On the Edge of Adulthood: Young people's school and out-of-school experiences at 16

4. Engagement in school

We have seen that school attendance, NCEA achievement, and teachers’ perceptions of student behaviour and attitudes at age 16 are linked to how well students feel they are engaged with school. In this chapter, we first describe student ratings of their levels of engagement in school and feeling affirmed in school. Then we describe parents’ perspectives on their children’s school experience, as well as their own feelings about their child’s school. Finally in this chapter, we report findings from our analyses as to how student engagement is related to other aspects of the students’ experiences, both in and out of school.

Levels of school engagement

Six percent of the young people had already left school, as soon as they legally could, indicating that remaining at school held little attraction for them. We look at what they were doing, and some differences in their experiences, past and current, in relation to those who remained at school, in the following chapter. These differences include lower levels of school engagement at age 14.

Close to a fifth of those still at school said they would like to leave as soon as they could, and 36 percent said they were usually or always bored.

We asked the 16-year-olds at school to give us their view on 26 items about school. Most of these items were also used at age 14, and some at age 12. It is interesting to compare the changes between age 12 and age 14, with those between age 14 and age 16.

Age-12 levels of engagement with school were higher than age-14 levels, when the study participants had moved to secondary level. At age 12, the participants reported less boredom, less restlessness, and less getting tired of trying. They were also less likely to get into trouble—but no more (or less) likely to think the school rules were fair; or to think they got all the help they needed.

With the exception of some increase in the proportion who felt restless at school, we did not see the same marked change in school engagement levels between ages 14 and 16. It is heartening that for many of these items, age - 14 and age -16 students’ views were similar: students who stay in secondary school do not get progressively disengaged with school as they encounter qualification assessments and NCEA.

But nor do we see student levels of engagement improving as they continue with secondary school. The overall levels show that for a sizeable minority, secondary school is not as engaging as it could—and should—be. It is not that students do not feel safe, or that they do not belong: almost all the students indicated that they were usually comfortable in this respect, and they certainly understood that school was a place where they should try to do their best. It seems as if something is lost in the ways through which they were asked to do that.

Two factors were identified among the 26 items we asked the students to give us their view on, engaged in school, and affirmed at school.

Engaged in school

Around two-thirds to three-quarters of the age-16 students usually or always liked their teachers, enjoyed learning, and kept out of trouble. Although around a quarter felt restless (an increase since age 14), and a fifth got tired of trying, very few said they made a habit of skipping classes. Given teacher views of attendance levels described in Chapter 2, it seems more likely that students stay away from school for a day rather than pick and choose classes when they were there.

Items shown as (r) are reverse scored when they are included in the factor, so that the scoring for all the items is consistent. For example, a rarely/never restless score would be assigned the top score with reverse scoring, to be consistent with the almost/always scores for the positively worded items such as “I enjoy learning”.

Affirmed at school

Around 90 percent of the age-16 students usually or always felt safe at school, felt they belonged, and thought it important to do their best. Eighty percent thought they were usually or always treated as an individual. More than half also thought they were treated as an adult, as well as getting all the help they needed. They were more likely to see opportunities to take leadership roles than that their views on how to improve their classes or school were actively solicited.

Other aspects of engagement

Some of the items we asked about did not fit into either of the engaged at school or the affirmed at school factors. These are given in the table below. Few age-16 students found school a constant site of loneliness, sadness, or rejection of their key beliefs. Most had good friends at school. And while more than half thought that they could improve the quality of their work if they made more effort, they did not feel that the amount of work they had to do was to blame.

Parent perspectives

Parent reports show that levels of enjoyment of school continued to slide down over time. It is interesting that the drop of 10 percent between ages 14 and 16 is the same as the drop between ages 12 and 14, indicating that the framework of end-of-school qualifications (NCEA) lessens enjoyment no more (or less) than experiences as 12-year-olds cross into the adolescent world and experience more lively possibilities outside school, and outside their families. As far as parents could tell, just over half the 16-year-olds at school generally enjoyed being there.

Consistent with differences in patterns evident in student views of their most enjoyed and least enjoyed subjects (see Chapter 7), parents reported that while many students liked most (55 percent) or all (11 percent) of their teachers, 30 percent liked only some of them, and two students, none. Parent views of the support their child had from their current teachers were as positive as they had been two years earlier: 51 percent rated the support these teachers gave for their child’s learning as 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale, and 31 percent did so for teachers’ support for their child’s emotional wellbeing. Ten percent thought their child had no or very little support for their learning, and 19 percent, for their emotional wellbeing.

Fifty-nine percent of the parents were satisfied with their child’s progress at school, much the same as for the students at Year 10 when they were aged 14, and somewhat lower than the 69 percent at Year 9 or at age 12, when they were in Years 7 or 8. Twenty-two percent expressed mixed views, and 19 percent were not at all satisfied. As in earlier phases of this project, the main reasons for mixed views or dissatisfaction were that the student was not making good progress (27 percent), was bored or repeating work (10 percent), the quality of teachers (4 percent), and the student lacking confidence or being unhappy at school (4 percent).

Most parents felt welcome in their child’s secondary school (84 percent). Five percent did not, and 2 percent had never been to this school. Seventy-one percent had taken part in teacher–parent interviews; 30 percent said they had very little contact with the school. Just over half (52 percent) had worked with someone at the school to sort out a problem: 22 percent of these were related to student progress (or lack of it), 13 percent to social problems, including bullying, 7 percent because the student had broken a school rule, 6 percent because a teacher had been unfair to the student, 5 percent were related to the student’s health, and a few mentioned homework completion, timetable clashes, or substance abuse. Two-thirds of the problems that had brought parents and school together were resolved; most of the rest were in the process of being resolved, or were monitored. However, the problem remained unresolved for 13 percent.

What influences school engagement at age 16?

In this section, we describe correlations between school engagement scores and other variables that are in scale form (e.g., scales relating to classroom experiences, teacher views of student approaches, home relations, friendships, and out-of-school experiences), and the level of variance in school engagement scores accounted for in relation to categorical variables (e.g., values, motivation levels at age 14).

Engaged in school and affirmed at school—associations with other variables

Table 25 gives the correlations for our measures of engaged in school and affirmed at school. Our measure of engaged in school shows much stronger correlations with NCEA achievement than does the measure of feeling affirmed at school (a feeling one belongs).

Other patterns of particular interest in the table are:

• Levels of engagement in school, and feeling affirmed at school have moderate to strong correlations with each other, yet they remain distinct. While it is likely that a student who feels comfortable and safe will also feel engaged in (the work of) school, it does not always follow—and vice versa. Thus we need to pay attention to both dimensions. Both factors have similar levels of association with student reports of positive classroom learning activities and relations with their teachers; their being absorbed in learning and their attitude to work, with reasonably similar levels between student and teacher views. This pattern suggests that both school engagement and feeling affirmed at school are related to what students experience in their classes, and that they also provide an indication of student openness to their learning opportunities, and willingness to make an effort.
• There is a reasonable degree of continuity between age-14 and age-16 levels of these two variables, indicating the value of ensuring that levels of these are high in the first years of students’ secondary school experience.
• ŸRisky behaviour, risky friends, and to a lesser extent, experiences of adverse events are more strongly associated—negatively—with school engagement than with feeling affirmed at school. This may be because school offers opportunities for social reinforcement for negative as well as positive behaviours (as well as its primary purpose, learning).
• Risky behaviour and friends carry more weight than the quality of family relations in relation to school engagement. Family relationships carry more weight when it comes to levels of feeling affirmed at school, suggesting that students who have positive experiences in one setting have them in another—and that may be because they have become accustomed to expecting support or inclusion, and are open to making the most of opportunities for it.

Note: 

Correlations stronger than ± 0.4 are shown in bold face and those between -0.2 and 0.2 by –.

Engagement in school and categorical variables

The same variables that showed continuing relationships with Level 1 NCEA credit totals and the cognitive composite at age 16 also show up, not surprisingly, in the table below that summarises the associations of our categorical variables to engagement in school at age 16. It underlines how the work of school is less attractive for 16-year-olds who have not been able to find purpose in the written word, or in interests that challenge them previously. Often this includes those who have had fewer opportunities at an early age that encourage language and symbol use. However, the associations are not as strong—the proportions of variance accounted for in different levels of engagement in school are much lower than they were for the two achievement measures. This indicates that current experiences of classes and school also contribute to levels of engagement in school at age 16.

Note: 

* Association is at the indicative level (01 < p < 0.05).

Affirmed at school and previous experiences and family resources

The affirmed at school factor covers student views of belonging, having a voice, mattering as an individual, and being treated fairly. While the pattern of variables that have a bearing on levels of affirmation is similar to the pattern for the engaged in school factor, which focused more on the “work” of school,there are some interesting differences. School attendance carries more weight (indicating that students who do not feel they belong or are treated fairly are less likely to attend school, which has, as we have seen, associations with their achievement). There are more traces of previous experiences colouring age-16 responses, particularly in relation to involvement in bullying, previous motivation levels, and parental reports of their enthusiasm about school from age 8 to age 14. Subject clusters carry less weight than for engagement in school, but they still carry some, indicating that subject hierarchies also have associations with student feelings of belonging to the school. Ethnicity was unrelated to differences in feeling affirmed at school for this sample, though it was related to differences in engaged in school levels, which may indicate that in addressing ethnic gaps in achievement, the teacher–student relationships and ways learning is framed may be more important to focus on than global feelings of belonging or safety.

Note:

* Association is at the indicative level (01 < p < 0.05).

Further insights from multivariate models

The multivariate models summarised below included demographic variables, and age-14 competency scores, yet these did not show significant relationships with school engagement at 16. When we have data that allow us to get insight into young people’s own attitudes and practices—the things that accumulate into different learning identities—we can gain some understanding of what it is about, say, ethnicity, that underlies differences in school engagement.²⁴

The factors that remained in the multivariate models are those related to student attitudes, and their previous levels of engagement or affirmation: the degree to which their learning identity is focused on school, the degree to which they have developed some intrinsic motivation, and their view of the learning opportunities in their current classes. Those current learning opportunities also play a role in levels of feeling affirmed at school; as do aspects of learning identity—but also experiences of support and recognition with family and friends, and safe challenge within friendships.

Some implications

Our findings that there are links between student feelings of being engaged in school, their attendance, their NCEA credit totals, and their competency levels are not surprising. If we think of these links, the Ministry of Education’s current push to increase student attendance by reducing truancy, and the Government’s proposal to raise the school leaving age to 17 at the same time as we think of the significant minority—even in this comparatively advantaged sample—who showed low levels of engagement in school, and to a lesser extent, feeling affirmed in school, we see a sizeable challenge. It will not be enough to have students at school if they are not also engaged in the work of school.

Our models show that experiences beyond school play their part—but they are not the whole story. Positive learning environments also show links, as does having developed an intrinsic motivation. Thus one of the levers for increasing student engagement with learning is to support teachers to provide positive learning environments. We return to this in Chapters 7 and 8.

Before doing so, we focus in the next chapter on those who had already left school to see what we can learn from them about the kinds of experiences that make school an undesirable pathway, the things that can turn a young person away from either developing a positive learning identity, or a learning identity that does not see school as providing positive experiences, or the kinds of particular learning experiences that are sought. Again, we see both factors in and out of school playing a part, and therefore suggesting some ways in which educators can act and be supported to better engage students.