Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

74 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?practising for exams both within and outside of school. Three-quarters ofLCE/LCVP students report practising previous exam papers in ‘every’ or‘most’ lessons compared with fewer than four in ten LCA students.Furthermore, among fifth years, LCA students are much less likely to takeprivate tuition (‘grinds’) than their LCE/LCVP counterparts (5 per cent v.16 per cent). The difference between the two groups becomes much moremarked in sixth year, when almost half of LCE/LCVP students, and only 5per cent of LCA students, are taking grinds mid-way through the schoolyear.In sum, the different modes of assessment are found to haveconsequences for student engagement and approach to learning. For LCEand LCVP students, there is a fairly strong focus on the importance ofhomework and study as part of student learning. For LCA students, incontrast, learning is more strongly related to activities within the classroom,workplace or on field trips.The experiences of young people taking LCA are shaped not only by thecurriculum and teaching methods used but by day-to-day interaction withteachers and other students. The extent to which social relations changeand develop over senior cycle is considered in the following sections.5.6SocialRelationsWithTeachersThe longitudinal study of post-primary students allows us to compare thenature of teacher-student interaction in LCA and LCE/LCVP classes. Suchinteraction can be characterised as positive, involving praise and feedback,or negative, involving frequent reprimands or criticism. LCA classes inboth fifth and sixth year appear to entail more positive and negativeinteractions between teachers and students (Figure 5.12 and 5.13), whichmost likely reflects the generally small size of LCA class groups. LCAstudents more frequently report being praised for their written work butalso more frequently report being given out to by teachers for their workFigure 5.12: Nature of Teacher-student Interaction in Fifth Year, as Reported byStudents7060% v. often/often50403020100Askedquestionsin classBeen askedquestionsTold workgoodPraised foransweringquestionPraised for Given out to Given out towritten work re work re behaviourLCALCE/LCVPSource: Post-Primary Longitudinal Study (PPLS) database.