LEARNING MATTERS
ENGAGING STUDENTS:
CREATING CLASSROOMS THAT IMPROVE learning Produced by the Grattan Institute and co-authored by Peter Goss, Kate Griffiths and Julie Sonnemann, Engaging students: creating classrooms that improve learning suggests widespread disengagement is plaguing Australian schools and details worrying cases of ghost students slipping through the cracks. It argues that 40 per cent of Australian students are disengaged in class and are lagging up to two years behind their peers as a consequence. Goss is convinced that the research unearths a hidden epidemic that calls for a comprehensive reform of our education system. Crucially, it’s the compliant but disengaged, rather than the outwardly disruptive or aggressive students, that make up the biggest chunk of those not with it in the classroom, he suggests. Perhaps they crouch in the back row, eyes glazed, brains inconspicuously tuning out. Shielded by the hum of class activity, their apathy goes unnoticed. These are precisely the children we need to worry about, Goss says. “Over the last ten years a number of studies have painted a clear picture that about 40 per cent of Australian school students are regularly disengaged from their learning (and) that media sometimes likes to focus on the students that are aggressive or out of control …” he tells EducationHQ.
many of its claims, raising questions about its validity.
The senior lecturer says the document is “very selective in its summaries” and makes sweeping statements based on a small sample of students. Comment by Peter Freney, B.Ed., M.Ed., M.Ed., FACEL (Qld):
Chilling out is a great concept; it implies that we should relax when things get tough and not to take it too seriously. But can we take it too far? Should students chill out in the classroom and disengage from learning? Even if some authorities dispute the numbers in the above article, and reduce the 40 per cent to 30 per cent, or even 20 per cent, is that acceptable? Of course, there are many reasons that students will disengage and chill out in the classroom, including boring lessons not relevant to the student’s life, other disruptive students and prior poor learning experiences. But what if the student experiences fluorescent lights that are too bright, the whiteboard too glary, the words going fuzzy and dancing around on the page causing blinding headaches and visual stress? This is the opposite of chilling out; this disengagement is caused by high physical and mental stress. The good news is, it can be treated. m
“The data that we saw clearly showed that too many teachers are being thrown in the deep end and being told to sink or swim, and that needs to change,” he says. “I was pretty surprised to see that those students are just as far behind on average in their learning as the students who are acting out, so it’s a really serious problem.” But leading academics and policymakers aren’t sold on the report’s findings. Dr David Zyngier from Monash University, whose own studies have been seminal in shaping the research on student engagement, has criticised
About Peter Freney from Irlen Clinic Peter has been involved all of his adult life with teaching and learning. As a School Principal in all sizes of schools, and later as a School Inspector, he has consistently tried to find better answers to how students learn, and why some find it so hard. The last 20 years have been focused on one piece of that puzzle: dyslexia and visual processing. B. ED.(UQ), M. Ed. (James Cook), M.Ed. (Canberra University), FACEL (Qld)
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