We ask potential teachers a series of questions during each interview. These questions start with how they will motivate students to “care” or be interested in their class when they may be apathetic toward the topic. It usually comes out as, “How will you make (English, History, etc.) interesting to those students who are just there for a credit?”
Then our assistant principal usually follows up with, “What if that doesn’t work and the student continues to refuse to work and becomes belligerent or just flat out refuses to do work?” Well, the answers we hope to hear are the basis of the article below.
What is Student Work Refusal?
When a student just decides not to do their work, you have a student who refuses to do work. Similar to a famous Supreme Court Decision, you will know it when you see it.
Why Do Students Refuse to Do Work?
Answering the question above is where the real work takes place for the teacher and/or administrator and/or counselor and/or case manager. It is the school’s responsibility to find out the reason for this and if it is a continuing problem for a student. The answer may not always be something we can solve, but in the best interest of the students, it is the school’s responsibility to help the student be successful.
There are some easy surface answers to why students refuse to do work.
They Are Tired
At the 660-student high school where I have been principal for four years now, some students are simply tired. We have students who play two or three sports, participate in FFA, and hold a place on the student council. We encourage participation, but at times have to also talk to students about time management. Most of these students have done the calculation on what a low daily grade will do to their average or GPA, so they know the consequences.
The Work Doesn’t Interest Them
The next reason on the surface simply may be that the student does not care about the assignment. The teacher may not have found the relevant button to draw them into the assignment. They may ask, “Why do I have to write another essay on what they believe the poet is saying about a tree growing in the middle of pasture?”
The assignment has no interest to the student, and they choose not to do the work. There is a strong onus on the teacher to bring some sort of relevance to each assignment. At times students’ opinions change on doing work with “no zero” programs or other no pass no play consequences. However, the relevance of the meaning is applied, students perform better if there is relevance to the assignment.
Real-World Situations
From here, the situations get deeper than that. I learned at low socio-econmic school for five years as an assistant principal, that the assignment may not matter when compared to the real-world situations facing the student. For example, if the students were yelled at in the car on the way to school by their parent or guardian, that first period assignment on diagramming sentences may not have any meaning to them at the time.
Schools have done a better job of this for a long time now, but basic needs of students not being met was an issue for student work refusal for a time. The breakfast feeding programs have been key in taking away this issue from students. Just like Maslow outlines, if a student’s basic needs cannot be met, our expectation that they will do their report on why Pluto is a planet or not simply may not matter.
If a student doesn’t know if there will be any food in their house when they get home, Pluto’s status will never be that important to them. There are life events (death of family members, news of a divorce, etc.) that will make school seem like a distant issue for the student.
Then there is the student whose world has just ended because their boyfriend broke up with them during the passing period, or maybe they did not make the cut on the football team, etc. This is where the whole child work of the school comes into play. Was the student bullied during the passing period? We have to help students cope with real-world events and still be able to recover and do the work that still exists in life. The school needs to be prepared to figure out the “why” of students who refuse to do work.
How to Combat Student Work Refusal
First, meeting students’ needs is easily obtainable. Are the students fed? Is the school safe? Are the classrooms in a safe and workable condition? If the needs of students and teachers are met work can begin to happen.
Second, how relevant is the work to students. Much of this relies on the teacher to make the work relevant and have a good “why” behind the work in class. We know students like to know the real-world applications behind the work they are doing in class; this connection can make an apathetic student more interested in their work. This also can increase the engagement level in the classroom. Teachers that have relevance to their work and activities that keep students working usually do not have students who refuse to do work.
Third, simply, has the teacher and school staff developed any kind of relationship with the student? Students who might not care about the life of a child in ancient Greece will have a much higher level of caring if they feel like the teacher cares for them.
Lastly, there will be events outside the school’s control that cause a student to refuse to do work. The school can equip the student with some outside help, counseling, or sometimes some grace to work through these real-life events and allow the student to continue their work. How a teacher and school develop relationships with the student will determine the level of success in this arena. In the end, relationships and relevance are the two best factors in combating students’ refusal to do work.
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