Participación y construcción del tejido social • Mapa de actores

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4.4 Reflection on the Lessons Analysed

The final analysis is more 'traditional' to the educational case study method whereby the participant observer reflects upon and describes what is occurring in the classroom. This 'reflective analysis' was built up over a fairly long period of time because of the other analyses mentioned earlier. The description includes further

clarification of the type of negotiation taking place in the room using material gleaned from the earlier analyses and a collection pf the assumptions which the teacher feels are being made. It is here that this researcher is able to combine the qualitative, participant

observations with the quantitative case study data. It is an explicit statement of the revised fore- understanding which has settled as a new layer of sediment upon the biography of the researcher.

Throughout the following discussion the T/R has numbered a series of assumptions which appear to be being made by both teacher and or pupil.

(The numbered assumptions shown bold are reported later page 143.) To cast some suspicion at this stage it might be necessary to ask - why the pupils have not been asked what they assume is happening? Some pupil descriptions can be found in an earlier report. (Froggqtt 1986)

4.4.1 The IS Negotiation Process

It would appear that in IS there are rather elaborate procedures in place to give the pupils back the choice (1) that they have lost through the enforced placement in the IS group. A major part of the aims of the programme have been described as motivational (Open University 1988a) - allowing success in small steps (2). Th$ successes are monitored and recorded as quickly as possible after the event so that the motivation gained might be used to further aid the planning

for development of individual skill deficits by the pupil (3). As outlined earlier the negotiation process in IS is considered to take place in the distinct phases shown below:

■ An Induction Course feeds pupils into the negotiation process. ■ Pupils prepare for negotiations with the teacher.

■ Teacher and pupil negotiate a contract of work.

■ Working negotiation takes place, to overcome difficulties, to plan visits and to manage resources, whilst the contract is fulfilled. ■ Teacher and pupil review and evaluate work.

■ Pupils negotiate skill levels with the teacher and feed them into the computer to be printed later.

As a result of working through the analyses the T/R would now describe the negotiations in IS as a cyclical process (cf. Pearce et al 1981, Harris 1988) which surrounds negotiated learning. It has lpeen shown diagrammatically in the Individual Studies programme guide as follows:

The IS Negotiation Process

I N D U C T I O N P R E P A R A T I O N FOR N E G O T I A T I O N NEGOTIATED ASSESSMENT N E G O T I A T E D L E A R N I N G . C O N T R A C T N E G O T I A T I O N N E G O T I A T E D E V A L U A T I O N WO RK ING N E G O T I A T I O N Figure 4.11

4.4.2 Induction

This is a phase which has not yet been studied in this project, but was briefly examined during the early part of the PACE initiative, and which is revised annually. Induction is seen as an important part of the whole IS negotiation process. The pupils from the Thircjl Year who have been invited to join the IS programme attend this induction. They are those experiencing the problems mentioned earlig^: in the practitioner fore-understanding section. The course entails the pupils being withdrawn from two of their normal third year lessons during the last part of the Summer Term. The course is led by the tutor who will be taking the group in the fourth year and includes work of a problem solving nature as well as instruction in the use of compute^ programs needed in Upper school IS.

4.4.3 Preparation for Negotiation

This phase is not a negotiation, in the terms set out earlier, but it is considered by the IS teachers as essential. In it the pupils are given time to consider the following three questions (4): "What work do I need help with?" (5) "What problem solving work will I undertake?" (6) "What topic would I most like to learn about?" (7) The answers, written out by the pupil or pupils onto a prepared planning sheet (Appendix 1), form the basis of the next phase of the negotiation. It is also expected that the ideas forming the topic of study will have developed into a spider diagram showing all the items pupils feel important about the topic chosen. (8) The only restrictiQns on the choice of topic according to the teacher are: that it must be legal and that it must be something that they could tell their parents about. Pupils are allowed to work in small groups, but the permitted maximum is three pupils (9). If the pupils are working in a group, then

negotiation will take place within the group during the formulation of the plan but this negotiation has not been monitored in the study (10). The group or individual will now negotiate the prepared ideas into a contract of work with the teacher.

4.4.4 Contract Negotiation

This phase of the negotiation produces the contract (11) - the agreed set of work which the pupil will then carry out. The aims of the Holgate contract have been summarised elsewhere (Froggatt 1986). Several of the aims to do with planning impinge upon the negotiable content of the contract.

The Negotiable Areas of the Holgate Contract ■ What might be learnt.

■ How it might be learnt. ■ Where it might be learnt. ■ When it might be learnt.

■ For how long it might be learnt.

■ What form the end product of the learning might take,

Tal?le 4.21 The ideas and plans that the students bring to the negotiating table can be visualised as lying somewhere along a continuum between doing no project at all and doing the perfect project. The teacher will also have ideas about what students can achieve. These ideas will no doubt lie at a different place on this continuum. Negotiation is sqen as the process that will bring the two sets of ideals somewhat closer together to produce the final plan of the work. Quite often the pgpils in IS underestimate their abilities and such a continuum is shown in figure 4.12 over the page.

The project planning continuum type 1

No pupil /■ final

f

^

C. contract 3

teacher1s perfect

proj ect plans ideals

negotiation to close the gap

Figure 4.12

On the other hand it may be that the teacher has such low expectations of the pupil that it is the pupil plan which is closer to the ideal or a further possibility is possible where the pupil aspirations far outweigh actual capabilities of carrying out such a project - either way the teacher ideals and pupil plans are exchanged as shown in Figure 4.13 below:

The project planning continuum type 2

No teacher1s final pupil

ideals ^ contract ^ plans

perfect project

negotiation to close the gap

Figure ^,13

The teacher and pupil or pupils will use the planning sheet to discuss the ideas generated (12) and much of the early negotiation takes the form of clarification. The teacher using question and answer cycles to

create an expansion and development of these ideas as the following extract from the transcripts shows.

Clarification Through Question and Answer Techniques

T.

Now what are you doing then? Are you comparing trains busses

lorries planes? Are you going to do some sort of

those or? (Looking from one to the other)

comparison on