Younger Learners

Different contexts, different learners

TAFE NSW VET Pedagogy Project 2006 managed by Lynne Stallard, ICVET

LITERATURE REVIEW | Roslin Brennan Kemmis and Erica Smith, RIVET (Research in Vocational Education and Training) Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga

Younger Learners Cartoon

This is one of five articles bringing together themes and trends from the 2006 literature review of the TAFE NSW VET Pedagogy Project 2006. Presenting the findings in this format both highlights pedagogical challenges as distinct and lively areas for discussion by teachers while also making the information easily accessible online.

The authors, Roslin Brennan Kemmis, AM Acting Head, School of Education and Erica Smith, Associate Professor Vocational Education and Training from Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga conducted this research through the auspice of RIVET (Research in Vocational Education and Training) for and with TAFE NSW ICVET.

Take home Messages

Younger learners may need more systematic support and scaffolding than older VET learners if they are to develop the skills of self directed learning.

The stresses of late adolescence create particular contexts for learning, and an understanding of this phase of human development can assist the teacher in developing pedagogical practices that accommodate these stresses and encourage learning now and in the future.

The explicit links between on the job and off the job training need to be made for all learners, and for younger learners this is an absolute necessity.

There are some stark differences in online proficiency amongst younger learners that relate to location and to socio economic and educational background. Pedagogical assumptions about levels of computer literacy and efficacy should be examined carefully.

The traditional age distribution of TAFE students has changed in many ways.

Many TAFE teachers are now encountering much younger learners, particularly in classes where VET in schools subjects are being taught. The pool of ‘younger learners’ also now includes those young people who are involved in education and training under the social security system’s provisions of mutual obligation.

Some facts and figures

The number of school students enrolled in VET in schools subjects has risen dramatically since 1997. The figure has jumped from 35% in 1997 to 53% in 2004 (Dusseldorp Skills Forum, 2005, p 29) and School Based New Apprenticeships have risen by 23% between 2003 and 2004. ‘…13,000 students commenced a SBNA in 2004’ and this number is expected to continue to grow. In 2004 51% of young adults aged between 20 and 24 years had completed a Certificate 3 or above (Dusseldorp Skills Forum p viii). However, the participation rate of 15-19 year olds in VET has remained relatively stable for the last six years outside the New Apprenticeship system (Dusseldorp Skills Forum 2005, p36). It remains around 20,000 enrolments in NSW. Given the changing profile of the VET student it is important to consider the literature and research about ‘younger learners’ and understand how this might inform our pedagogy.

The connection between on the job and off the job training is crucial for all VET learners but perhaps more so with the younger age group. A 2005 publication by Chappell and Hawke (cited in Smith and Blake 2006 p6) supports the view that a pedagogy that supports this connection ‘in a coherent and mutually supportive way’ will contribute to more effective learning.

The assumptions about levels of self-motivation, the directions in which the learner is moving and the clarity of learner goals are perhaps no longer applicable. These younger learners come from a school setting where the culture of the schools, the behaviours that are regulated and not regulated and the assumptions about intrinsic self motivation simply do not match those traditionally encountered in a TAFE environment. School students are used to levels of control and structures of discipline that do not apply in a TAFE setting.

The fundamental question then becomes: how do we understand these younger learners and how do we as teachers in a TAFE setting adjust our thinking, our practice and our styles of teaching to meet the needs of these students?

Choy and Delahaye have been extensively involved in research and writing about younger learners in VET since 2001. A recent publication (AVETRA, 2005) summarises the results of this work. The authors maintain that there are clear ‘discrepancies’(Choy & Delahaye 2005 p1) between young and more mature or adult learners and that by understanding these broad differences pedagogy can become more responsive. Their research indicates that most young people adopt a surface approach to learning because of the time available to them, the amount of content that they have to deal with and the assessment approaches that focus on outcomes (p2). They also suggest that teaching that is more directed and simultaneously supportive is more suited to this age group (p2). Finally they maintain that learning that begins with the concrete and then proceeds to the abstract interspersed with opportunities for explicit reflective activities best matches the needs and characteristics of this younger age group.

Implications for VET Pedagogy

The implications of these findings impact on our understanding of the pedagogy.

Since young people in this age group are embedded in a period of deep transition from childhood to adulthood there is a need to develop principles that will guide our teaching. The authors assert that there have been no principles to assist in this journey (p4).

The remainder of the report on the research focuses on the generation of principles and insights from young people that can assist in the development of pedagogical approaches most suited to this age group. These principles include the following -

Young people:

Are unsure about their capacities to study in a self directed mode
Have the impression that they are being pressured into quick pace learning and narrowly focussed assessment items
Have a high degree of respect for teacher professional knowledge and want to learn from this in a didactic way
Regard society as valuing paper based qualifications (Choy & Delahaye, 2005 p6-7)

Other insights from this research include the fact that young people in this age group have competing forces operating on them. They are jostled between work, social roles and formal learning (Choy & Delahaye, 2005 p7). Alongside this they are still developing their ideas and preferences about work and are not provided with the kind of project based learning that allows them to develop their knowledge and skills (Choy & Delahaye, 2005 p8). Neither do they have the breadth of knowledge that readily allows teachers to build on these experiences in a classroom or workplace context (Choy & Delahaye, B 2005 p10). Unlike adults this age bracket is more reliant on extrinsic rather than intrinsic motivation (Choy & Delahaye, 2005 p11).

The implications for pedagogy are then drawn out by the authors. These can be summarised in the following way and come in the form of clear advice.

Consider the worlds in which these young learners live and integrate these wherever possible
Make the content of the delivery immediately relevant
Satisfy the goals for extrinsic satisfaction and introduce the ideas of intrinsic motivation
Be directive and supportive and gradually introduce the practices of self directed learning
Encourage the development of responsibility for self
Develop self confidence and self efficacy in younger learners (Choy & Delahaye, 2005 p15-16).

A recent publication from the Australian Flexible Learning Framework E-learning for Youth (31 March 2005) focused on strategies for improving online pedagogy for the 15-19 year old age bracket in VET. The scope of the research project included an environmental scan of the issues that confront this age group, their characteristics as learners, strategies for improving their engagement and motivation and an identification of elearning resources that would intersect with their employment needs and their predispositions (p3). The detailed research of the literature showed that younger learners display some common themes in their attitudes and behaviour. These themes are of course generalisations but they do provide a profile that may help teachers and trainers to be more sensitive to the particular needs of this group.

Mardi Dwyer, in her Flexible Learning Leaders Report, identified seven themes in young people’s learning:

kids are under more pressure
face-to-face and experiential training are best
young people need to produce a product
they want to be treated like adults but aren’t ready for self-direction
they have a massive need to belong to a peer group
they have difficulty with emotional management
young people have higher IQ’s (2003 p1) (Peters, 2005 p7)

The recent interest in Neuroscience and Education (Hall, 2005) supports many of these assertions about the characteristics and needs of younger learners. The ideas that there are periods of high sensitivity and that one of these extends into the teenage years, implies that this ‘teaching time’ lays down some of the predispositions and ways of thinking for later life (p21). Similarly, the research reported into the links between emotion and learning (Hall, 2005 p23-24) is of interest to the teacher. ‘…..stress or fear’ can interfere with learning and ‘..social judgement suffers, as well as cognitive performance, because the emotional aspects of learning, including responses to reward and risk are compromised’ (OECD, 2002) (Hall, 2005 p24)

Online Pedagogy and Younger Learners

There has been a lot of literature in the last ten years about the effectiveness of online learning and it is undeniable that governments and VET providers have put a great deal of time and money into making learning more flexible by using the new technologies. In many instances online learning in the VET sector has been described as the solution to many problems such as isolation, time demands and the need to appeal to younger learners who have been described as ‘digital natives’ (Peters, 2005 p7).

…assumptions that all young people are digital natives are likely to be damaging when working with young people from groups such as low socio-economic, New Arrivals and Indigenous young people.

However the research is also careful to point out that while there are many benefits associated with online learning, the pedagogy must be responsive, flexible and respectful of the different styles and situations of the learners. This is particularly the case with younger learners whose intrinsic motivation to learn may not be sufficient or defined enough to provide the persistence that is often required for independent learning. The flexibility of online teaching and learning needs to be balanced beside the sociability and support that come from face-to-face interactions. It is clear from the literature that a blend of online and face-to-face pedagogy works best for most learners.

Assumptions

It is also useful to note that the assumption that all younger learners who have grown up inundated with new technologies are computer literate and have regular access to computing equipment may not be accurate. Whilst it is true that young people are far more likely to be computer ‘savvy’…assumptions that all young people are digital natives are likely to be damaging when working with young people from groups such as low socio-economic, New Arrivals and Indigenous young people. Roger Holdsworth (2004) reinforces this with findings that recent studies indicate that the take up of technology in low socio-economic and/or geographically isolated areas is significantly less than in advantaged urban situations (p14). Terry Clark’s 2004 research into Adult and Community Education (ACE) in Queensland (p36) found that 98% of young Centrelink clients were computer illiterate (Peters, 2005 p6-7).

The extent to which the new technologies contribute to online pedagogy is predicated on how well the teacher can understand the technology, its users and the suitability of content.

Pedagogy and the discussions about teaching and learning strategies and resources clearly have to begin with a questioning of the assumptions that we hold about the competence or otherwise of our students.

The 2005 Peters report also flags the emerging use of other technologies with younger learners (Peters, 2005 p14-17). Mobile phones, palm pilots, MP3 players and blogs all have the potential to offer new ways of contacting, teaching and assessing student progress. The extent to which the new technologies contribute to online pedagogy is predicated on how well the teacher can understand the technology, its users and the suitability of content to be delivered using these methods. An evaluation of time spent, the cost of investing this time and an appreciation of how else the content can be taught needs to be undertaken before embarking down some of these current but ephemeral paths.

‘Within Australia, it has been recognised that young people, particularly those who are 19 years or less (John, 2004a), and people who have a disability (Dumbrell et al, 2004), are among the student cohorts who will have reduced chances of successful outcomes in VET modules. A combination of these categories has an exponential effect (John, 2004b), ie young people with disabilities will have a significantly lower chance of passing modules they study.’ (Boote, 2005 p5-6)

‘Specifically, the House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Education and Training (2004:252) identified the need for further attention to the ‘necessary modifications to learning materials, programs and equipment’ towards this end. This reflects experiences in the UK and Europe (Corbett et al, 1999; Russell, undated) (Boote, 2005 p6).

Discussion Points

Younger learners may need more systematic support and scaffolding than older VET learners if they are to develop the skills of self directed learning. Suggest some effective support and scaffolding strategies that you have used with younger learners.
Think about the ways in which your pedagogy links on the job and off the job learning with your younger learners.
How do you integrate and accommodate the ‘children of the digital age’?
What are the implications of rurality and remoteness and lack of digital access for your pedagogy? How do you adjust your pedagogy to meet all these needs?

ICVET Promoting Emerging Practice, TAFE NSW International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning

May 2006 Headlines

Younger Learners

Online Pedagogy and Younger Learners