Highly Engaged Classroom

Chapter 1RESEARCH AND THEORY

---has long been recognized as the CORE of

effective schooling

Student Engagement

In this chapter, four topics that constitute the

authors’ model of attention and engagement and are typical aspects of any engagement discussion will be examined.

-- emotion -- interest -- perceived importance -- perceptions of efficacy

Skinner associated the following emotions with

engagement: Enthusiasm interest enjoyment satisfaction Pride Vitality zest

#1 Emotions: How Do I Feel?

The authors associated these emotions with a

lack of engagement: Boredom Disinterest Frustration Anger Sadness Worry/anxiety Shame Self-blame

Lack of engagement

The classroom certainly influences many aspects

of emotional engagement. Three of those aspects were discussed

students’ energy levels a teacher’s positive demeanor students’ perceptions of acceptance

Classroom

One primary factor in how students answer the

question “How do I feel?” is the level of activity in the classroom.

Maintaining a lively pace can help keep energy high.

The teacher needs to keep the activity moving and avoid interruptions to the activity flow by using good pacing. Pacing is key when transitioning from one activity to another.

The part of the brain that processes movement is the same part of the brain that processes learning.

Students’ Energy Levels

A positive demeanor on the part of the

teacher is the second and most general influence on emotional engagement.

Everything about the teacher’s tone and manner communicates to the student that what is being said is important and that they should give it full attention and ask questions about anything they do not understand.

A Teacher’s Positive Demeanor

Brophy emphasized that teachers should be

enthusiastic regularly and intense selectively. Brophy explained that intensity is

communicated through timing, verbal and nonverbal expressions, and gestures.

A Teacher’s Positive Demeanor

Peter Jonas summarized the research on the

relationship between humor and student achievement and engagement.

Humor was associated with a 40 percentile point gain in instructional effectiveness.

Humor can change the culture of a classroom. Humor is associated with enhanced productivity. Humor reduces stress in students. Humor promotes creative thinking.

A Teacher’s Positive Demeanor

The relationship teachers have with students is

one of the most powerful determiners of how a student answers the question “How do I feel?”

Secure relationships are believed to foster children’s curiosity and exploration of the environment, positive coping skills, and a mental representation of oneself as being worthy of love and of others being trustworthy.

Students’ Perceptions of Acceptance

A second emblematic question that influences

engagement is “Am I interested?” There are 2 kinds of interest: Situational individual

# 2 Interest: Am I Interested?

Situational interest is a short-term

psychological state that involves focused attention, increased cognitive function, persistence, enjoyment or affective involvement, and curiosity. --triggered situational interest involves

capturing a student’s attention. --maintained situational interest involves

holding a student’s interest over time

Forms of Situational Interest

How does the teacher catch and then hold the

attention of the students?

We must look at the interaction between 3 types of memory: sensory memory working memory permanent memory

Catching and holding attention

Sensory memory addresses temporary storage

of data from the senses. --stores more or less complete records of what

has been encountered for brief periods of time. --if the information is not encoded in the brief

time before it decays, it is lost.

Three Types of Memory

Working memory is where the data are

actively processed. --information must be kept in working memory

throughout a class period or at least part of a class period if it is to be encoded.

Sustained occupation of working memory is called maintained situational interest.

Three Types of Memory

We will discuss four ways to trigger and maintain situational interest:

using game-like activities initiating friendly controversy using unusual information using effective questioning strategies

Trigger and Maintain

Game-like activities help trigger situational interest and provide a foundation for maintained situational interest because they tap into the psychological principal of clozentropy.

Clozentropy – theory that states the human mind will naturally attend to situations that have missing details. (e.g. Mary went to the ___ to swim but she found that she forgot her ____. Your mind naturally fills in word such as pool and suit).

Theories That Support Game – Like Activities

Incongruity theories also support the utility of game-like activities to generate situational interest.

Incongruity theory – postulates that human beings have a natural tendency to make sense of the world. (e.g. Any activity with a rich contextual background that presents students with missing information will trigger situational interest.)

Theories That Support Game – Like Activities

Inconsequential competition is an aspect of games that can help trigger and maintain situational interest.

--this competition has no consequence regarding students’ grades or status, it is simply done for fun

Trigger and MaintainInconsequential Competition

Another way to trigger and maintain situational interest is through controversy.

Controversy strategies include eliciting divergent opinions on an issue and then inviting students to resolve their discrepancies through sustained discussion.

Trigger and MaintainFriendly Controversy

A third activity that triggers and helps maintain situational interest in the use of unusual information.

It makes intuitive sense that when a student is answering a question, his or her working memory is fully attentive to the task at hand.

Trigger and MaintainUnusual Information

Effective Questioning Strategies

“Is this important?” is the third emblematic question that affects engagement.

Hierarchy of goals:-lower level goals address basic subsistence needs-short-term goals such as scheduling a date-long-term goals such as making a varsity team-lifelong goals

When a student is operating on higher levels of the hierarchy, he or she is more engaged.

#3 Perceived Importance: Is This Important?

Human goals are housed in the self-system. The self-system is a part of permanent memory.

Self-system contains goals that individuals bring to every situation.

Self-system can be viewed as the architect of human motivation.

In some manner, people view every situation in their lives through the filter of their goals. Every student enters class every day with goals that drive his or her behavior.

The Self-System

One clear message from the research and theory on the goal-directed nature of human behavior is that students are more likely to engage in school goals that are linked to their personal goals.

The challenge comes when students do not initially perceive school goals are related to any of their personal goals. Research points to choice as a possible remedy for this situation.

Research has shown that providing students of all ages with choice typically increased intrinsic motivation.

Classroom tasks that offer choice must be robust enough to allow students to make direct connections to their personal goals.

Personal Goals and Choice

Another way to facilitate connections between students’ short and long

term goals is to use cognitively complex tasks (ones that use thoughtfulness) with real-world applications.

Thoughtful tasks:-focus on sustained examination of a few topics rather than superficial coverage of many.-encourage discourse that is characterized by substantive coherence and continuity. -challenge students to clarify or justify their assertions.-generate original and innovative ideas.

When students are challenged they are more likely to see what they are learning as being important, and they are more likely to see learning itself as important and influential in their lives.

Cognitively Complex Tasks

The answer to the final emblematic question, “Can I do this?,” also affects engagement.

Self-efficacy refers to the perceived capabilities for learning or performing actions at designated levels.

Two ways students foster their self-efficacy:-possible selves-self-theories

#4 Perceptions of Efficacy: Can I Do This?

Efficacy is determined in part by students’ sense of their possible selves.

Possible selves are cognitive representations of an individual’s future. The extent to which students have developed clear conceptions of who they might become in the future enables them to develop skills and gather resources that add up to a sense of self-efficacy.

Self-Efficacy: Possible Selves

Self-theories are at the core of student motivation, particularly in the face of challenging tasks.

There are two types of self-theories--fixed theory--growth theory

Self-Efficacy: Self-Theories

If a student has developed a “fixed theory”

regarding human competence, he or she will tend to shrink from challenging tasks and experience negative effect.

If a student has developed a “growth theory” regarding human competence, he or she will tend to embrace challenging situations and experience positive effect.

Fixed and Growth Theories of Self

Self-theories are relatively stable. Self-theories can be specific to a domain. Different self-theories lead to different goals. Different self-theories lead to different beliefs

about the value of effort Growth theorists tend to believe that effort is

not only useful but a vital component of success Different theories foster different reactions to

failure.

Aspects of Self-Theories

One of the most exciting aspects of self-theories is that they can shift.

Self-Theories

The students are asking four questions:-How do I feel?-Am I interested?-Is this important?-Can I do this?

The teacher is always asking and answering two questions about the students:-Do I have their attention?-Are they engaged?

Review