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Learn to write badly : how to succeed in the social sciences

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Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences Paperback – June 20 2013

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• Print length 240 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Cambridge University Press
• Publication date June 20 2013
• Dimensions 15.24 x 1.55 x 22.86 cm
• ISBN-10 1107676983
• ISBN-13 978-1107676985
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press (June 20 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1107676983
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1107676985
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 360 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 1.55 x 22.86 cm
• #977 in Applied Linguistics
• #2,037 in Social Psychology & Interactions (Books)

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Michael billig.

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Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences, by Michael Billig

Sandra leaton gray on a must-read for academics and their students.

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I have fond memories of spending a couple of days in Paris with a former colleague as we presented a paper on higher education at a conference at the Sorbonne. My goodness, we enjoyed that trip. Not only did our French counterparts ply us with numbered bottles of Bordeaux at the lunchtime buffet (something you never see in the UK), but there was also ample time for chewing the cud about current research trends and tendencies, as we had sensed a shift in the higher education research field and were trying to work out which areas might receive the most attention next.

At dinner one evening (and I imagine also after a bit more Bordeaux), I commented on the delicious lexicon of new words that had sprung up in the field, and how extraordinarily well they lent themselves to being used in a rap context. Our subsequent efforts went rather like this: “We are seein’ da massification/Of higher education/For da nation/And da reification/Of nominalisation/And credentialisation…”

At that point we ran out of steam and decided to stick to the day job.

In an uncanny turn of events, I sit here a couple of years later, reviewing a book that not only identifies these social science words and their use as problematic, but also holds their existence up as some kind of totemic symbol of academic incest and ultimate decline. Imagine!

I am glad that Billig has written this book. It positions him as the Lynne Truss of the academic writing world

Michael Billig admittedly makes many good points in his book. He argues that we train our postgraduates to use ever-lengthier words and ever-clunkier concepts as a means of promoting their work and, more importantly, to make ourselves look clever and erudite. We hide sloppy research designs and reporting behind the use of the passive tense. We strip out the presence of actual people from our research and turn them into objects and commodities for our own selfish purposes. I suppose to a greater or lesser extent we are all guilty of these academic writing/thought crimes from time to time, as we try to get on with our research in an expedient and pragmatic way.

However, I disagree that this can all be labelled as self-promoting, pseudo-intellectual posturing. Academe is part of a wider world in which the use of highly technical, specialised language is endemic and possibly even necessary. Billig touches on this in his book, but perhaps isn’t analytical enough in the way that he links developments in academic writing techniques to the needs of a complex modern society with highly differentiated roles and identities.

I’d like to pull him up on another point as well. He twice uses the word “knobhead” in this book. Now if he is arguing that people should not be brutally categorised and labelled accordingly using opaque umbrella terms, this should in my view apply to purported knobheads as well. What do you mean, Michael? What exactly is a knobhead, for the purposes of your analysis? I presume you mean someone who is “up themselves”, as my kids might put it, and if so I am sure I would agree with your analysis in this particular context. But if you are arguing for clarity, then you need to apply this rigour to your own catch-all, cliché-ridden terms.

That being said, I am glad that Billig has written this book. It positions him as the Lynne Truss of the academic writing world, and reminds us all that when we put pen to paper we are supposed to be explaining things, not hiding them. For that I can forgive him everything else. We should all read it and insist that our students do so as well.

Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences

By Michael Billig Cambridge University Press, 234pp, £14.99 ISBN 9781107676985 Published 11 June 2013

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Modern academia is increasingly competitive yet the writing style of social scientists is routinely poor and continues to deteriorate. Are social science postgraduates being taught to write poorly? What conditions adversely affect the way they write? And which linguistic features contribute towards this bad writing? Michael Billig's witty and entertaining book analyses these questions in a quest to pinpoint exactly what is going wrong with the way social scientists write. Using examples from diverse fields such as linguistics, sociology and experimental social psychology, Billig shows how technical terminology is regularly less precise than simpler language. He demonstrates that there are linguistic problems with the noun-based terminology that social scientists habitually use - 'reification' or 'nominalization' rather than the corresponding verbs 'reify' or 'nominalize'. According to Billig, social scientists not only use their terminology to exaggerate and to conceal, but also to promote themselves and their work.

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Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

Jonathan Lambert

If you're like many digitally savvy Americans, it has likely been a while since you've spent much time writing by hand.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, where text messages and thumb-typed grocery lists have replaced handwritten letters and sticky notes. Electronic keyboards offer obvious efficiency benefits that have undoubtedly boosted our productivity — imagine having to write all your emails longhand.

To keep up, many schools are introducing computers as early as preschool, meaning some kids may learn the basics of typing before writing by hand.

But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

Is this some kind of joke? A school facing shortages starts teaching standup comedy

In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

"There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand," says Ramesh Balasubramaniam , a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. "It has important cognitive benefits."

While those benefits have long been recognized by some (for instance, many authors, including Jennifer Egan and Neil Gaiman , draft their stories by hand to stoke creativity), scientists have only recently started investigating why writing by hand has these effects.

A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting's power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page.

Your brain on handwriting

Both handwriting and typing involve moving our hands and fingers to create words on a page. But handwriting, it turns out, requires a lot more fine-tuned coordination between the motor and visual systems. This seems to more deeply engage the brain in ways that support learning.

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"Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of," says Marieke Longcamp , a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université.

Gripping a pen nimbly enough to write is a complicated task, as it requires your brain to continuously monitor the pressure that each finger exerts on the pen. Then, your motor system has to delicately modify that pressure to re-create each letter of the words in your head on the page.

"Your fingers have to each do something different to produce a recognizable letter," says Sophia Vinci-Booher , an educational neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. Adding to the complexity, your visual system must continuously process that letter as it's formed. With each stroke, your brain compares the unfolding script with mental models of the letters and words, making adjustments to fingers in real time to create the letters' shapes, says Vinci-Booher.

That's not true for typing.

To type "tap" your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make three relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type.

Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing " sync up " with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.

"We don't see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all," says Audrey van der Meer , a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.

Other experts agree. "There seems to be something fundamental about engaging your body to produce these shapes," says Robert Wiley , a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "It lets you make associations between your body and what you're seeing and hearing," he says, which might give the mind more footholds for accessing a given concept or idea.

Those extra footholds are especially important for learning in kids, but they may give adults a leg up too. Wiley and others worry that ditching handwriting for typing could have serious consequences for how we all learn and think.

What might be lost as handwriting wanes

The clearest consequence of screens and keyboards replacing pen and paper might be on kids' ability to learn the building blocks of literacy — letters.

"Letter recognition in early childhood is actually one of the best predictors of later reading and math attainment," says Vinci-Booher. Her work suggests the process of learning to write letters by hand is crucial for learning to read them.

"When kids write letters, they're just messy," she says. As kids practice writing "A," each iteration is different, and that variability helps solidify their conceptual understanding of the letter.

Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples.

This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.

"This could be one of the ways that early experiences actually translate to long-term life outcomes," she says. "These visually demanding, fine motor actions bake in neural communication patterns that are really important for learning later on."

Ditching handwriting instruction could mean that those skills don't get developed as well, which could impair kids' ability to learn down the road.

"If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won't reach their full potential," says van der Meer. "It's scary to think of the potential consequences."

Many states are trying to avoid these risks by mandating cursive instruction. This year, California started requiring elementary school students to learn cursive , and similar bills are moving through state legislatures in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (So far, evidence suggests that it's the writing by hand that matters, not whether it's print or cursive.)

Slowing down and processing information

For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down.

During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you're not actually processing that information — you're just typing in the blind," says van der Meer. "If you take notes by hand, you can't write everything down," she says.

The relative slowness of the medium forces you to process the information, writing key words or phrases and using drawing or arrows to work through ideas, she says. "You make the information your own," she says, which helps it stick in the brain.

Such connections and integration are still possible when typing, but they need to be made more intentionally. And sometimes, efficiency wins out. "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer.

Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some scientists worry about the more diffuse consequences of offloading our thinking to computers.

"We're foisting a lot of our knowledge, extending our cognition, to other devices, so it's only natural that we've started using these other agents to do our writing for us," says Balasubramaniam.

It's possible that this might free up our minds to do other kinds of hard thinking, he says. Or we might be sacrificing a fundamental process that's crucial for the kinds of immersive cognitive experiences that enable us to learn and think at our full potential.

Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don't have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It's the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.

Jonathan Lambert is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who covers science, health and policy.

• handwriting

Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

If you're like many digitally savvy Americans, it has likely been a while since you've spent much time writing by hand.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, where text messages and thumb-typed grocery lists have replaced handwritten letters and sticky notes. Electronic keyboards offer obvious efficiency benefits that have undoubtedly boosted our productivity — imagine having to write all your emails longhand.

To keep up, many schools are introducing computers as early as preschool, meaning some kids may learn the basics of typing before writing by hand.

But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

"There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand," says Ramesh Balasubramaniam , a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. "It has important cognitive benefits."

While those benefits have long been recognized by some (for instance, many authors, including Jennifer Egan and Neil Gaiman , draft their stories by hand to stoke creativity), scientists have only recently started investigating why writing by hand has these effects.

A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting's power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page.

Your brain on handwriting

Both handwriting and typing involve moving our hands and fingers to create words on a page. But handwriting, it turns out, requires a lot more fine-tuned coordination between the motor and visual systems. This seems to more deeply engage the brain in ways that support learning.

"Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of," says Marieke Longcamp , a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université.

Gripping a pen nimbly enough to write is a complicated task, as it requires your brain to continuously monitor the pressure that each finger exerts on the pen. Then, your motor system has to delicately modify that pressure to re-create each letter of the words in your head on the page.

"Your fingers have to each do something different to produce a recognizable letter," says Sophia Vinci-Booher , an educational neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. Adding to the complexity, your visual system must continuously process that letter as it's formed. With each stroke, your brain compares the unfolding script with mental models of the letters and words, making adjustments to fingers in real time to create the letters' shapes, says Vinci-Booher.

That's not true for typing.

To type "tap" your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make three relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type.

Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing " sync up " with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.

"We don't see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all," says Audrey van der Meer , a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.

Other experts agree. "There seems to be something fundamental about engaging your body to produce these shapes," says Robert Wiley , a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "It lets you make associations between your body and what you're seeing and hearing," he says, which might give the mind more footholds for accessing a given concept or idea.

Those extra footholds are especially important for learning in kids, but they may give adults a leg up too. Wiley and others worry that ditching handwriting for typing could have serious consequences for how we all learn and think.

What might be lost as handwriting wanes

The clearest consequence of screens and keyboards replacing pen and paper might be on kids' ability to learn the building blocks of literacy — letters.

"Letter recognition in early childhood is actually one of the best predictors of later reading and math attainment," says Vinci-Booher. Her work suggests the process of learning to write letters by hand is crucial for learning to read them.

"When kids write letters, they're just messy," she says. As kids practice writing "A," each iteration is different, and that variability helps solidify their conceptual understanding of the letter.

Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples.

This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.

"This could be one of the ways that early experiences actually translate to long-term life outcomes," she says. "These visually demanding, fine motor actions bake in neural communication patterns that are really important for learning later on."

Ditching handwriting instruction could mean that those skills don't get developed as well, which could impair kids' ability to learn down the road.

"If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won't reach their full potential," says van der Meer. "It's scary to think of the potential consequences."

Many states are trying to avoid these risks by mandating cursive instruction. This year, California started requiring elementary school students to learn cursive , and similar bills are moving through state legislatures in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (So far, evidence suggests that it's the writing by hand that matters, not whether it's print or cursive.)

Slowing down and processing information

For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down.

During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you're not actually processing that information — you're just typing in the blind," says van der Meer. "If you take notes by hand, you can't write everything down," she says.

The relative slowness of the medium forces you to process the information, writing key words or phrases and using drawing or arrows to work through ideas, she says. "You make the information your own," she says, which helps it stick in the brain.

Such connections and integration are still possible when typing, but they need to be made more intentionally. And sometimes, efficiency wins out. "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer.

Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some scientists worry about the more diffuse consequences of offloading our thinking to computers.

"We're foisting a lot of our knowledge, extending our cognition, to other devices, so it's only natural that we've started using these other agents to do our writing for us," says Balasubramaniam.

It's possible that this might free up our minds to do other kinds of hard thinking, he says. Or we might be sacrificing a fundamental process that's crucial for the kinds of immersive cognitive experiences that enable us to learn and think at our full potential.

Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don't have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It's the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.

Jonathan Lambert is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who covers science, health and policy.

Copyright 2024 NPR

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A Guide to Supporting Students with Bad Grades

Janelle cox.

• May 9, 2024

Supporting students who are struggling academically as an educator can be challenging. Poor grades often signal an underlying issue that may go beyond the student’s understanding of the material, such as an external stressor or lack of motivation. It can also signal something more like a learning disability.

Whatever the case, low grades can impact a student’s motivation and self-esteem  leading to a cycle of poor performance. Here are a few effective strategies to help support students with bad grades and improve their academic performance.

Understand the Root Cause of Performance

The first step in supporting students with bad grades is to identify the root cause of why they are struggling. Talk with the student to explore any possible external influences like social challenges, family issues, or any mental health concerns affecting their academic performance.

Next, you can conduct informal or formal assessments to pinpoint any deficiencies in knowledge or skills or to check for any  learning disabilities . Once you’ve found the underlined issue, then you can develop strategies to support the student.

Set Realistic Goals

Once the issue is identified, talk with the student to set a few achievable goals. To boost the student’s confidence, these goals should be small and incremental, allowing the student to experience success in small steps rather than setting unattainable goals and facing discouragement.

For example, improving a grade from 65 to 75 may be the first goal, followed by an 80, then 85, and so on. Additionally, breaking larger or longer assignments into smaller or shorter more manageable ones and then providing feedback after each stage may benefit struggling students.

Establish Study and Organizational Skills

Students who have poor organizational skills or who do not practice good study habits often struggle academically. To enhance students’ study and organizational skills, offer tips by hosting a workshop during study hall or after school. Teach students how to manage their time and assignments, study for tests , and take good notes. Possessing these skills and study habits will enhance students’ academic performance in school.

Utilize Technology

Technology can be a useful tool in supporting students with bad grades. Many educational apps offer students a personalized learning experience with help clarifying complex concepts and giving students instant feedback which can help them stay engaged and on track.

Additionally, technology can cater to a range of diverse learning styles because of the range of tools and resources that are available. By incorporating technology into your lessons, you are offering a supportive and adaptable learning environment for students with are struggling academically.

Develop Abilities through a Growth Mindset

According to research from Carol Dweck and others, your intelligence and talents are not set in stone but can grow and improve over time with hard work and perseverance. Fostering this mindset in students who are struggling academically may help shift their understanding, leading to motivation, better choices, and improved grades.

Recognizing and celebrating small improvements in students’ work can help reinforce their actions and lead to positive changes. Over time, students with a growth mindset will become more engaged and motivated and believe in themselves and their efforts.

Encourage Active Learning

Create activities where students are actively involved in the learning process. This will help them retain and understand information better, which can lead to an improvement in grades. Hands-on interactive lessons keep students engaged. Utilize technology with Smartboards, educational apps , and other digital tools where students can bring abstract concepts to life.

Group projects are another way to get students actively involved, not to mention they learn valuable skills such as how to communicate and collaborate with others, divide tasks, manage roles, and collectively solve problems.

Personalize Learning

Personalizing learning is an effective strategy for improving grades because it allows teachers to tailor each student’s learning experience to their style, pace, interest, or ability. By understanding these elements, you can create a learning experience for students based on their diverse needs which can potentially lead to better grades.

Create a Positive Learning Environment

Creating a positive, supportive classroom atmosphere can enhance student learning. It can also influence their motivation and self-confidence. Use positive reinforcement and recognize and celebrate student achievement. Create an inclusive classroom where everyone feels respected and valued.

By fostering this type of learning environment, students are more likely to feel comfortable enough to be actively engaged, take risks, and collaborate with their classmates. By supporting and valuing each student, you are building a foundation of trust, which can lead to improved grades.

Get Parents Involved

Supporting students who are struggling with their grades often means keeping an open line of communication with parents about their child’s progress in the classroom. Having support both at home and in the classroom will make the student feel valued and may help increase their motivation and self-esteem.

To foster effective parent-teacher communication , regularly update parents on their child’s progress, schedule online or in-person conferences, utilize apps or online portals and offer parents volunteer opportunities to get more involved in their child’s education.

Offer Emotional and Mental Health Support

Students with poor grades often feel discouraged and stressed which can hinder their ability to perform well academically. To ensure students are getting the emotional support they need, offer access to counseling services, social-emotional learning programs, and the school psychologist. By providing support, students will be able to address their feelings and boost their grades.

Supporting students with bad grades requires a comprehensive approach that includes understanding the student’s individual needs, adapting your teaching strategies, and creating a supportive learning environment. By employing these strategies, you can turn challenging moments into opportunities for growth and success.

• #BadGrades , #TeachingStrategies

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Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences by Michael Billig (2013-08-06) Hardcover

• Language English
• Publisher Cambridge University Press
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01FGJ9WWG
• Language ‏ : ‎ English

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Expelling students for bad behaviour seems like the obvious solution, but is it really a good idea?

Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology

Disclosure statement

Linda J. Graham receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She chaired the 2020 inquiry into suspension, exclusion and expulsion processes in South Australian government schools, and was a member of the 2023 National School Reform Agreement Ministerial Reference Group.

Queensland University of Technology provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students.

The two were part of a group of four high school students suspended from Yarra Valley Grammar last Friday, after sharing a spreadsheet of photos of female classmates, ranking them with terms including “wifeys”, “cuties” and “unrapable”.

As principal Mark Merry said in a letter to parents on Tuesday, he had “formed the view” the position of two of the students had “become untenable”. The two other students who played a “lesser role” will face “disciplinary action”. The school is offering wellbeing support to the girls who were targeted.

Earlier this week, the suspensions were met with approval from Education Minister Jason Clare who told the ABC , “I’m glad the school’s fronting up. I think that they’ve taken the sort of action that the community would expect”.

Expelling or suspending students for this kind of behaviour seems like the obvious course of action. But is it a good idea?

Why do schools suspend or expel students?

Suspending or expelling a student is meant to be a last resort for serious problem behaviour. It is either supposed to allow space for a reset or as a consequence for behaviour which threatens other students’ safety or learning.

In the case of Yarra Valley Grammar, the suspensions and expulsions send a message to the girls in the school, other students, parents and the broader public this behaviour is not tolerated.

With so much media and public attention on the spreadsheet, the suspensions and expulsions also help protect the reputation of the school.

Clearly there has been some horrendous behaviour and it does need to have a stern response. But without condoning the behaviour in any way, kicking these students out of school is not the best way to handle this situation, which is a symptom of a much bigger problem.

What does the research say about suspensions and expulsions?

Typically, when a student is expelled, the outcomes are not positive for that child.

This is because expulsion is a punitive action, not an educative one.

Research shows suspending and expelling students can also simply build resentment and anger. If students feel like they are rejected from society , there is a risk they become more extreme in their views or behaviours.

Research also shows it can impact a young person’s learning and lead to leaving school early. We also know there is an association between suspension and expulsion and increased delinquency , including contact with the police .

The most protective thing to do is to keep young people in schools where they can be exposed to the influence of positive peers, under adult supervision, with a chance to keep up with their learning.

What could happen instead?

This is not to say students should just be told to go back to class as if nothing has happened.

With the help of experts like psychologists, schools can engage in a restorative justice process . This is about helping young people understand the real impact of their actions.

There can often be an assumption young people act with full knowledge of the consequences of what they are doing. But parts of their brain involving control and self regulation are still developing into adulthood.

Experts can work with students so they can learn their actions were not harmless fun with their mates but something that hurts others.

An example of how this can be done is through giving those students “ inquiry projects ” where they investigate similar incidents and present their findings to their peers. The emphasis is on an educative response that builds empathy and understanding in that young person.

The school could also ask the female students included in the spreadsheet to express through their choice of medium how it made them feel.

One criticism of this process is it requires the victims to engage in emotional labour when they have already experienced harm. But when a restorative justice process is done well , it can give the victims a voice and public acknowledgement of the wrong they have experienced.

Those victims can also receive an apology if they want it. That apology is likely to be more meaningful if the perpetrator has learnt something of the effect of their behaviour.

Importantly, the aim of a restorative justice process is not to dispense “justice”. It is to restore peace, to heal harms done and to prevent future harms from occurring through better understanding.

Given the Yarra Valley Grammar “list” is the latest episode in a string of incidents involving misogynistic behaviour by male students , it is time we tried something different.

• School exclusion

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