The role of flexible learning programs in enabling behavioural engagement

This study investigates the change in students’ behavioural engagement as a result of participation in a Flexible Learning Program. Using an understanding of engagement as both a process and a relationship between the students and their school, we sought to determine whether students’ attendance, participation, and conduct were different after the program compared with before enrolment. To achieve this, we used a range of data sources which involved both student and teacher voice, collected prior, during, and after the program. Data from the program’s complete cohort of 46 students, collected over a span of five years, were analysed and findings revealed that students’ behavioural engagement not only increased within the program but maintained at significantly improved levels after students returned to their mainstream ‘host’ school. These findings provide a response to some common critiques of Flexible Learning Programs and add to the evidence of the role that they can play in the reengagement of disengaged students.