College of Education and Professional Studies
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Student Engagement
College of Education and Professional Studies
(CEPS)
Chapter 1 – What does student engagement mean?
Student engagement is a process and a product that is
experienced on a continuum and results from the
synergistic interaction between motivation and active
learning.
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Pedagogies of engagement… There is a need for new pedagogies
of engagement that will turn out resourceful, engaged workers and
citizens that are needed in society.
Russ Edgerton (1997)
In 21st century learning, engagement is at the foundation of
Edgerton’s taxonomy: “Learning begins with student engagement.
Shulman (2002)
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Students know about chemistry by reading and listening to
lectures, but to really understand chemistry, students need to
engage in the task that chemists perform. Problem-based learning,
collaborative learning, and undergraduate research are pedagogies
of engagement.
Edgerton , 1997
The words that describe student engagement are…
Passion and Excitement
Barkley, 2009
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Student engagement is the product of motivation and active
learning. It is a product rather than a sum because it will not occur
if either element is missing.
Barkley, 2010
Combining motivation and active learning promote engagement.
Yet, some are pushing for more from students. They want
students to be truly transformed by their educational experiences.
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Transformational Learning
Jack Mezirow is the father of Transformational Learning. Work was
published in 1981, 1994, and 1997.
Transformational learning is defined as learning that induces more
far-reaching change than other kinds of learning, especially
learning experiences, which shape the learner and produce a
significant impact, or paradigm shift that affects the learner's
subsequent experiences.
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Instructor characteristics and roles, which facilitate transformational
learning
1. Encourage students to reflect on and share their feelings and thoughts in
class.
2. Be holistically oriented, aware of body, mind, and spirit in the learning
process.
3. Become transcendent of his own beliefs and accepting of others' beliefs.
4. Cultivate awareness of alternate ways of learning.
5. Establish an environment characterized by trust and care.
6. Facilitate sensitive relationships among the participants.
7. Demonstrate ability to serve as an experienced mentor reflecting on his
own journey.
8. Help students question reality in ways that promote shifts in their
worldview.
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Student Characteristics and roles, which facilitate transformational learning
1. Students must be free to determine their own reality, as opposed to
social realities defined by others or by cultural institutions.
2. Students must be ready for and open to change.
3. Those with a wider variety of life experiences, including prior stressful
life events, are likely to experience more transformation.
4. Cultivate the ability to transcend past contexts of learning and
experience.
5. Students must be willing and able to integrate critical reflection into
their school work and personal life.
6. Students must be able to access both rational and affective mental
functioning.
7. Have sufficient maturity to deal with paradigm shifts and material which
differs from their current beliefs.
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Course content and instructional activities and environments to facilitate
transformational Learning
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Critical reflection,
Rational discourse,
Constructivist approach to course design and instructional objectives,
Inquiries into the origins and destinies of individual existence,
Mind exploration (dreams, out-of-body, near death experience,
meditation, altered states of consciousness, hypnosis),
The mysteries of human suffering and purpose,
Paradigms of consciousness and healing from other cultures (Chinese
medicine, shamanism, Yoga, etc.),
Guided imagery,
Sensory awareness development (Feldenkrais, hypnosis, etc.),
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Course content and instructional activities and environments to facilitate
transformational Learning (continued)
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Dance and movement,
Breath work,
Touch (giving and receiving),
Atmosphere of openness, safety, and emotional support,
Instructors and students have full information and are free from
coercion,
15. All students have equal opportunity to assume various roles,
16. Students can become critically reflective of assumptions,
17. Instructors and students are empathetic and good listeners, and are
willing to search for common ground or a synthesis of different points of
view.
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Professional challenges and ethical considerations for instructors
facilitating transformational learning
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Transference and counter-transference among students and instructor,
Confidentiality,
Sexual attraction,
Cognitive conflict,
Repressed memories emerging into consciousness creating stress,
Burnout and intensity beyond the student's ability to cope,
Appropriate supervision with minimal interference in the process,
Conflict between students,
Code of ethics for the classroom environment,
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Professional challenges and ethical considerations for instructors
facilitating transformational learning (Continued)
10. Inappropriate touch,
11. Precipitating transformational learning in a learner who is not prepared
or does not fully understand its possible consequences,
12. Providing adequate transformational learning to students who are eager
and receptive to personal change and evolution,
13. Is an instructor qualified to decide which, among a learner's beliefs,
should be exposed to transformation,
14. There can be a fine line between education and therapeutic
intervention; should a teacher function as therapist to his students?
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•
Transformative learning occurs when students are
challenged intensely, creating the kind of growth as
described by Perry (n.d.). He observed that most freshmen
enter college dualists.
•
A dualists believes there are clear objectives with right or
wrong answers.
•
A goal college is to help students move beyond dualists
thinking.
Eventually students recognize that there may be multiple
answers to a question.
•
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Learning Theory Bibliography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Bache, C. M. (n.d.).
Baumgartner, L. M. (2001).
Clark, M. C. (1993).
Cranton, P. (1994).
Daloz, L. (1986).
Daloz, L.A. (1999).
Dirkx, J. M. (1997).
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Imel, S. (1998).
Kroth, M., & Boverie, P. (2000).
Mezirow, J. D. (1981).
Mezirow, J. (1991).
Mezirow, J (1997).
Roberts, T. B (1989).
Taylor, E. W. (1998).
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Motivation
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Engagement and Motivation
Motivation is a theoretical construct to explain the reason or
reasons we engage in particular behavior.
Motivation to learn is an acquired competence developed
through an individual’s cumulative experience with learning
situations.
Brophy, 2004
Behaviorist and needs theories depict motivation as reactive to
pressures, either from extrinsic rewards or internal needs.
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Expectancy x Value Model
The efforts that people are willing to expend on a task is the
product of the degree to which they expect to be able to
perform the task successfully (expectancy) and the degree to
which they value the rewards as well as the opportunity to
engage in performing the task itself (value).
People will not invest effort in tasks they do not enjoy and that
do not lead to something they value.
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Value
Student invest time in their course work for the grades, bonus
points, praise, incentives such as release from work.
Some researchers see this as bribing students and shifting
their focus away from valuing the task itself to valuing the
consequences of task completion.
Kohn 1993
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Tips and Strategies
Expect Engagement
1. If a student is not engaged after your best efforts, talk to him/her privately.
Let them know that not being engaged is not an option in your class.
2. Suggest the student leave the room and walk around for a few minutes to
get some blood flowing.
3. Drop the attendance requirement and tell students they can lean by
information in the library or the Internet.
It is important to know that one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. One
person not engaged can ruin the classroom environment.
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An Engaging Teacher
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An instructor’s personality and behavior have a powerful
impact on students’ motivation.
Research has demonstrated that students who are not
intrinsically motivated will put forth reasonable effort if they
like and admire their teacher.
Among the top 10 complaints of a teacher were, “being
unhelpful and unapproachable” and “intellectual arrogance—
talking down to or showing a lack of respect for students.
Students are more likely to participate if the teacher cultivates
and displays attributes such as energy, enthusiasm, passion,
approachability, fairness, and optimism.
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Rewards
Giving rewards must be done with considerable caution.
• Seeing others receive rewards can motivate or discourage
student involvement.
• Students may only work for what they are going to get.
Praise
Some students respond to praise, others do not.
Some may find it embarrassing to be singled out.
Some believe praise is manipulation of behavior
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Attention to Students’ Basic Needs
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggest the following needs
much be met before moving on to the higher-level needs.
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Physiological needs (Sleep and Thirst)
Safety needs (freedom from danger, anxiety)
Love needs (acceptance from teachers and peers)
An example of meeting students’ needs is when teaching an
early morning class. In this case, engage in activities that
require social action and physical movement.
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Promote Student Autonomy
•
Self-determination is the basic human need to have control
over one’s life.
•
Students are more likely to believe they are capable of
achieving a particular goal if they feel they are in control of
the actions required for success.
•
Strategies for promoting autonomy are found on pages 85 and
86 of the textbook.
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Teaching Content Worth Learning
Teachers should strive to help students achieve understanding
as oppose to simply knowing the content.
A new learning taxonomy proposed by Fink (2003) is made up
of the following categories:
1. Foundational knowledge
2. Application
3. Integration
4. Human dimension (learning about oneself and others)
5. Caring (developing new interest, interests, and values)
6. Learning how to learn
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Integrate Goals, Activities, and Assessments
•
Choose these parts of learning carefully.
•
It is easier for students to see the purpose of what they are
being asked to do.
•
Use these to integrate a broader conceptual framework
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Wiggins & McTighe’s Backward Design
A three stage approach
1. Teachers determine what students should know,
understand, and be able to do.
2. Teachers determine what would constitute evidence that
students have achieved the goals. Can students explain,
interpret, apply, demonstrate perspective, empathize, and
demonstrate self-knowledge.
3. Teacher determines the design of academic prompts,
performance tasks, or projects the students should be able
to engage in successfully.
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Finks Significant Learning Experiences
The typical instructor develops a course by creating eight to 12 topics,
developing a series of lectures, and deciding on the exam schedule.
Fink in (2003) proposed a 12 step course design process. These 12 steps
are clustered into three phases.
1. Building component parts such as identifying the learning goals,
feedback, and assessment, and teaching and learning activities
2. This phase guides the instructor through processes to ensure the
course is a coherent whole.
3. Instructors develop grading system, identify possible problems, and
conclude with evaluating the course and his teaching for further
improvement.
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Incorporate Competition Appropriately
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Young adults are accustom to competition: sports, video games,
science fairs, and others.
It is assumed that competition promotes excitement, incentive, and
just plain fun to the classroom.
There is considerable debate about this strategy
• Risk of public failure
• Distracts students from using their own progress as the
benchmark for learning.
• Competition my feel coercive when it is mandatory.
• Competition is good when everyone has a good chance of
winning.
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Expect Students to Succeed
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right.”
Henry Ford
An instructor’s belief in their students and commitment to
actively supporting their efforts contributes strongly to the
students’ motivation and success.
If an instructor makes it know that s/he expects more, s/he is
likely to get it.
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Help Students Expect to Succeed
Suggested strategies for helping students expect to succeed are
found on pages 91 and 92.
Try to Rebuild the Confidence of Discouraged
and Disengaged Students
Suggested strategies for helping to rebuild the confidence of
discouraged and disengaged students are found on pages 92 and
93.