From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
have anyone to push you. (Fig Lane, coed school, middle-class intake)
They treat you as more of an adult, they talk to you on the same
level…
… Rather than talking down to you.
… It was more like [last year] get that homework done and, now it’s
just like ‘girls you should get that homework done but at the end of
the day, it’s your journey, you know, your life’. It’s like college, you
know, it’s good. (Belmore Street, girls’ school, mixed intake)
As students approached the exams, some reported being allowed increased
input with regard to what and how they learned. In some cases,
where students had covered their course content, teachers allowed them
to decide what to do in class:
Since we finished the course like, they ask us what we want to revise.
(Belmore Street, girls’ school, mixed intake)
If the teacher was going to revise something, some teachers might ask
if the whole class wanted some topic revised or something, she might
go back over it again. (Fig Lane, coed school, middle-class intake)
Many students noted reduced levels of homework in sixth year 1 and recognised
that teachers were allowing time for studying. Some, however,
felt they responded better to pressure from teachers and were concerned
that they were being given too much responsibility:
You wouldn’t really get homework.
They give you time to study, they don’t really give you homework.
You don’t really get any work at all, they just sort of leave you to
your own devices.
1 The majority (63 per cent) of all sixth year students felt that they were getting
more homework in sixth year than in fifth year. However, a significant rebalancing
was also evident in the amount of time devoted to homework and study (see
Chapter Three).