The Water Management Project was quite a popular choice when students signed up, to the extent that some were moved to their second choice projects. Hamish was an odd exception to this; he was absent the day of the project sign-ups, and would have preferred the Computer Science project had he been given the choice, despite his interest in Biology. Hamish was relatively new to CAST, joining for sixth form from September 2017. He had come from a private study centre, having first attempted and failed his GCSE’s at his original secondary school. Hamish self-identified as suffering from dyslexia and dyspraxia, which had resulted in him being denied a place in higher tier21 for any of his courses at his previous school. This in turn, he feels, led to his ‘giving up’ and then getting 6 D’s, an E, and a G22 the first time around.
His self-efficacy seemed quite tied to his performance; when he went to retake, “when I went to this private school place they put me on higher tier for everything I tried and I got good marks” (18.03.02 lns 18-19). While there is evidence that motivation and self-efficacy can have a significant impact on students resitting their GCSE’s (Anderson & Peart, 2016) that this improvement is due entirely to the self-confidence that resulted from his placement in higher tiers is doubtful. Increased familiarity with the material is likely to have played a part, as will have his familiarity with the testing process. Regardless, the success he was able to achieve (1 A, 3 B’s, 3C’s) meant he had more choices for sixth form.
Because Hamish already knew he was interested in pursuing a paramedic qualification after his sixth form, he chose to enrol in the Applied Sciences BTEC with Core Maths as an additional subject. He was quite enthusiastic about his coursework, believing it gave him advantages his peers might not have because of the breadth of subject matter he was being
21In the UK, students sitting their GCSE exams may be entered at either a ‘foundation’ or ‘higher’ tier, reflecting
relative difficulty of examinations. These tiers are determined in advance, so students are aware of which tier they are in.
22 GCSE marks were at the time of Hamish’s assessment awarded on an A*-G scale, with scores below G resulting
exposed to; diverse knowledge over specialised expertise was a relatively common theme throughout our time together. Hamish also believed that the BTEC qualification allows him flexibility in terms of the pathway by which he can pursue his qualification; he could pursue either an apprenticeship or a degree in paramedic science. As the project progressed, it seemed as if he was leaning more towards the apprenticeship option, but from the start he was clear that whichever pathway he chose, it could easily be extended to then later study medicine and become a doctor, pursue an advanced paramedic qualification, or another undetermined path. Hamish definitely believed that having options and flexibility in his courses was important to him, as it meant he would have more options and flexibility in his future.
When asked about his specific background that could be relevant to the WMP, Hamish was a bit more cautious, feeling his primary background was more within the realm of human biology. While an A Level in Environmental Science was an option offered by CAST, he chose not to take it, and had done very little independent work relating to Ecology in the past because “if I don’t find a subject interesting, I don’t really get motivated to learn about it” (18.03.02 lns 142-143). When pressed, Hamish did admit he was open to the idea of becoming more engaged and involved in Ecology, but the project as it had been presented to him was not one that
immediately grabbed his attention. This would become a major theme as the project progressed; not only was this evident from his behaviour, Hamish remained very good at identifying this characteristic in himself as he went along with the project.
Hamish held equally decisive views about his learning style as well; when he did find a topic to be interesting, he preferred to ask increasingly complex ‘but why’ type questions until his curiosity was satisfied. More than once, he joked that while most teachers say they want students like this, he felt he was actually an annoyance to them (18.03.02 lns 47-52):
Hs: Oh yeah no I mean obviously all schools have this whole motivation of ‘oh we love it when you ask why’ and then I found out that when you ask why 15 times they tend to not like it um but no these Challenge Projects are great in the respect of discovering more and doing a little bit more in-depth research than you would typically do in lessons because you get people coming in the subject field and they’re always happy to talk about their work um so it’s really good to go in-depth with them about it yeah
Because Hamish believed that experts were more amenable to an ever-increasingly complex series of ‘but why’s, he was anticipating being able to go more in-depth than he would have the chance to go during his courses. This was very important for him, because when he described his preferred learning style, this was one thing he felt he did not get enough of during typical lessons (18.03.09 lns 65-67…71-72):
Hs:…my uh personal preference is I love a teacher who’s always happy to sort of be there and answer questions, even if it’s not necessarily about what we’re doing… cause for me gaining a better understanding is always about asking ‘why okay why does it happen oh it happens because of this I now understand why it happens’
With this in mind, Hamish was willing to participate in this new project, despite being outside his general area of interest, because (18.03.09 lns 18-22):
Hs:…some topics where I’ve um looked at I’ve gone I’m not amazingly interested by this like uh lenses in Physics like convex and stuff um I’ve looked at it and gone I’m don’t really find this stuff interesting but then once I’ve learned a little bit more about it, I’ve found out more about what it’s about I’ve gone yeah okay I find this quite interesting. The opportunity to work with experts in the field, who would give Hamish the chance to ask questions, learn more about the topic, and perhaps discover a new interest was enough for him to enter this project willingly if not entirely enthusiastically.