Engaging the disaffected learner: Making teacher-student relationships count

Abstract

The disaffected learner may be described as an underachiever with complex social, emotional and learning needs. Disaffection can correspond with a drop in engagement with learning and an increase in both passive and active behavioural disengagement, particularly as students enter secondary school. In the current dissertation it is argued that a positive teacher-student relationship is critical when engaging the disaffected learner. To explore this idea further, Neufeld’s (2008) ‘Teachability Factor’ (an intervention that seeks to equip teachers to develop positive relationships with developmentally stuck disaffected learners), was implemented and evaluated, via a mixed method study design. Student data was captured through an instrument that measured student engagement versus student disaffection (EvsD). Control teacher voice was captured through feedback forms and intervention teacher voice was captured through semi-structured interviews. Quantitative findings indicated that overall student disaffection reduced during the course of the intervention, but that measures of student disaffection decreased more notably in the control group than in the intervention group. Nonetheless, the intervention group maintained the higher mean score, potentially reflecting the relational quality of teaching in the intervention group throughout. Qualitative findings indicated that teacher perception of the quality of the teacher-student relationship improved as a result of the intervention, particularly with disaffected students. The reported teacher perceptions were enriched by stories of transformation of student disaffection.