Outcomes
Students in the Alternative class were happier - they felt better about themselves when they weren't struggling in a class where others were coping, and enjoyed being able to work at their own pace and without huge expectations on them, while some were just pleased to be in a group with their friends. Staff report that they haven't noticed any stigma attached to the fact that students are in the class.
Michele says that students clearly enjoyed the work because they kept turning up to class, a good indicator in this sort of group, and kept on task when in the classroom. One student who hadn't finished his project came back in 2008 because he wanted to complete it. While students are unlikely to tell a teacher that they like a class, Michele would get feedback from other people about how much they enjoyed it.
At the beginning of the year Michele had identified one difficulty as being the need, because of the limited NCEA credits offered, to justify the benefits of the programme through other achievements. However, student success in their class work and outcomes more than met this need. She says that previous students gained credits but didn't necessarily learn much more than the skills, but this group also learnt a lot of the background thinking in Technology, and could understand why details such as briefs or specifications are important.
Management of the programme was very teacher-dependent. There was huge pressure on Michele to be in class and any lessons using a relief teacher (despite good school support in placing the 'right' teacher) knocked the routine and meant more work for her to compensate when she was back in class. Nevertheless, she found that that teaching Technology units did make classroom management easier. Students had ownership of their own project and worked at their own pace so had a sense of control over their outcome and valued it, and this was emphasised by the interest from home in the project. The working relationship between students was much better and students would redo something rather than "nick" someone else's, as used to happen previously.
Michele: "The thinking students learn in Technology can make a difference between being the guy working on the shop floor being told what to do all the time and being the supervisor. Just because they're not good at some subjects, it doesn't mean they can't be that thinker who's got enough initiative. And I think most of those students showed they could do quite a bit of thinking when given the opportunity".
Michele says that that structuring the course around student attendance, and planning her teaching for those periods when most students were there, worked successfully, although she found it hard because she prefers working in a more flexible way. Having an established routine, with particular days reserved for theory or practical work, was advantageous for these students, who tend to be a bit lost if left to structure their own work.
One problem the school has identified is that a lot of parents don't come into school because their perception or experience is that they'll be told that their children are misbehaving. Students in this class were encouraged to (and did) talk to their families about their projects and for some parents the consequence of this positive feedback from school led to their taking more interest in what child was doing at school and achieving.
Parents presented with the lamps were proud of their children's achievements and Michele says one family was astounded when (after she'd driven him up the road to make sure it arrived) they saw their son's work. They hadn't thought he could make something like that and clearly didn't recognise the skills he had developed, because they hadn't seen any of his products at home before. In previous years students often didn't bother taking their completed objects home from school.
At the 2007 TENZ (Technology Education New Zealand) conference, Michele presented a workshop on the Alternative Multi-materials programme and how she had incorporated Technology teaching within it.
