Student Engagement

Four Classroom Conditions that Promote

Student Engagement

There are four key classroom conditions that I believe will increase student engagement.  My  views on student engagement are heavily influenced by the work of Eric Jensen and Marcia Tate.  A recent learning walk at St. Joseph High School has provided me with several pictures which underscore the effectiveness of these strategies for creating student engagement.

1. Student Choice
 Referred to by many as differentiated instruction or differentiated learning, student empowerment with respect to the selection of learning tasks and conditions, resources, and assessment methods is essential to motivating students.  In her book "Sit & Get" Won't Grow Dendrites, Tate states that "Adults learn best when ... They have input into the selection of the content and even development of the learning experiences." (3)  I believe that students of all ages and stages, to varying degrees, need choice in their learning.  Jensen is succinct: "Letting students make some decisions leads them to feel more engaged because they have a personal stake in the class's proceedings." (42)

Differentiation should be about more than just choosing between a couple of options with respect to how a student demonstrates his or her learning (ie. choosing to write an essay or create a powerpoint presentation), or student input in the creation of rubrics.  Real student choice permits students to stretch the very boundaries of learning, enabling them to re-shape and re-define the tasks they will complete, the conditions under they will provide evidence of obtaining the learning goals, and the manner in which they will be assessed.

Student choice: St. Joseph English students selected their own novels
and the means by which they would demonstrate their learning.
This grade 9 student created a board game for Of Mice & Men

2. Variety
Yes, variety is the spice of life.  However, in the classroom, it's more than a spice - It's a main ingredient! Tate and Jensen identify a wide-range of strategies that bring novelty to the classroom, including cooperative learning, project-based learning, visuals, games, artwork, role plays, movement, music, and storytelling, to name just a few.  

St. Joseph Intermediate students in language arts class engage in a cooperative

learning activity whereby they use pictures to develop inference-making skills 

Adding variety to learning increases not only student engagement but as well student achievement. John Hattie's mega-analyses of factors which influence learning shows the positive effect size of novel approaches to learning:

• interactive video methods    0.52
• play programs                     0.50
• co-operative learning           0.42
• drama/arts programs            0.35                          

St Joseph high school English students' minds and bodies are engage in an interactive gallery walk 

by which they shared with each other their critical perspectives on Mary Shelley's Frankenste

3. Purposeful Leveraging of Technology
Unquestionably, any use of digital technologies in the classroom will appeal to young learners.  However, to hold their attention and enrich their learning experience, the integration of digital technologies should be strategic.  The SAMR model is useful for helping teachers successfully integrate technology. 

As students are afforded opportunities to enhance and, ultimately, transform learning tasks through the use of technology, they will experience greater levels of engagement. 

4. Authentic Inquiry Learning
The more authentic the learning task, or the closer its connection to the real world, the greater the likelihood that students will be engaged.  Some important features of engaging inquiry-based learning include:

•  a compelling question or investigation
•  personal relevance for the student
•  full learner investment - physical, intellectual, ethical (spiritual) & emotional investment
•  includes self- reflection opportunities   
•  learning outside one's comfort zone

Grade 10 history student displays evidence of learning from her
inquiry regarding Holocaust memorials

Book Review: Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind

by Eric Jensen

Eric Jensen presents in Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind strategies that address factors which are, in his estimation, "crucial" to engagement of students who are challenged by socioeconomic factors.

In Chapter 1, Jensen reveals the 7 factors crucial to student engagement:

-       Good health & nutrition

-       Rich vocabulary experiences

-       Effort & energy

-       Positive, growth-oriented mind set

-       Cognitive capacity

-       Positive adult (teacher) relationships

-       Effective reduction of stress levels

In Chapter 2, Jensen outlines his 5 rules for engagement for teachers of socioeconomically-challenged students:

-     Upgrade your attitude by affirming & engaging

-     Build relationships & respect with students by taking genuine interest in them and being accepting of their cultural & social capital

-     Get buy-in by selling students on learning; use hooks like incentives & challenges

-     Embrace clarity in expectations

-     Show your passion by being positive and active

With respect to the 2nd rule, Jensen reminds teachers that, according John Hattie, “teacher-student relationships have a whopping 0.72 effect size when it comes to student achievement.”

Jensen, in Chapter 3, outlines 5 actions that teachers can take to create a positive classroom climate which will enable student achievement.

-     Raise the bar of expectations regarding student success by affirming their achievements and projecting an attitude that they will succeed

-     Manage mind-body states by reducing lecture time, asking compelling questions, and giving students more control

-     Establish a family atmosphere – use get-to-know-you activities and lots of social interaction time

-     Sustain positivity by teacher and peer affirmation and class/team celebrations

-     Teach positive social & emotional responses – mainly by modelling them

 Jensen quotes the “staggering” effect size (1.03) of teachers’ expectations of students in support of the 1^st action for teachers.

Eric Jensen

Chapter 4 opens with the sobering recent research finding that children who grow up poor are more likely to have less developed executive function skills - including critical thinking and problem-solving skills. However, teaching cognitive skills has a significant 0.69 effect size. Thus, teachers should practice the 5 actions Jensen identifies for building students' cognitive capacity.

-    Build attention skills with strategies such as pauses and chunked learning, physical activity breaks, high-interest reading material, and quick writing tasks

-    Teach problem solving (ie; transferrable models for problem solving) and critical thinking

-    Training working memory for both images and sounds by having students practice recall through games

-     Develop processing speed such as sorting, calculating and analyzing skills

-     Foster self control by teacher wait skills

Jensen opens Chapter 5 with a statement of intent to shake teachers out of complacency when it comes to motivating students: “There is no such thing as an unmotivated student; there are only students in unmotivated states, sitting in demotivating classrooms.” (73)  In this chapter, he then outlines 5 “powerful actions” for increasing student motivation:

-       Make learning students’ idea by giving them choice in content, having them create rubrics and self-assess, and allowing them to be mentors

-       Manage risk by making the classroom a safe place to contribute, share and ask questions

-       Build a growth mindset in students by affirming their choices, attitudes, effort, and ability to learn

-       Provide specific feedback on learning goals, progress towards goals, and next steps

-       Get a “trial-size effort” by “micro-chunking” content

In Chapter 6, the author explores specific actions related to the 5 “building blocks” of learning that teachers can take to allow students to develop deep, sustained understanding:

-       Teach understanding of labels (terms) by assessing their prior knowledge and teaching mnemonics

-        Help students discover properties of new terms by having them organize labels and analyze the properties that make a label unique

-        Aid students to develop context and meaning by allowing them to share personal stories related to the topic of study, generate hypotheses, establish meaning through metaphors, and engage in authentic projects

-       Ensure students “Get it right” by providing success criteria and using peer feedback

-       Help students transfer learning by setting it in the context of students’ world

Four actions that help increase energy and focus in the classroom are the theme of Chapter 7:

-       Get students moving with short (every few minutes) activities such as gallery walk critiques and scavenger hunts

-       Energize students in their seats

-       Increase focus by positive talk exercises and pre-test reflective writing

-       Use music to influence energy level with upbeat music for high-energy activities and soft instrumental music for reflective activities

In Chapter 8, five actions to “automate” engagement in the classroom are shared:

-       Establish classroom rituals such as “callback” songs to begin class

-       Foster leadership and teamwork by assigning clear roles in cooperative learning and getting students involved in community projects

-       Captivate with stimulating curriculum such as project-based learning

-       Integrate technology  - using it to demonstrate and share learning and to assess learning

-       Cultivate school-wide support

Jensen concludes the book by giving teachers 4 actions for successful implementation of engagement strategies:

-       Get organized by determining which “engagement domain” (attitude, effort, behaviour, or cognitive capacity) is your most pressing priority

-       Engage with differentiation by shifting your attitude and application, boundaries, or context of engagement strategies

-       Know what to expect from students, colleagues, and yourself

    -       Break down the breakdowns by debriefing on what went wrong, thinking through next step, 
             and setting goals & implementation intentions