Essay/Term paper: Primary education & post plowden legacy

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Education

Primary Education & Post Plowden Legacy


Subject: Primary Education & Post Plowden Legacy
Tutor: Alastair Horbury
Assignment: Critique of given text - Chapter 6, 'Pupils at Work.'
Due: Mon 14 Nov 94

INTRODUCTION

The task assigned was to read all six chapters provided, select one and produce
a critique on the subject matter. The chapter selected was number six which
analysed pupils' and 'work'. Firstly I wish to briefly summarise the entire
chapter, highlighting the areas which I considered to be the most important,
these areas will then be examined in depth and their merits or shortcomings
discussed.

Firstly a summary of the chapter is needed to put into context the areas that
will be discussed later. The whole chapter can be split into two main areas of
discourse:- relationships and 'work' and negotiation.

As there has been little research into pupils' approaches to schoolwork, the
author's chief concern is that of the pupils perceptions of , and approaches to,
schoolwork, and the first point s/he makes is that there are differences
between teachers' and pupils' ideas of what constitutes worthwhile work. The
author sets out to define 'the meaning of work' and in doing so draws our
attention to differences between 'pleasurable work' and 'labour'. Workmanship,
it is argued, has been replaced by unskilled labour and people now work as a
means to an end seeking enjoyment through other avenues such as hobbies and
recreation.

Teaching methods and school ethos' in general are seen as outmoded and alien to
the cultural and social influences on pupils. Therefore, there is greater
responsibility on the teacher to make work seem more utilitarian and attractive.
Research revealed that many pupils felt that work was pointless and invalid
unless it was undertaken in preparation for forthcoming exams. However, work
that may be deemed pointless or onerous by both sets of pupils (exam and non-
exam) could be given validity by the teaching strategy employed. Pupils seemed
to be more concerned with the status of the work and their personal relationship
with the teacher, therefore the pupil reaction to any given task depended
heavily on these two criteria. It is identified that pupil-teacher
relationships are extremely important and they contain many concealed aspects
which will be discussed in Part 1.

A prevalent feature of pupil-teacher relationships is the negotiation that takes
place and teachers will offer incentives to pupils in order to encourage the
process of work. It is interesting to look at the way in which teachers can
utilise their experience and maturity to manipulate or cajole pupils into
performing a given task, and this will be examined in Part 2.

PART 1 - RELATIONSHIPS & WORK

The first key issue in this chapter that I wish to examine is that of pupil
relationships with teachers, and how they affect classroom behaviour and the
amount of work produced.

I mentioned earlier that because of deep-rooted cultural influences many adults
regard work to hold little or no satisfaction, and this notion permeates through
to their children.

This notion combined with pupils' own perception of themselves as having to be
forced to work creates an arduous environment for the teacher. However, it must
be said that work that is found unpleasurable to pupils is often that of the
purely academic type which does not permit any creative license. Although
academic work is of far more value, teachers often find themselves having to
offer incentives or punishment in order to motivate pupils whereas the work with
little or no academic value is seen, generally, as enjoyable i.e games and arts.

The author places great emphasis on trust. S/he asserts that many children
cannot foresee the long-term advantages of doing work in schools and that many
simply believe or disbelieve the teacher when s/he says it will be of benefit..
The point made may be valid but perhaps only in primary schools. I propose that
in today's secondary school this idea has very little bearing and children are
now more acutely aware than ever before of social and economic factors that
dictate the need to do well in school. In some respects certain aspects of the
author's argument are negated, those pupils who can foresee the need to do well
have their own motivation, and negotiation and relationships are less important.

Having said that, to those pupils who do not possess such foresight the building
up of relationships and the constant negotiation processes are an essential part
of their schooling. Anecdotal evidence as well as secondary research support
the idea that pupils work better for those teachers they actually 'like'.

Whether a teacher is liked or disliked by his pupils is dependant upon many
factors. For instance the teachers personal outlook - does s/he even want to be
liked?, do s/he care?, are they simply interested in meeting targets? If the
teacher's personal motivation is lacklustre then how are pupils to be motivated?
Ideally, teachers would be able to identify the different levels of motivation
among their pupils and build relationships accordingly. This, however, is not a
realistic goal and much valuable class time can be spent chastising, persuading
and offering incentives. Of course there is a danger that a teacher may become
too preoccupied with the establishment of relationships and other areas such
discipline may be ignored.

The points above are interesting but we are chiefly concerned with those
teachers who are motivated and use negotiation as a means of encouraging pupils
to work, and I now wish to look at these negotiation processes in a little more
depth.

PART 2 - WORK & NEGOTIATION

One of the most interesting points made in the chapter is that of the collusion
often formed by teachers and pupils against a higher authority, this higher
authority could be the headmaster for instance. This type of collusion could be
of extreme value to teachers in forming relationships and as a way of getting
pupils 'on side', as well as relinquishing any responsibility for the type of
work and the amount required. With the majority of the blame lying at the feet
of a higher authority the teacher could begin to build a system of almost
conspiratory negotiation based on reciprocity - 'you scratch my back and I'll
scratch yours'.

Let us look at the author's idea of negotiation. Firstly s/he identifies four
experiences that typified the pupils in his/her study school. The four
categories are thus;- 'hard work', 'open negotiation', 'closed negotiation' and
'work avoidance'. The two extremes of the categories are self-explanatory,
'hard work' being total pupil commitment and 'work avoidance' being not only a
total lack of commitment, but also a conscious and resourceful effort to avoid
participating in any school work

Most pupils are to be found in the two middle categories of 'open' and 'closed'
negotiation and as such teachers must become keen negotiators if they are to
succeed. It should be pointed out that control must be the predominant feature
within negotiation - teachers must dictate the concessions that are to be made.
The author's 'open' negotiation idea consists of the teacher and pupils making
certain concessions, and is dependant to a large extent on mutual goodwill and a
congenial atmosphere within the classroom. It is an activity in which both
pupil and teacher participate and each party bargains for what they perceive to
be the better deal. The basic idea being that a teacher will permit a certain
amount of digression in return for a certain amount of 'work', and the class
hold the 'general' consensus that this is acceptable.

I have used the word 'general' because in the next paragraph I wish to look at
those pupils who do not subscribe to the general consensus and are typified as
'closed' negotiation pupils. Another interesting point made was that a
predominant feature in those teachers who were more 'liked' by their pupils was
the fact that they often included games into the work. The author concludes
that games humanised the work and made it vastly more enjoyable.

In a perfect world teacher and pupil would be in complete harmony and all
decisions made about the type and amount of work to be done would be completely
unanimous. However, in reality a teacher who uses negotiation must submit to
the general consensus. What, then, of the pupils who have not concurred with
the general consensus but are still forced to 'go along with it'? The author
typifies these pupils as being in the 'closed' negotiation category. This
category of pupils will flourish further if the teacher is not prepared to
negotiate, and within this teacher dictated atmosphere the counter-productive
and unruly element of pupils will come into being.

CONCLUSION

By drawing together the main points made in this critique it is apparent that
pupils' perceptions of the validity of the work they are undertaking is of
paramount importance.Teachers must strive to make work less alien and more
relevant to the pupils social perspective and this can be achieved in several
ways. Collusion, as well as a system of negotiation and concessions could be
used in order to overcome pupil's natural recalcitrance. Teachers must care
enough to become diagnosticians of their classes on the whole as well as
identifying individual pupil needs. Of course the needs of the many outweigh
the needs of the few, but if teachers understand the needs of the few it will
empower them in the negotiation process.