The students in all of the schools overwhelmingly affirmed that their teachers were their major and most significant source of support and encouragement, with many additional comments making it clear that this was recognised and appreciated by them.
Handing up rough drafts has been helpful in identifying expectations. But more importantly, feeling that nothing is too much trouble – that teachers are interested in our well-being and make the time to be approachable.
Being able to speak to teachers, as people.
Some of the teachers’ interviews reflect on the nature of their relationship with the PAL students as well.
They appreciate what we know, and how we work with them for them to know…I think they find us generous, and compassionate, and a bit feisty. And they like that…I think they see that they are sharing this journey [with us].
Support from their family and friends was also acknowledged, although that from their families was also counter-posed with indications that many families had found it difficult to adjust to the changes to their lives arising from the study demands of one of its members.
Support from my family – now that’s a different matter.
The complications and difficulties arising from dealing with family demands and expectations, in the face of their dramatically changed circumstances, is reflected below in the section on barriers to their study. However there is obviously also a positive side to this for some of the students’ families, and some evidence that the PAL students’ achievement and engagement with their learning is rubbing off on their families.
And I think there are a lot of conversations going [on] out there, with their families…Good things going on with their children. Fabulous role modelling going on with their children. [And] their children are really proud.
This latter aspect is reflected in the family evening organised at one of the schools in response to this interest by the PAL students’ families in seeing and experiencing the place at which these exciting developments were happening. The inter-generational educational impacts of this aspect of the UniSA-PAL course are worthy of monitoring and investigation over time.
Support from other students was also a significant feature of the learning environment.
Us [sic] students have ‘bonded’ together. We understand that everyone is feeling much the same.
For other students, it was not so much the support aspect as other factors, such as the collegiality of facing the challenges together and the stimulation of being with a group of like-minded adults which was mentioned as an important element in the experience of undertaking the UniSA-PAL course. For example, one student indicated that one of the most enjoyable aspects of the program was
Interacting with other adults with similar aspirations and problems.
The staff interviews provide more insights into the nature of the students’ learning and other support needs. The interviews probed whether the PAL students’ support needs were greater than or similar to those of the usual cohorts of adult re-entry students at their schools and, if they differed in any way, whether this was due to the characteristics of the students or the nature of the course. Responses stressed that the students did not have a higher level of needs per se than other adult students, either from their complicated lives or from the demands of the course, although it was acknowledged that the course was at a more demanding level than the usual senior secondary year 12.
The course overall is more demanding, and creates more pressure in terms of time management, access to resources, and periods of intense stress.
The teachers’ and coordinators’ responses consistently noted that the PAL students’ study and other support needs were a result of their clearer motivation and related commitment and determination to succeed. Therefore the difference identified was that the PAL students were more ready to express their needs and to seek support to meet them, in this sense being more demanding that other students.
Their study support needs are the same as our usual cohort – the difference is they seek it out more actively.
There are some students who are so highly motivated, and so kind of ‘end-point’ oriented, that they are quite assertive in their requests for extra help, to get that extra mark.
Interesting too is that the coordinator at Para West149 commented that the support needs of the 2003 cohort of PAL students at the school were markedly less than the first year’s group, speculating that this difference may have been due to the increased confidence of the teachers themselves the second time around, communicated somehow to the students who as a result were less needy.
The support they seem to need is encouragement more than anything else.
In the other schools, the students’ support needs were greater in the early stages of the course, diminishing as their confidence and achievements developed.
The level of support they want from me now is not nearly as demanding as it was at the beginning. They have worked it out. They are sailing now.
The staff interviews remarked more often than the students did in their questionnaires on the level of support which the PAL students provided to each other, perhaps because this is more noticeable to the staff in contrast to their usual adult students. The suggested causes of this include the PAL students sharing an entire course which they are undertaking together, as a group, unlike other adult students who undertake a range of year 11 and year 12 subjects, as well as their shared aspirations and motivation.
[The students’ support of each other] has been quite noticeable and quite strong and I think that’s a big benefit of having that single cohort, in one place, doing [the course] together…they have established a little bit of a network for themselves which they can take on to university, which will be useful.
Reference was made to the PAL students’ mutual support, the development of friendships between them, and to them bonding together as a group, choosing to work together in the student centre rather than at home alone, or gathering together for tutorials at one of their homes, creating social activities together out of school hours, supporting and helping each other face various life problems, as individuals, and staying together as a cohesive group within the school rather than mixing throughout the rest of the school community.
There is a strong sense of working together and supporting each other and getting as many of the group through as possible.
They are just such a good group and they are supporting each other. And they ring each other up and say “No, you can’t give up!”
There was evidence of this strong peer support between the PAL students in each of the four schools and in both years. However it seemed to be most marked and unusually strong in the first year at Para West when the group were aware that they were part of the first year of a pilot and that their own success or otherwise might determine the future of the program as a whole, and hence opportunities for others like them in future years, and perhaps least well developed or expressed at Thebarton in 2003, perhaps due to the smaller (and most reduced) and younger cohort.