Session Information
SES F 10, Paper Session
Paper Session
Contribution
Experiencing the teaching of juveniles, 12-17 years old boys at Young Offenders Institution (YOI) is like entering a different world. We are challenged by the youths who are forced to do education to improve their Numeracy and Literacy skills in a class room and they do not want to learn at all.
The characteristics of these juveniles are aggressive, impulsive, temperamental, and selfish and pride becomes sensitive issues, and the opposites, they feel inferior, with a low self esteem and not a confident outlook.
Most of these juveniles have been expelled from school as young as 9 or 10 years old for many reasons, e.g. truancy, trouble maker in a class, and family circumstances. Many of them have come from broken home family, parents with alcohol and/ or drugs problems, nor role model, live in poor condition and bad environment (Mardiani-Euers, TS4216, PGCE).
This young disadvantaged group have very poor Literacy and Numeracy skills. Some of them even cannot read, and write. Observation showed that many of them are found to be dyslexic.
Education in YOI is supposed to be part of the rehabilitation programme, aiming to improve the condition of the inmates in terms of education, attitude and behaviour so that they can come back to a normal life, and reduce offending. In reality, facts and observation show that 36.9 % of juveniles who were convicted in the first three months of 2003 were reconvicted within a year (Home Office, 2003). This implied that the rehabilitation programme in this premises has failed. ‘Prisoner will continue re-offend costing £11 billion a year’ (The Lecturer in Mardiani-Euers, TS4993, PGCE).
There are other reasons of why the education system in YOI failed. Over recent years, prison education has been through privatisation and contracting out of services, cuts in resources and staff, lowering of pay rates and narrowing of the prison education curriculum. Its lecturers often work in the most difficult situations, and with less support or respect (UCU, 2008). Some teachers even have no Mathematics skills and competence have been teaching Numeracy in these premises for a long time.
It is a compulsory for the juveniles to attend Numeracy and Literacy classes. The class is set and arranged like a normal class at ordinary school, rigid, not flexible. It stands alone as Numeracy, or Literacy class. With their background and characteristics, the existing class setting do not encourage the juveniles to learn at all.
This paper will discuss and analyse the existing education system at one of YOIs in Britain based on my observation and experience as a Numeracy teacher, followed by a small scale research to find out what will be the effect on motivation and achievement in numeracy skills if we apply the different approach of teaching which is more flexible, combined with vocational course and relevant practical skills.
The result will be analysed by relating to the Motivation Model by Keller and linking the learning activity to the exploration of Seven Intelligences type by Gardner.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
References Anderson, Sandra et al (editors), 1999. The Chambers Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publisher. Mardiani-Euers, Esti, 2005. Embedding Numeracy with An Industrial Cleaning Course. Action Research. TS4993, PGCE. Mardiani-Euers, Esti, 2005. Post Compulsory Education in the Prison – Theory and Practice. TS2131, PGCE. Mardiani-Euers, Esti, 2005. Education Opportunity for the Working Class. TS4216, PGCE Bibliography: BELL, Judith, Bush, Fox, 1984. Conducting Small-Scale Investigations in Educational Management. Harper. SEIFERT, Timothy L, 2004. Understanding Student Motivation. Educational Research, Vol.46, No. 2, Summer 2004. SMALL, Ruth, V., 1997. Motivation in Instructional Design.ERIC Digest. http://wwww.ericdigest/1998-1/motivation.htm Websites reading and reference: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/offenderlearning/index.cfm?flash=1 http://www.homeoffice.gove.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/youth-crime/ http://www.literacy trust.org.uk/Database/prisonarchive.html www.socialexclusionunit.gov.uk
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