books
Strategies for engaging learners will delight and inform teachers
Motivating Unwilling Learners in Further Education. The key to improving behaviour By Susan Wallace Routledge: paperback 978-1-4729-4239-5
This book was a captivating, thought-provoking and highly beneficial read.
It’ s 138 pages long and contains 12 relevant and concise chapters, each focusing on what Susan Wallace sees as the key areas of demotivation, and offering strategies on how to overcome this. She also zooms in on three specific age groups that teachers encounter in further education: 14-16, 16-19 and adult learners.
The‘ Four Big Barriers’ faced by unwilling learners are emphasised throughout – fear, boredom, previous negative experience and lack of hope – and what I particularly appreciated is that Susan identifies these at the beginning of the book.
Susan’ s style of writing is extremely engaging and direct. It is clear that she, like me, has a vast experience of working with challenging and unwilling learners in a variety of environments. Informally written, real-life case studies assist each chapter.
My attention was instantly drawn to chapter 9, Selling Maths and English. Having taught English for several years now, in what would be classed as‘ tough’ places, I was very keen to see how
Susan would address the barriers. What I valued in this chapter was how she identified the benefits of the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset.
She also gives supportive advice to vocational tutors, many of whom are struggling to motivate themselves to embed maths and English into their sessions in FE.
I would have liked a little more in the way of expert opinions here, not only to support Susan’ s arguments but to offer more subject-specific advice.
Susan’ s book is a refreshing read that avoids throwing tons of age-old educational theories at you on every page.
It is also presented in a very clear and easy-to-read way. The informative case studies and guidance tables( e. g. page 23) are great examples of this, the latter having two simple columns – what a teacher did and the impact this had on her learners.
I think any tutor, practitioner or trainee teacher picking up this book will be delighted with what they read.
This book bridges the gap between what I thought were the most common issues around motivation and how to deal with them, and what I now believe I can do to further improve my teaching practice in FE.
Reviewer: Hannah Baker is a GCSE English Teacher at Suffolk New College. Hannah has previously worked as a teacher in the secure estate.
MEMBER OFFER
SET members can claim a 20 per cent discount on the RRP of this title( both print and e-books) when ordering direct from Bloomsbury Publishing at goo. gl / FrrLXz Use code discount Motivating20. The offer is valid until 31 July 2017.
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1. Learning from Singapore. The Power of Paradoxes By Pak Tee Ng Routledge: paperback 978-1-1389-2691-2 If Singapore was a person it would resemble the incredibly clever, high-achieving and preternaturally well-mannered kid down the road that your mother routinely compared you to, and never in a favourable way.
Indeed, the opening pages
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of this book largely serve to strengthen this sense as they recount Singapore’ s successes in international league tables for maths, English and science, not to mention robotics, beauty therapy, information network cabling and restaurant service.
But, just as your smugness receptors begin to overheat, Pak Tee Ng, who is associate dean at the National Institute of Education at the Nanyang
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Technological University in Singapore, turns his attention to teachers and trainers.
He attributes Singapore’ s success to the hard work and tenacity of a few generations of policymakers, practitioners and teacher trainers. He says it is essential to pay attention to the motivation, professionalism and development of the teaching profession.
It is also a system that
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embraces and values change and consistency in education. For instance, where once Singapore had( and probably still has) a reputation for didactic and rote learning, it has actually shisted towards a more student-centred approach that encourages experiential learning and critical and creative thinking.
Two points made in this book that are very hard to disagree with( and which our own policy
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32 ISSUE 28 • SUMMER 2017 INTUITION