Giving Students the Choice

Gareth Davey, Head of English, Buckinghamshire College Group

Choice. It’s one of the first things a student will say about maths and English resits. ‘We don’t have a choice’. By definition, it is the only thing they haven’t been able to choose. Their study programme is their choice and then maths and English. We are the enemy before they begin.

To counter this straight away, at the start of the year, with brand new classes, the first time someone requests if they can use the toilet I make a big deal out of telling students they don’t need to ask me. If they need to go to the loo, they can just go.

Now, I make it clear that if they take liberties, then I will take that choice away from them, because sometimes this method can lead to more major disruption than a train to London on Easter Weekend. But, more often than not, this engages the students who are more likely to abuse that system – it allows them the freedom to step outside of the classroom when they get stressed. And it breaks down the barrier between me (the bringer of this horrible subject) and them.

Robert Marzano, in his book ‘The Highly Engaged Classroom’ writes that ‘Choice in the classroom has also been linked to increases in student effort, task performance, and subsequent learning’ He breaks it down into four main areas:

choice of tasks

choice of reporting formats

choice of learning goals

choice of behaviours (pp 14, 101)

So, the most important thing when considering student engagement, and the best way to get students back on board with having to take a resit, is by providing them with micro-choices. The most important of these, in an FE setting where time is of the essence, and everyone shares the same goal, is choice of task and behaviours.

Now, to clarify, this isn’t the classic classroom movie choice of ‘stay or go, see if I care’ that would cause a very stressed Head of School to visit the classroom, but is, in fact, a choice of how students access a lesson. 

We see this often with scaffolded worksheets; this is the work for a ‘good student’ and this is the work for an ‘excellent student’. In my maths lessons, I would use a RAG system (for me, green was always the hardest, which helps students associate difficulty with the more positive ‘green’ colour, instead of the classic ‘red is don’t go’). Red students would self-direct to the easiest, base level question, amber would be middling and green would either be a grade 5 version of the topic, or a worded question. 

In English, it was typically quantity: how many times you analyse, or how many language features you can spot. How deep your analysis goes – do you use zoom? Can you write more than three paragraphs? Can you use higher level terminology, instead of just the usual adverbs?

Giving the students a choice allows them to feel in control. Yes, they have to study a subject they didn’t like at school, and yes, their choice is taken before they begin, but they can choose how they interact with those lessons. In allowing this to happen, students’ mindsets change.

I also let students sit where they like. I trust them to make the right decisions. It’s the same with going to the toilet. This is a really simple thing that makes a huge difference. Again, when students break the trust of choice, the choice is removed and seating plans implemented. But it goes a very long way to helping students decide to be there.

Teacher-student rapport is one of the most important aspects of teaching in an FE maths and English setting, and this should never be overlooked. If they like the teacher, they will willingly be there. They will make the choice. 

It comes down to the choices we, as educators, make. We can influence students’ decisions, but we can never decide for them. Saying things like ‘I want you to do the green questions today – if you feel like you can’ is a good way of developing their sense of choice and allow ensuring students make their own, informed, choices to benefit their scaffolding, whilst also not forcing the students to follow your autonomy. 

Ultimately, what’s really essential is balancing students’ personal preferences with choices that benefit their education. Once they feel like they are choosing to come to class, and choosing to engage in a topic that, previously, they may have not engaged in, the motivation for that student increases. Once the students’ motivation increases – that’s when we reap rewards.

I am a firm believer that students act the way teachers expect them to. If a teacher arrives and assumes that students are going to disrupt, and that they will produce terrible work, then this outcome will be achieved. But if a teacher treats the student like they are an adult, like a university student, then the students will strive to behave like a university student (hopefully without the late nights and the terrible diets).

Ref: The Highly Engaged Classroom, Tips (marzanoresources.com)