Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

70 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?opinion in class. Respondents felt that they learned more effectivelythrough discussion and debate in the classroom:I’d say a lot of people are quiet in class because they won’t speak up like, youknow. You learn a lot more when you do speak up because you’re being told thereand then like what’s, what’s right and what’s wrong, you seem to take a lot morein like. (Sarah, 21, completed LCA, employed)The respondents indicated that class sizes had been much smaller intheir LCA group than in their junior cycle classes. There is little systematicdata available on average class sizes in LCA. However, analyses of the DESleaver database can be used to indicate the number of young people leavingeach school in the final year of LCA. Such analyses indicate that, in 2006,the majority (59 per cent) of schools providing the programme had 10 orfewer students in their LCA year two class.Many young people felt that the smaller class sizes in LCA meant theyreceived much more individualised attention from the teacher, thusfacilitating their learning:I think it was a smaller class, the teacher gave everybody a lot of help with thingsand a lot of notes and … like she kept going over things and practiced everythinga lot, that kind of way. (Mary, 22, completed LCA, home duties)A smaller class coupled with a greater use of group work was seen asfacilitating learning from and with their peers:Oh it was great … we were all in one class … it wasn’t what’s the answer tothis, everything was a group discussion and all … I just loved it. (Zoe, 22,dropped out of LCA, unemployed)You were normally working in a group, so if you had something on your mindthat you were afraid to do there was always someone in the group that was able tohelp you. (Mary, 22, completed LCA, home duties)Although smaller class size and more individual attention werecharacteristic of LCA, a small number of young people felt that more couldbe done to provide students with personal attention and support within theclass context:Do you think it [LCA] could be improved in any way?Do more one on one sessions with people who have social difficulties like badsocial skills like, just like anyone who’s real nervous because a lot of people whocame into the LCA when I started, there were people just joining school, did theirJunior Cert somewhere else. (Maurice, 21, completed LCA, student)I’d do more classes where, one on one, with the teacher like, more one on one withpeople, students. … If you had a session once a week or something, just to seehow you’re overall getting on with that person like. … So just if there’s problemsor whatever you could just, you could find out about them. (Anne, 21,completed LCA, employed)