Turn-around pedagogies: improving the education of at-risk students

Internationally, normative discourses about literacy standards have rapidly proliferated, and spaces for teachers to engage in serious intellectual inquiry seem to be shutting down. Our concern about the impact of these forces on teachers led us to design a cross-generational teacher research project across two states of Australia to tackle some of the toughest challenges teachers face in their workplaces, including the issue of unequal outcomes in literacy achievement. In this article we report on how the project design sustained an intellectual community of inquiry and fostered ‘turn-around pedagogies'. We include excerpts from recent teacher writing (Comber and Kamler, 2005) to illustrate how teachers used technology and popular culture to reengage their most at-risk students. We argue that crossgenerational models of practitioner inquiry hold great promise for improving the learning engagement of students, the productivity of schools and the professional renewal of the teacher workforce.

Once you get into the box you can't get out : Schools managing at risk students and their post-school options

This paper explores student and teacher understandings of what it means to be 'at risk' in a Northern metropolitan Melbourne school located in the area of high cultural diversity and unemployment. The research team undertook a range of interviews with 20 Year 10 students and their teachers as part of a research project investigating teacher and student attitudes to the role of the school in how at risk young people understand their futures. Drawing on Bourdieu's notion of habitus for a conceptual framework, we describe three 'anecdotal cases’ that exemplify the 'static' nature of the relations between the school, the teachers, the students and the community. The cases highlight the following paradoxes: (i) a teacher discourse of care that fails to address student motivation and attempts to change; (ii) a lack of agency for both teachers and students when dealing with at risk categories and attempts to best manage post school options; and (iii) the apparent alienation from the school of parents in an otherwise cohesive local community. These tensions were manifestations of staff composition and dynamics, cultural attitudes, and a limited sense of location that worked against resilience, mobility and capacity building for the students.

The mental health Risk Assessment and Management Process (RAMP) for schools: II. Process evaluation

The Risk Assessment and Management Process (RAMP) is a whole-school process for the assessment and management of student’s mental health and wellbeing in primary and secondary schools. A process evaluation revealed that RAMP was implemented as intended across six primary and three secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. Using the RAMP risk and protective factors monitoring form and screening processes, each school identified ‘at-risk’ students who had not previously been identified or received assistance from welfare staff at the school. School staff and mental health workers from local agencies reported improvements in their knowledge of risk and protective factors, and their ability to identify at-risk students following RAMP. They also reported satisfaction in outcomes for at-risk students managed within the school using RAMP. All the primary schools and one of the
secondary schools continued to use some RAMP processes in their school up to 6 months after the initial implementation of the program.

From risk to relationship : redefining pedagogy through applied learning reform

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) emerged to provide more relevant curriculum programs that would cater for increasing retention rates of post-compulsory students. It is also an example of the ‘new’ learning arising from contemporary debates and reforms that highlight inadequacies of the more traditional modes of learning. This thesis focuses on the pedagogical and sociological issues emerging from the VCAL being introduced as an ‘alternative’ learning pathways for ‘at-risk’ students within a traditional secondary school culture. Through the eyes of an insider-researcher, the thesis argues for a deeper understanding of applied learning as a ‘re-engaging’ pedagogy by studying the schooling experience of VCAL students and teachers. The thesis concludes that traditional academic modes of teaching contribute to the social construction of ‘at-risk’ students and argues that secondary school pedagogy needs to be redefined as a cultural phenomenon requiring teachers to be reflexively aware of their role in bridging the gap between students’ life experiences and the curriculum.

Does screening high school students for psychological distress, deliberate self-harm, or suicidal ideation cause distress--and is it acceptable? An Australian-based study

Programs designed to detect students at risk of depression and suicidality have shown success (Shaffer et al., 2004). The current study sought to examine whether or not such a program was acceptable to participants and whether or not it caused distress. Participants were boys aged 14 to 16. Participants were assessed using an on-line questionnaire; acceptability was measured via postal questionnaire. Of 272 participants, 31 (11.4%) were considered at-risk; 13 required ongoing support, 8 of whom had not previously sought help. Overall screening did not appear to cause significant undue distress, although some differences were evident between at-risk and not at-risk students. All participants found the program acceptable. When conducted carefully, early detection programs can be an effective and acceptable method of identifying at-risk adolescents.

Whose school? Which community?

This paper takes up the theme 'The school as a centre in the community' in light of a research project conducted in a remote community in South Australia in 2001. This project set out to explore with Aboriginal parents, Aboriginal students, teachers and representatives of the various agencies operating in the area how groups within the community understood the issues of early exiting Aboriginal students.

Review of first-year engineering and technology units based on student unit evaluations

There is recognition that the first-year of university study is a critical phase in the preparation, motivation and retention of science, mathematics,  engineering and technology (SMET) students. First-year provides the foundation/generic skills upon which students will base their undergraduate studies and professional practice; first-year is where many poorly prepared/at risk students will drop out and contribute to the poor student retention rate observed in the SMET disciplines; and first-year is when students may lose the motivation to pursue their chosen career direction if they find the studies at the commencement of their undergraduate program appear to bear no relationship to their intended career. In 2003, the Learning Resources Advisory Group of the Deakin University School of Engineering and Technology was requested to undertake a review of first-year units in the School’s programs. The information contained in anonymous unit evaluation questionnaires from the years 2000-2002 was used as the basis for analysing student perceptions of first-year units. In unit evaluations, students reported a wide range of issues that impacted negatively on their perception of the content and conduct of first-year units. It was noted that units service taught by other Schools form a significant element of the first-year of all of the Engineering and Technology undergraduate programs – typically 25 to 50 percent of the content. The significant influence of these units on the perceptions of the first-year of the School’s commencing students means that the School should exercise some control over the content and delivery of these units.

Stickability, transformability and transmittability: alternative, pull-out programs within schools - what the literature says about effective practice and provision for disenfranchised young people

This paper draws on the findings of a recent and extensive literature review to examine the efficacy of pull-out education programs (alternative programs) in schools in relation to student learning, well-being, and pathways. It synthesises the research on alternative education programs and their contribution to student outcomes using three main conceptual categories: how sustainable these programs are their stickability; how effective these programs are in achieving their stated purpose of improving and enhancing vulnerable students’ learning, well-being, and pathways, their transformability; and how these programs may be used successfully in other locations and contexts— their transmittability. It concludes with recommendations for future practice, suggesting that school systems should prioritise prevention and early intervention in providing support to vulnerable students in ways that take account of students’ own reasons for why they are disengaged from schooling.

Family risk factors for cannabis use: a population-based survey of Australian secondary school students

The objective of this study was to investigate relationships between adolescent cannabis use and indices of parent - child attachment, family functioning and parent attitudes to drugs and delinquency. A total of 2848 year 9 and 2363 year 11 students participated in the Victorian Adolescent Health and Well-Being Survey (1999). The study was a school-based random sample of 535 metropolitan and rural, government and non-government secondary schools throughout Victoria, Australia. Cannabis use was defined as 'any' and 'weekly' use in the last 30 days. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify independent associations between cannabis use and parent - child attachment, family functioning and parent attitudes to drugs and delinquency. Cannabis use in year 9 was associated with permissive parent attitudes to drugs and delinquency (any use: adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 8.1; weekly use: adjusted OR = 7.6), and was particularly sensitive to small changes in the quality of the parent - child relationship with risk increasing threefold for those describing their attachment as 'good' compared with 'very good' (any use: adjusted OR = 2.8, weekly use adjusted OR = 2.9). A similar, but more moderate pattern association was evident in year 11. After adjusting for other family and background factors, poor family functioning showed minimal association with level of cannabis use at both year levels. Results suggest that intervention efforts might sensibly target strengthening parent - children relationships and promoting less permissive parent attitudes to drug use.

Re-thinking students 'at risk'

There are some students in the secondary schools who are considered to be 'at risk' and more likely to fail in the future simply because they do not accept traditional school-based modes of learning as being relevant. However, recent applied learning initiatives in the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) have re-engaged many of these young people in schooling by treating them more like young adults and recognising that secondary schools must now cater for a greater diversity of career pathways.

Pathway planning and 'becoming somebody' : Exploring the tensions between wellbeing and credentialism with students at (educational) risk

This paper maps the policy shifts around the education and training of youth that frame how schools respond to issues of youth' at risk'. These shifts have occurred with the move from the self managing schools marked by market discourses of competition, autonomy and image management that supplanted earlier discourses of welfare and community, through to recent policies in Victoria arising from the Kirby Review of Post compulsory Education and Public Education, the Next Generation undertaken by the Labor government. These reports, and the policies emerging out of them, are producing new discourses about youth and schooling focusing on wellbeing, learning networks and more systemic support for schools at the same time as there is increased accountability and expectations of schools. Drawing on the school exclusion literature from the U.K, and using Bourdieu's notion of habitus, we examine the findings from a recent study undertaken on the Geelong Pathways Planning project, funded through a Victorian government strategy, to discuss how schools respond to such initiatives. The project explored the ways in which students in the Geelong region understood and worked with the job planning pathways program, and how service providers (schools, community education facilities, job networks etc) coordinated to meet the needs of individual youth. There was a disjuncture in the participating schools between the discourses of care and welfare for students at risk, and the actual practices and policies that ignored or excluded such students. This paper concludes with a discussion of what might be required systemically, in schools and in their relations to other education providers, to build the capacity to respond more effectively to all students.

Moral antecedents of smoking behavior and risk beliefs among overseas Asian students

Instead of focusing on the misconduct of multinational cigarette manufacturers, this research project broadens the discussion of cigarette consumption by focusing on the moral antecedent variables that shape young adults' smoking behavior and risk beliefs. It especially challenges current wisdom among anti-smoking advocates that by increasing consumer knowledge of the medical risks associated with smoking will lead to significant reductions in young adult smoking prevalence rates. Empirical results of this study suggest that although increasing smoking risk knowledge does not significantly reduce Asian students' smoking behavior, increasing their risk assessment beliefs does produce the desirable public policy effect of reducing current smoking. Furthermore, only among rules-driven individuals does an increase in no harm scores significantly reduce student smoking risk assessment beliefs. Thus, current anti-smoking advertising campaigns among overseas Asian students may be more effective if they attempt to change these students' smoking risks assessment beliefs especially if they are targeted to rules-driven student market segments.

Problem gambling among international and domestic university students in Australia : who is at risk?

Young people are a high risk group for gambling problems and university (college) students fall into that category. Given the high accessibility of gambling in Australia and its association with entertainment, students from overseas countries, particularly those where gambling is restricted or illegal, may be particularly vulnerable. This study examines problem gambling and its correlates among international and domestic university students using a sample of 836 domestic students (286 males; 546 females); and 764 international students (369 males; 396 females) at three Australian universities. Our findings indicate that although most students gamble infrequently, around 5 % of students are problem gamblers, a proportion higher than that in the general adult population. Popular gambling choices include games known to be associated with risk (cards, horse races, sports betting, casino games, and gaming machines) as well as lotto/scratch tickets. Males are more likely to be problem gamblers than females, and almost 10 % of male international students could be classified as problem gamblers. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that male gender, international student status, financial stress, negative affect and frequency of gambling on sports, horses/dogs, table games, casino gaming machines, internet casino games and bingo all significantly predicted problem gambling. Results from this study could inform gambling-education programs in universities as they indicate which groups are more vulnerable and specify which games pose more risk of problem gambling.

How do drug and alcohol use relate to parental bonding and risk perception in university students?

Alcohol and drug use are major health concerns on university and college campuses. It has previously been found that parental rearing patterns are related to the frequency of substance use. Further, perceptions that drug use is dangerous have been found to be related to less substance use. However, little research has directly examined the impact of parental rearing patterns on substance use by university students, and no research has examined the effects of both risk perception and parenting on substance use. Therefore, this research surveyed the frequency and extent of alcohol, cigarette and illicit drug use by students (N = 336) at a Canadian university residence, classes and health services and examined the relationship between the results with parental bonding and risk perception. It was found that “affectionless control” parenting patterns in the mother, but not the father, were related to greater drinking and drinking problems and to the use of illicit substances. Lower perceptions of risk were related to greater use of alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis and other illicit substances. Unexpectedly, there was little relationship between parental rearing and risk perceptions, suggesting that there are other avenues whereby parenting leads to greater alcohol use. Implications are discussed.