Introduction to Engagement
You know when you have it and you know when you don’t. The joy of holding a student’s attention is as great a feeling any teacher can have. Whether it’s the material being taught, the activity the student is participating in or the enthusiasm of the teacher him/herself, genuine student engagement in a lesson is a goal all teachers should strive to achieve. But what does engagement look like and how does one go about assessing it? How do schools provide an arena for students to buy into their own education? How do teachers make lessons engaging and relevant to students’ lives outside of the classroom? What causes student disengagement from education as a whole? Put succinctly, what engages students today and what is the evidence that should be observed? Cori Brewster writes, “In general terms, student motivation ‘refers to a students willingness, need, desire and compulsion to participate in, and be successful in, the learning process’.” (Brewster, 2000) Before moving forward, a clear connection must be made between student "motivation" and student "engagement". Dr. Jean Russel writes in Schooling Issues Digest that, "Motivation is about energy and direction, the reasons for behaviour, why we do what we do. Engagement describes energy in action, the connection between person and activity." (Russell, 2003) Put succinctly , a student cannot be motivated without being engaged and the same is true from the vice versa. The connection between these two words is as important as it is minuscule for the purposes of this analysis. As clear as this definition is, that student engagement is the connection between energy and direction, it is not so clear how to achieve it. The reason this is the case is due to the fact that what engages students, as well as adults, is as varied and diverse as the individual. As Brewster writes, a student's engagement, at its basic element, is a students desire to be a valued, involved member in the "learning process". Juxtapose this with the implications this has; all students are engaged in activities differently. And very closely related to this idea is the assessment element; how can we as educators assess our students' engagement? Since what is engaging to one student may be different for another, how do educators create environments that are engaging for all learning types and assess it effectively? Without getting ahead of ourselves by addressing the concept of how to effectively assess levels of engagement, we must first address what engagement is.
"Engagement in schoolwork involves both behaviors (e.g., persistence, effort, attention) and emotions (e.g., enthusiasm, interest, pride in success)." (Committee on Increasing High School Students’ Engagement and Motivation to Learn, 31) As Engaging Schools goes on to cover, engagement is a heightened sense of involvement reflected by greater levels of achievement. What must be recognized here is that academic achievement does not always equal success. By this I mean that a student can achieve academically while not succeeding in the desired result. To clarify what I'm speaking about, this happens when students make hypotheses and after researching, find that what they expected to be true wasn't necessarily accurate. In this way, students achieve while seemingly failing. While in this example the student did not succeed in gaining the desired results, which are predetermined based on a hypothesis he/she believed to be true before performing any research, he/she still achieved because only an engaged student, as defined earlier, would go far enough to accurately be able to determine something, whether that be right or wrong, instead of ignorantly wanting to believe that what they think, lacking any research, is the truth.
As stated above, at its core, engagement is the connection between energy and direction; student engagement is a student's desire to be a part of the learning process. For the purposes of this analysis into assessing student engagement, this definition must be clearly defined and stored.
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"Engagement in schoolwork involves both behaviors (e.g., persistence, effort, attention) and emotions (e.g., enthusiasm, interest, pride in success)." (Committee on Increasing High School Students’ Engagement and Motivation to Learn, 31) As Engaging Schools goes on to cover, engagement is a heightened sense of involvement reflected by greater levels of achievement. What must be recognized here is that academic achievement does not always equal success. By this I mean that a student can achieve academically while not succeeding in the desired result. To clarify what I'm speaking about, this happens when students make hypotheses and after researching, find that what they expected to be true wasn't necessarily accurate. In this way, students achieve while seemingly failing. While in this example the student did not succeed in gaining the desired results, which are predetermined based on a hypothesis he/she believed to be true before performing any research, he/she still achieved because only an engaged student, as defined earlier, would go far enough to accurately be able to determine something, whether that be right or wrong, instead of ignorantly wanting to believe that what they think, lacking any research, is the truth.
As stated above, at its core, engagement is the connection between energy and direction; student engagement is a student's desire to be a part of the learning process. For the purposes of this analysis into assessing student engagement, this definition must be clearly defined and stored.
NEXT