. The strategies outlined below have been recommended in this regard.
A school should embrace an ethos of success, aided by positive, influential role models. It should have a discipline and rewards system which is agreed and consistently applied. There should be target-setting, monitoring of work and regular feedback (Terry and Terry, 2000). Learning objectives and their relevance should be made explicit with links made to the outside world, especially when teaching mathematics. Resources used should appeal to boys and engage their interest. Literacy should be made a priority with boys engaged in speaking, listening and reading and writing activities. A teacher should provide fresh challenges, a stimulating environment and a flexible curriculum. The boys should be aided in building up mutual respect and confidence by being encouraged to help those with weaker skills. Seating groups should benefit the boys’ learning and not detract from it (Teachers TV) (Ofsted, 2008).
I will now examine my first placement experience in the light of the above. My first school was an 11-16 mixed comprehensive of about 900 pupils. I taught a Year 8 class who seemed unengaged with their maths and supported a Y11 class where there were a significant number of disaffected boys.
The Year 11 class I was supporting appeared to be about 25 strong although in fact there were always several absences, mainly girls. The boys tended to show up to lessons but seldom did any work and often played with their music systems or phones surreptitiously. Many desks faced across the room causing much calling back and forth. Warnings, sanctions and dismissals were commonplace and accepted as such. The teacher was always calm, fair and courteous but the pupils talked over him and were only quiet on their terms. Several boys appeared to direct the indiscipline within the class and were regarded with circumspection by the rest. On reflection, the lesson material was probably too difficult for most of the class and a more functional level would have been preferable to link into their everyday experience. Lessons were of the exposition and exercise form, directed towards exams, with no variation such as investigations or group work. The teaching assistant was not proactive and certainly not used effectively. The layout added to the problems.
In such a case, where there is an entrenched anti-learning ethos in a class, it may be helpful to identify influential pupils early on in the year and allocate them to dynamic mentors who are very focused on motivating them to work and so turn the anti-work culture around (DFES, 2005).
My Year 8 class were used to being given very routine tasks, with the teacher’s five minute exposition followed by a forty minute exercise answering questions from a densely-packed worksheet. I deemed the pupils to be essentially bored with the approach and tried several strategies to re-engage them. The school had a performing arts specialism and I devised a cross-curricular workshop on shapes and angles with the head of drama which took the form of a session in the hall with groups of pupils making shapes and angles with their bodies - a triangular prism toblerone and a pyramid were particularly memorable. Several boys who were normally very reluctant to learn were thoroughly absorbed in the workshop. The pupils loved the session describing it as interesting and fun. On the other hand, my attempts to liven up and change the standard lessons with round-the-class quizzes, kinaesthetic tasks and a pupil profile questionnaire were less successful. It appeared that, once seated, the pupils were used to regarding a good portion of the lesson as social time as they slowly worked through any questions they were given. On reflection, I consider that the pupils were showing a form of ingrained ‘quiet disaffection’ with the subject as described by Nardi and Steward (2003) as they demonstrated only low engagement with learning tasks. They had come to view mathematics as tedious and irrelevant. The subject made them work individually on repetitive rote-learning exercises with limited opportunities for collaboration and no group working. They viewed the subject as difficult and not for them. They would maybe have preferred group work, investigations and more personalised learning.
In my second placement, with the help of my subject mentor, I have identified a group of four Year 10 pupils who are currently in the lowest maths set and generally viewed as disaffected. I have talked to all the boys to gain an understanding of how they view the school and their attitude to learning; I also discussed the boys with the experienced SENCO head. Three of the boys have BESD, all have learning difficulties, two have fathers who have died – this severely affected one boy who has needed a huge amount of support. The school considers that the boys are unable to follow the full standard Year 10 timetable and so have a reduced one which involves a core of English, maths and science, personal effectiveness and employability studies, PE and one day at a college per week to study a vocational course; two are involved with car mechanics and two with building trades. As far as the boys are concerned, their unilateral view is that school is where they see their ‘mates’ but they do not like it otherwise. Three out of the four, however, are positive about the college course and two commented that this is because they are treated differently, by which they mean like adults.
I consider that the strategies put in place by the school are positive and realistic as to the boys’ abilities. During maths, the teaching support to boy ratio is high at 2:14 allowing for a high level of individual attention. The boys are allowed to sit next to friends in rows which are slanted so that the lay-out is neither regimented nor distracting. Many of these practices are those recommended recently by Ofsted themselves to re-engage disaffected learners (2008). In line with the strategies I have researched and following advice given by the SENCO head, my approach should be to get to know and work with the teacher’s assistant who is trusted by the boys and manages their behaviour well. I should be very positive, use praise extensively, let the boys know I have high expectations of them and that I am on their side. I will differentiate lessons and ensure they are relevant to the boys; material relating to motor mechanics, construction and future jobs will be useful. I will try short, sharp, tasks to keep the pace up, stop their interest flagging and give them a sense of achievement when they see how much they have covered. Their normal sequence of worksheet exercises will be varied with quizzes or learning involving physical activity. I will also try to encourage them to read out or discuss aspects of their work to help their literacy skills. Relevance and achievement are the two main goals.
My original thoughts on disaffection have evolved over the course of reading for the assignment and after reflection on my first school experience. The area is complex as there are a myriad reasons for disaffection in boys which also interconnects with underachievement. Causes may be temporary, systemic or confined to certain subject areas. Human beings are complicated and react in subtly different ways to the same pressures; what can cause flashpoints with certain individuals only push others into marginally subversive behaviour such as quiet disengagement. It is encouraging, however, to note that there are strategies we can use as teachers to minimise disaffected behaviour and foster achievement. These should hopefully help youngsters to enjoy their learning at school and prepare for their future in today’s increasingly technological world. What is striking is that many of the techniques and practices suggested for use with disaffected learners can be applied to the rest of the pupil cohort and should help raise the general level of engagement within any class. I look forward to trying these strategies in my second placement.
Bibliography – Meeting the Learning Needs of Disaffected Boys

Cassen, R. & G. Kingdom, (2007)Tackling Low Educational Achievement
Available at: http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?Keyword=Boys%27+achievement+&SearchOption=And&SearchType=Keyword&RefineExpand=1&ContentId=13517 (accessed: 20/01/10)

Connelly, P. (2004) Boys and Schooling in the Early Years, London: Routledge

DCSF (2004) Gender and Achievement: Introduction and key issues
Available at: http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/46134?uc=force_uj (accessed: 20/01/10)

DFES (2007) Gender and Education: the Evidence on Pupils in England
Available at: http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?Keyword=Boys%27+achievement+&SearchOption=And&SearchType=Keyword&RefineExpand=1&ContentId=13608 (accessed: 20/01/10)

DFES (2005) Raising Boys’ Achievement Research Report RR636
Available at: http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?Keyword=Boys%27+achievement+&SearchOption=And&SearchType=Keyword&RefineExpand=1&ContentId=12920 (accessed: 20/01/10)
Klein, R. (1999) Defying Disaffection, Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books

Nardi, E. & S. Steward, (2003) ‘Is Mathematics T.I.R.E.D? A Profile of Quiet Disaffection in the Secondary Mathematics Classroom’ in British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 29, No. 3, 345-365

Ofsted (2008) Good Practice in re-engaging disaffected and reluctant students in secondary schools
Available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Documents-by-type/Thematic-reports/Good-practice-in-re-engaging-disaffected-and-reluctant-students-in-secondary-schools (accessed: 12/01/10)

Ofsted (2008) White boys from low-income backgrounds: good practice in schools
Available at : http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?Keyword=Boys%27+achievement+&SearchOption=And&SearchType=Keyword&RefineExpand=1&ContentId=14935 (accessed 20/01/10)

Pachler , N., Barnes A. & K. Field, (2009) Learning to Teach Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary School, London: Routledge

Terry, B. and L. Terry, (2000) Boys’ underachievement is a problem, but it is not their fault! Current perceptions and practical strategies NFER research
Available at: http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?contentType=2&menu=29795&ContentId=15106 (accessed 20/01/10).

Williams, R. & C. Pritchard, (2006) Breaking the Cycle of Educational Alienation, Maidenhead: OUP

Teachers TV

School Matters - The Trouble with Boys http://www.teachers.tv/video/2586. Meeting the Learning Needs of Disaffected Boys in the Classroom
‘Fractions’ Lesson Evaluation

I would assess the lesson as largely successful overall but with elements that I would change for the future.
This lesson was in fact my second one as full class teacher. I had worked with the boys in the role of assistant twice while we became familiar with one another, then had taught a lesson the previous week on squared and cubed numbers.
Prior to the lesson, I briefed the usual class teacher and permanent teaching assistant on the activities involved. I made sure the teaching assistant was familiar with the topics we would be covering and took her through the calculations for the worksheet to ensure she was confident of the ground and fully conversant with the material.
At the start of the lesson, I welcomed the boys and told them I had organised some activities for them which I thought they would like and began with ‘Think of a number’. With this Thoan activity, a number is picked between one and ten, various mental arithmetic operations (adding, halving,dividing etc) are performed and then, no matter what number is picked, every pupil ends up with two – the teacher can then refer to ‘the magic of algebra’.
Some of the boys had difficulty adding or doubling, and I encouraged then to write the numbers down if they could not do this easily in their heads. They nearly all came out with 2 (we ensured everyone eventually got there!) and seemed quite pleased with the result. Being successful is very important to them as it is a concept which has frequently eluded them.
The activity engaged them and at the same time let me evaluate their mental arithmetic. This varied widely over the group of nine with two being fairly quick in relation to the rest and another pair experiencing quite some difficulty. We encouraged them to write the stages in the calculation down and this did the trick.
The fraction ‘washing line’ activity had mixed success. The idea had its genesis at college as students are encouraged to demonstrate it as a kinaesthetic idea for both fractions and probability. Pupils participating in the activity stage by stage can be left with a mental picture of a clear order of numbers arrived at in a logical way instead of a a random jumble of different fractions in free space. The activity certainly gave the pupils a chance to move around purposefully; two were keen to be involved and hold the line.
Three pupils were initially wary of the exercise but were happy to put up the zero and one at either end of the line. The basic fractions marking off the quarters and some eighths were happily pinned but pupils were very unsure about the thirds – some encouragement was required. They seemed very unfamiliar with the idea of equivalent fractions; a third and two sixths may look very different but in fact are worth the same amount. A half and two quarters were passable because they could relate them to time on the clock but others were not familiar and the pupils could not see the point to this particular stage of the activity.
I could see that their interest was flagging (as the SENCO head had said, their attention span was about 10-15 minutes) and moved quickly to change the activity. I had prepared a fraction problem sheet which related to their everyday lives as it involved spending 3 different sums of money in various fraction parcels on clothes, food, drink and entertainment. One question deliberately specified money they had earned as I had been advised to allude to jobs and the advantages of money earned. I was delighted to see that they engaged whole-heartedly in the activity which they appeared to find relevant, interesting and useful. One example specified a t-shirt, jeans and jacket with a discount expressed as a ‘fifth off’ in a sale (see attached worksheet).
The boys commented that when shopping they did not bother to check what they were charged and relied on the shop assistant to give them the correct change. The teaching staff were able to comment that now their maths was coming along so well, they would be able to check both parts of the buying transaction. Some boys needed help with dividing to find half, third etc, most needed a little help with the last problem and all needed reassurance that they had calculated correctly. Their usual refrain was “Is that right?” They certainly threw themselves into the task which was very satisfying. After three activities and with just over ten minutes left, I kept up the interest and pace by changing to a times table exercise. The pupils had a very rudimentary knowledge of their tables: 2, 5 and 10 seemed solid but knowledge was only partial beyond that.
Whilst I had worked with young offenders I had come across an excellent technique for the 9 times table involving holding both hands up and folding down the appropriate finger relating to the element of the table. Digits to the left of the folded finger are tens and those to the right are units. I asked two pupils who had experienced some difficulty with the fraction work to come to the whiteboard to demonstrate the activity by drawing around their fingers. We could then rub a finger out to mimic the physical action and it was easier for the pupils to see the technique involved. Four pupils picked up on the method very quickly and seemed genuinely pleased with being able to come up with the correct answer for several elements of the table. They even persuaded one boy, who had initially been very reluctant to join in, to try the method out and showed him what to do! Success.
The lesson finished on time and with some of the boys fairly bouncy for at least a short while and several smiles. They assume much swagger and posturing in front of their peers and only rarely let their guard down. I have since experienced several lessons where a previous late night and the results of heavy socialising have impacted directly on their attitude, concentration and civility.
I thought the lesson achieved its objectives fairly well. Pupils practised performing mental arithmetic operations accurately during the Thoan activity and the fraction worksheet. They learnt a different method for calculating the 9 times table. They also could picture some simple fractions on a number line but did not pick up the concept of ‘equivalent fractions’. The pace was kept up throughout the lesson; as soon as I thought pupils were drifting, I changed activity. The timing was fine. Behaviour management was good. The pupils were given a sequence of activities to engage and refresh them. The teaching staff gave lots of praise and encouragement which the pupils shrugged off but which I suspect, in reality, they welcomed.

As regards changes for future lessons, on reflection I could see that one activity with the teacher at the front is preferable to two. The boys do not like someone lecturing them as they associate this with previous bad experiences and much prefer working in small groups of, say, three or four with teacher encouragement. They feel very vulnerable if they are asked a question they cannot answer in front of a class, even if the class is small and mainly made up of friends. The fractions worksheet clicked with the boys because they could immediately relate to it and saw how useful the calculations were. Instead of the general worksheets which they were ordinarily given (often at primary level and of no appeal to teenagers), it was obvious that it would be much better to continue tailored worksheets which they could relate to. I later designed worksheets around minimum wage rates at various ages, rates of apprenticeship pay and personal budgeting.

In conclusion I deemed it a good lesson with some progress, success and a feeling of achievement.

It would be naïve, however, not to also mention that, on reflection, I was lucky to be experiencing one the group’s cooperative phases. A different week can see a change in attitude which can leave a lesson in tatters; bad diet, lack of food, little or no sleep, alcohol, ‘smoking’ and too much interest in outside socialising do not tend to augur well for a productive maths lesson. If such a group does cooperate a teacher has to make the most of a window of opportunity before the dynamic changes.

Bibliography: DCSF (2004) Gender and Achievement: Introduction and key issues Available at: DFES (2007) Gender and Education: the Evidence on Pupils in England Available at: DFES (2005) Raising Boys’ Achievement Research Report RR636 Available at: Klein, R. (1999) Defying Disaffection, Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books Nardi, E Ofsted (2008) Good Practice in re-engaging disaffected and reluctant students in secondary schools Available at: Terry, B. and L. Terry, (2000) Boys’ underachievement is a problem, but it is not their fault! Current perceptions and practical strategies NFER research Available at: Williams, R. & C. Pritchard, (2006) Breaking the Cycle of Educational Alienation, Maidenhead: OUP Teachers TV