case 2 engagement

NEWS W EEKLY P BL

STUDENTS ACTUALLY

IN LEARNING!

Korean and Chinese Canadian B. Ed students work collaboratively on Case 2!

Special Report by and 1

Table of Contents

2

I. Introduction to

A Student-Centred Approach to

What is engagement? 3

Engagement and Learning 4

Motivation and Learning 5

When does engagement occur? 6

Engagement = Black Hole ? 8

Great teachers value engagement! 9

Boredom: The Enemy of Engagement 10

The 6C’s of Engagement 11-17

What is Experiential Education? 19

Setting-up Experiences 20-22

Sample Experiential Activities 23-28

Critiques of Experiential Education 29

Glossary 30

Annotated Bibliography 31-32

What is ?

The first is to believe that every kid can –and wants to- learn. The desire to get better at stuff and to unravel mysteries is part of being human. The second is to connect what kids learn to the big picture. In our quest for reading, writing, and arithmetic, we sometimes lose sight of the fourth R: RELEVANCE

Finally, while people do have different abilities, it’s clear that persistence, practice, great coaching, and high expectations are more important than innate talent. That makes a teacher’s job even more important than we already know it is”

Daniel Pink, Best-Selling Author of ‘Drive’

To me engagement is a few things…

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and Learning

Physical, emotional, and mental engagement is important in translating activity into understanding and long- lasting knowledge.

(Primary Program, 2010)

Learners are more likely to be if they…

…find the activity meaningful, purposeful, and useful.

…recognize their own potential for eventual success.

…can use what they learned to make a positive impact on others.

…receive timely, quality, and constructive feedback.

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• Motivation plays an important role in the

effectiveness of learning.

• Motivation is affected by learner’s perceptions

of the purpose of tasks at hand.

• Motivation allows learners to maintain

engagement, attention, focus, and persist

even through a difficult activity.

• Intrinsic motivation is essential to meaningful

engagement.

(Primary Program, 2010)

Motivation and Learning

TO!

5

What’s the difference between

Motivation and ?

(National Research Council Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2003)

Motivation is the reason for being engaged.

Engagement is the psychological experience or behavior.

Students’ motivation for learning results in varying degrees of engagement.

Engagement is influenced by motivation

In daily use, the terms are often synonymous because motivation is inferred from observed emotions or behavior. So, someone who appears to be concentrating intently or is actively involved in a learning activity could be called a “motivated” or “engaged” student.

Superficial Engagement Deep Engagement Students who attend class and complete assignments to avoid punishment or bad grades.

Students complete assignments because material captures their interest or because they experience

a sense of pride in accomplishment.

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Engagement happens when students are involved in meaningful activities that spark a desire in them to want to learn more…

When does occur?

…and respecting student’s need for competency and control

…nurturing curiosity

in school work involves…

(National Research Council Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2003)

…Behaviors and Emotions

e.g., persistence, effort, attention, enthusiasm, interest, pride

(Ridnouer, 2011)

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…Observable Behaviors

e.g., active participation in class, completing work,

seeking help when having difficulty, talking challenging classes

…Mental or Cognitive Behaviors

e.g., attention, problem solving, meta-cognitive strategies

Great teachers aim to encourage learning experiences where students are so intensely attentive to the task at hand that students lose awareness of time & space… (like in a black hole?)

Engaged students are lost in the magic moment of a breakthrough in understanding, of the creation of a new solution, or of successfully mastering a new challenge.

= Educational Black Hole?

In this state, the experience is its own reward, where there is a perfect balance between challenge and skill.

(Adapted from Schreck, 2011 and Csikszentmihalyi, 1988)

Another class “succumbs” to the gravitational pull of engaging education.

Engagement

Students

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Great teachers value ! Many teachers are conflicted about the importance of engagement, thinking:

It would be nice if students were engaged,

but my job is to transmit information,

not to entertain kids!

But, according to brain research:

Studies have shown that children and adolescents are more susceptible to losing focus than adults.

If the brain doesn’t recognize incoming information

as important or novel, it won’t be retained.

is a necessary part of the complexity of learning.

Effective teachers and curriculum creators understand that a logical presentation of information d doesn’t entice young learners enough to keep them interested and involved.

(Schreck, 2011)

(Smokler, 2009)

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Boredom : The Enemy of Engagement

There can be no engagement if the expected learning and efforts at arriving at that learning are not robust and meaningful to the student.

Disturbing Boredom Statistics

(Schreck, 2011)

According to the 2006 High School Survey of Student Engagement (a survey of 110 US schools from 26 different states)

• 66% of students are bored in class every day

• 75% students found class material the major reason for their boredom

• These students reported feelings about school ranging from apathy to anger. When asked their reasons for their boredom, students reported:

39 % irrelevant class material

32% work was not challenging enough

31% little to/no interaction with a teacher

27% the work was too difficult

(National Research Council Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2003) 10

The 6C ’s of

Quate & McDermott (2009) identify 6 steps to engaging bored students:

1. C reating a caring classroom community throughout the entire school year

2. Effective C hecking In + hecking Out (formative + summative assessments)

3. Student Choice in how to complete assignments

4. Appropriate Challenge

5. C ollaboration amongst classmates

6. C elebration of personal + class achievements

Can you believe I only a got a “C” in English? And I was doing so good!

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The Importance of hoice

Choice is a critical ingredient to intellectual achievement.

(Quate & McDermott, 2009)

Students are more likely to want to do school work when they have some choice in the courses they take, in the material they study, and in the strategies they use to complete tasks. Conversely, students will NOT exert effort if they are convinced they lack the capacity to succeed or have no control over outcomes.

Teachers can create

purposeful choice

by inviting students

to choose:

Content -what do you want to learn?

Process -how do you want to learn it?

Product -how do you want to demonstrate your learning?

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Example of Assignment hoice

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5 Key Elements of ollaboration

4. The teacher must continuously monitor groups

1. Good group work needs to explained and modeled.

3. The teacher must instruct students in strategies for taking active leadership roles.

2. The modeling needs to be repeated when necessary; students need small reminders about good group work.

5. Students grow by assessing themselves as group members and by assessing their group.

(Quate & McDermott, 2009) 14

The Importance of hallenge Students enter an optimum state of

engagement when the level of challenge is slightly greater than their skill.

However, any mismatch between the two reduces the level of engagement

creating either anxiety or boredom. engagement anxiety boredom

A teacher’s goal is to present challenges that are just slightly beyond where a student is.


A Dynamic

Cycle of

Well-matched

Challenge

Requires Ss to acquire and practice

new learning strategies Success!

Optimal learning like the above encourage students to seek new learning experiences of increasing complexity and challenge.

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Scaffolding hallenging Tasks To encourage dynamic cycles of engagement, teachers need to provide adequate supports so students can navigate challenges effectively.


Tips for Scaffolding Challenging Tasks

Never underestimate the power of a good book to help bridge the gap for your students!

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Take Time to elebrate! When there is reason to think that we

are appreciated, satisfaction is usually high; whereas the greatest source of

stress is the feeling that no one is interested in supporting our goals.

(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990 as cited by Quate and McDermott)

Letting students know their worzk and efforts are recognized, honored, and

appreciated can motivate them to exert the effort to improve scholastically,

socially, and emotionally.

Celebration creates a culture that expects success from all students.

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NEWS W EEKLY P BL

STUDENTS WITH

Moms around the world proven right: E X P E R I E N C E IS the best teacher!

(AND

WIN!)

Experiential Ed Brave Student 18

What is ?

(Beard & Wilson, 2006)

Experiential learning allows learners to take abstract concepts and make it concrete.

It is a learning style that involves a meaningful engagement with the environment in which students use their previous knowledge to bring new meanings to an interaction.

Often, simply described as “learning by doing”

“This is as concrete as it gets!”

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Considerations

when setting up

Activity Reflection

Environment Planning


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Activity Considerations

• Create restrictions (Eg. Obstacles, sensory blocking)

• Set time constraints

• Provide elements of real or perceived challenge or risk

• Include functional skills such as surveying, map reading, knot tying, etc

• Encourage sorting/or organization skills

Reflection Considerations


• Allow learners to deal with change, risk, success, and failure.

• Design quiet time for reflection – physical or mental space.

• Allow the story of the experience to be told.

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Planning Considerations • Set a target, goal or objective, where goals create an underlying

‘state of mind’.

• Create a sense of a journey – physical movement and exercise;

people, information and objects are moved from A to B.

• Create and sequence a theme of social, mental, psychological

and physical activities – mind, spirit and body.

Environmental Considerations


• Utilizes both indoor and outdoor spaces

• Adjust the elements of reality

• Stimulate the senses

• Allow participants to exercise many forms of intelligence.

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Outdoor

Sense

Activities!

Students Activities!!!

Journeys!

Fantasy!

Slow-

mation! Model

Making!

(Beard & Wilson, 2006) 23


with Journeys

Planning the journey and the learning from it is one of the key skills of the experiential provider, and it is of immense significance to the learner.

Adventurous Journey –requires the participant to be exposed to an element of real or perceived risk E.g. Eco-adventure tours, wildlife expeditions, etc.

Journey Types:

Physical Journey –can impact on learner’s energy tension balance and act as a positive mood regulator E.g. Micro hikes, bike tours, etc

Mind journey -can be metaphorical in thought; E.g. Imaginary destinations 24


with Fantasy

This tool can be used to develop more awareness of thoughts and emotions, leading to the creation of greater self-awareness and personal growth.

Fantasy -a form of psychic play involving images with deep symbolic meaning- suspends reality and uses it to frame the mental state.

Fantasy can create a sense of atmosphere, excitement and adventure, involving suspending disbelief, and the use of magic and mystery.

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Slow-mation is a stop-motion process that involves the manual manipulation of materials with digital still photos taken as changes in the scenes are made, which are then played in sequence to create illusion of movement.

(Loughran, 2010)

with Slow-mation

Students research information, develop a script, create a storyboard, design their models, and digitally photograph their models between small manual movements.

Slow-mation allows learners to represent their own learning and review what they have done. 26

Model making can consist of construction of individual item, a diorama, or a representation of a larger system.

(e.g. solar system, beehive, pyramid )


with Model Making

Learners can be asked to present their working model to their peers and run a discussion and answer questions about the model in action.

Model construction can be a useful activity to help gauge students’ understanding of the structure being represented.

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with Outdoor Sense Activities Experience through senses is constructed internally, thus plays a significant role in unlocking learning potential.

Sample activities

self-introductions -respect for diversity of individual stories, how you got there sitting on the ground or natural materials -simple contact with the earth sitting to talk in circles not lines -cyclic nature of life processes and natural things walking differently from in the city -e.g. slowly, silently, blindfolded

walking barefoot - direct contact with dewy grass, rock, wood, earth, leaves

walking in unfamiliar places - gorges, undergrowth, logs, snow

focusing on natural rhythms - tide, wind, sunset/rise, stars, moonrise/set, night sky

telling, inventing and listening to stories - legends of the earth

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Learning through experiences may not always lead to new insights and knowledge; it may only serve to support existing cognitive status quo.

The concept of self-direction may lead to isolation, individualism and poor learning.

Allowing students to determine the

direction of their learning might lead

to a neutering of the traditional

curriculum.

Individuals are so diverse that no one

perceives and processes info.

in the same way.

Experiential learning is more subjective than objective

Critiques of

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Glossary Didactic learning Learning that is instructive or intended to teach or demonstrate.

Experiential learning the process of making meaning from direct experience.

Experiential education a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content.

Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual. The motivating factors are external, or outside

Intrinsic Motivation the motivation that comes from the pleasure one gets from the task itself or from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on a task.

Instructional instructional scaffolding is the provision of sufficient support to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced to students.

Motivation the driving force by which humans achieve their goals.

Student Centered an approach to education focusing on the needs of the students, rather than those of others involved in the educational process, such as teachers and administrators.

Student engagement the relationship between the student and the learning process where students make a psychological investment in learning.

Teacher centered traditional education that refers to long-established customs found in schools that society has traditionally deemed appropriate.

scaffolding

Learning (SLC)

Learning (TLC) 30

Beard, C., Wilson, J. P., & ebrary, I. (2006). Experiential learning: A best practice handbook for educators and trainers. Philadelphia: Kogan Page Ltd. This resource takes an in depth look into experiential learning and its benefits to student engagement. Chapman, M. L., British Columbia Government EBook Collection, & British Columbia. Ministry of Education. (2010). The primary program: A framework for teaching. The Primary program defines the role of motivation and engagement plays in student learning Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: the psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York, NY.: Basicbooks. These seminal articles discuss the concept of flow and the conditions that create these optimal learning experiences. Engaging schools fostering high school students' motivation to learn. (2004). Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. This lengthy resource offers concise definitions to many of the terms discussed in this resource package; it also succinctly describes the nature and conditions of engagement, supported by thorough research of American schools. Jonas, P. M. (2010). Laughing and learning: an alternative to shut up and listen. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education. This light-natured, yet well researched text, discusses humor and its positive effect on learning. It also includes a number of hilarious jokes that one would be amiss not to include in their next lesson. Kagan, S., & Kagan, M. (2009). Kagan cooperative learning. California: Kagan. This is a ‘must-read’ resource for any educator interested in using cooperative learning strategies in their classroom. The text offers ample descriptions of cooperative activities, supported by convincing research.

Annotated Bibliography

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Loughran, J. (2010). What expert teachers do –Enhancing professional knowledge for classroom practice. London and New York: Routledge. This book presents a wide range of views on teachers’ professional knowledge and practice. It highlights various pedagogies in implementing an ‘active learning’ environment as a way to engage students. Quate, S., & McDermott, J. (2009). Clock watchers: six steps to motivating and engaging disengaged students across content areas. Chicago: Heinemann. This text offers clear instructions on how to create a more engaging learning environment. The text includes many useful lesson planning ideas, photo-copiable materials, and interesting teaching annecdotes. Schreck, M. K. (2011). You've got to reach them to teach them: hard facts about the soft skills of student engagement. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press. This text explores various teaching strategies teachers can use to engage their students more effectively. Particularly noteworthy is its discussion of disengagement (boredom) and teacher attitudes and their affect on engagement. Smokler, D. (2009). Interactive learning experiences, Grades 6-12: increasing student engagement and learning (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. This is an excellent resource for detailed descriptions of experiences teachers can create in and out of their classrooms. It also includes useful information on brain-based research and its connection to student engagement. Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2011, Oct 5). FL: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved October 5,2011, from http://www.wikipedia.org The briefer definitions of the glossary terms were obtained from this resource.

Annotated Bibliography cont.

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If only ALL

teaching were

this

33

(that’s a CHUPA CHUP!)

case 2 engagement

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