Amid all the hubbub of A level results day, concerns have been raised over the impact of unconditional offers with some schools blaming universities for disincentivising students who then end up with poor grades. In order to understand what’s going on and to plot a course to avoid these difficulties, we need to examine the motivations of universities, schools and students.
Simplifying wildly and charitably, universities and schools have similar motivations. In order of priority they are:
- Provide the best possible outcomes for the students in front of them
- Manage income streams to match expenditure
- Be well-respected by peers and potential customers (including those who value league tables)
Students have different motivations. Broadly speaking, they want to:
- Satisfy the immediate demands of the adults in charge
- Prepare for a successful and rewarding future
- Enjoy the present
What has happened, then, is that in order to manage their income stream and ensure a good undergraduate intake (and hence league table position), universities have offered unconditional places.
Students have considered that the immediate demands (of getting good enough A levels) and the rewarding future (at a good university) have already been satisfied and so have proceeded to enjoy the present with enthusiasm and verve.
This has led to poor A level results which affect the school’s position in league tables and are not the best outcome for students whose futures will be less successful and rewarding. It even affects the universities who will now have to work harder to provide good outcomes for these students who know less than they should and who are not used to studying hard. Apparently logical decisions on the basis of sensible motivations have led to unwanted results. So, how can this be avoided?
In the analysis above, the locus of the school has been ignored but I think it’s crucial. The key misstep in the whole chain of events is when students’ desire to satisfy teachers and to prepare for their future gets condensed into getting A level grades solely in order to secure places at university.
Teachers and school leaders need to make it clear to students that this is an error: learning in itself is joyous, the knowledge learned is, itself, useful, qualifications are facilitating in a variety of ways, the future is big and unknowable, and it is therefore impossible to say with any degree of confidence that you “will not need” anything.
It is tempting to fall into the trap of becoming transactional - you need to learn this in order to get that. This is an immediate aid in motivating students but is ultimately self-defeating. What we should say is that we are learning this today because, armed with the knowledge and skills on offer, you will be better prepared to shape your world and your future according to your definition of success.
Other motivations are certainly needed to supplement this vague and long-term vision (I have found huge success in the liberal distribution of stickers) but this should remain our bottom line and must remain the fundamental understanding we share with students. Even when we’re working on question styles and mark-schemes in the last few weeks of exam preparation (oh, sordid season) we should explain that the resulting grades are not just to get them onto the next step but to open doors throughout their lives and, importantly, to give them self-belief, knowledge of their own learning and intellectual confidence (one of the ways we judge how good we are at a subject is the grades we have gained in it).
I’ve left out the role of students in this (mainly because I suspect they are not voracious readers of Tes), but we need to remember that they are far from hapless slaves to their immediate desires. If Harry Potter has taught us anything, it is that by 17, teenagers are able to make principled, long-term, self-sacrificing decisions (The Deathly Hallows contains a wonderful comparison between Harry and the teenaged Dumbledore - Albus comes out rather badly).
We need shed no tears over students who willfully decide not to bother with their studies and resultingly come a cropper; but, as their good is our primary motivation, we should make sure that what we tell them, both explicitly and implicitly, gives them the best possible understanding. Once they believe that learning is amazing, their motivations will click into place and we will no longer need to worry about the distorting effect of university offers.
James Handscombe is the principal of Harris Westminster Sixth Form. He tweets @JamesHandscombe
