Creating the Opportunity to Learn

Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap: Part II

Central High SchoolDecember 13, 2012

Student EngagementHow do you know when your students are

engaged? What are they doing?

Discuss at your tables.

Classroom EngagementThree Types

Behavioral: general “on-task” behavior. This entails effort and persistence along with paying attention, asking pointed questions, seeking help that enables one to accomplish the task at hand.

Cognitive: connotes investment aimed at comprehending complex concepts and issues and acquiring difficult skills. It conveys deep processing of information.

Affective: Connotes emotional investment. The greater the student’s interest level, positive affect, positive attitude, curiosity, and task absorption, and the less anxiety, sadness, stress and boredom., the greater the affective engagement.

Classroom Engagement“At the most fundamental level, to optimize learning, a

teacher must ensure that students are engaged in the learning process. The kind of engagement that optimizes task performance is not simply measureable time on task or attending to a lesson, but rather active engagement in academic tasks—the student is actively doing math, reading material at a non-superficial level, and making strides toward task accomplishment (Greenwood et al., 1987).

“A growing amount of research points to such engagement as particularly linked to favorable learning outcomes for minority students who have been placed at risk for academic failure” (Borman & Overman, 2004; Tucker et al., 2002; Wenglinsky, 2004).

Research on Mathematics“In reviewing the research specific to math learning

and the performance of Black and Latino students, the evidence strongly suggests that greater engagement leads to greater success for these populations. Indeed, the findings in support of this claim have been well documented, from kindergarten through 12th grade” (Boykin & Noguera, 2011).

“engagement had a far greater effect on math gains than did instructional time. Engagement also had a far greater effect on math gains for the lowest-achieving group.” Instructional time does make a difference, but it “paled in comparison to the engagement variable.”

Research on ReadingEngagement has also been found to predict or account

for reading outcomes. Many studies highlight the special importance of cognitive engagement in the reading process—when students grapple with understanding the deeper meanings inherent in their texts.

“The benefits of increased engagement in reading were relatively stronger for struggling readers. The implication here is that enhancing engagement appears to be particularly important in closing the achievement gap”.

“Growth in reading comprehension across time was greater in “high-poverty classrooms” when practices were implemented that explicitly promoted cognitive engagement in literacy activities.”

SummaryEngagement is a precursor to achievement and even growth in

achievement over time. Engagement is not the same as instructional time. “What seems crucial is not how much time is devoted to a subject but, rather how much time students are actively and progressively involved in the learning process. This seems particularly important for low achieving and/or minority students. The benefits of engagement seem to be especially apparent when the learning and performance demands are more challenging. Evidence also suggests that engagement level and instructional quality may be reciprocally related—that is, teachers tend to respond more positively to students already engaged and less positively to students who are not engaged. In turn, this leads to more divergent displays of engagement between these two groups of students”.

Guiding FunctionsA central cluster of factors have repeatedly demonstrated

significant impact on closing achievement gaps and raising achievement for all students. We refer to this class of factors as guiding functions because they can steer, shape, govern, and intensify fundamental engagement processes. These factors are interrelated and research suggests that they feed on one another. They are in short adaptive learning orientations. When several are present at once, their impact on student engagement is even more substantial. These functions are self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, and incremental ability beliefs. As with engagement, there is evidence that these factors are less evident among Black and Latino students.

Self-Efficacy“An efficacy expectation is the conviction that

one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce the desired outcomes” (Bandura, 1977).

“People’s judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to attain designated types of performances”.

Self-EfficacyIn the academic domain, Bandura (1986) argued that

“ educational practices should be gauged not only by the skills and knowledge they impart for present use but also by what they do to children’s beliefs about their capabilities, which affect how they approach the future. Students who develop a strong sense of self-efficacy are well equipped to educate themselves when they have to rely on their own initiative” (p. 417). Thus, enhancing self-efficacy is just as important as enhancing achievement. According to Schunk (2002), the evidence consistently shows that self-efficacy exerts a powerful influence on academic performance, both directly and through student engagement.

Self-EfficacyDiscuss at your tables:

What are things you might do in your classes to give students more confidence that they can complete challenging tasks?

Self-Regulated LearningAccording to Schunk & Zimmerman (2007), self-regulated

learning or self-regulation is defined as “self-generated thoughts, feelings and actions that are systematically designed to affect one’s knowledge and skills.”

Pintrich (2000) states that self-regulation is “an active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features in their environment.”

Zimmerman (2002) adds that self-regulation involves self-evaluation of how well one is doing and reactions to the obtained outcomes relative to the goals that one has set.

Self-Regulated LearningAccording to Horner and O’Conner (2007),

learners who effectively self-regulate tend to set realistic goals for themselves, select adaptive strategies, monitor their own progress, develop understanding, and evaluate how well they have accomplished their goals.

“The most salient feature of self-regulated learning is that the learner actually has control over his or her own learning, steering and directing cognitive and motivational processes to achieve the learning goal” (Boekaets & Cascallar, 2006).

Self-Regulated LearningDiscussion:

What might we do in our classrooms to help students gain self-regulatory confidence?

Self-Regulated LearningParis and Newman (1990) underscore the

importance of modeling. Particularly during the observation and emulation phases of self-regulated learning, effective modeling is crucial and demands correct use of the self-regulation procedure. Models such as talk-alouds articulate the challenges addressed in the learning task and ways to address these challenges. Models also make transparent students’ fears, misconceptions, and beliefs as they work toward solutions. They encourage active participation by students and they provide guidance, feedback and social reinforcement.

Incremental Ability BeliefsAttribution theory: attribution theory

primarily addresses the belief that people seek explanations for events (and their consequences) in which they have participated. In the academic domain, this translates to reasons that students attribute to their own success or failure.

According to Weiner (2000), There are three factors that cause students to make these attributions.

Incremental Ability BeliefsThree Factors:Whether the outcome is attributed to a controllable

or uncontrollable cause, to a stable or variable cause, and to an internal or external source.

Effort vs. AbilityAbility lies at the intersection of relatively

uncontrollable, stable, and internal causes, whereas effort lies at the intersection of relatively controllable, variable, and external causes. These attributions, over time, convert into enduring beliefs that students hold about their prospects for success or failure in school.

Fixed vs. Malleable BeliefsWhether a student holds a fixed or malleable

view of intelligence is particularly related to the behaviors that results from failure or challenge.

A student with a fixed view of intelligence tends to be more occupied with preserving self-respect than with trying to improve performance at a particular task.

This student is less likely to persist in the face of failure or have subsequent involvement with similar tasks. When given a choice, this student is inclined to lower his or her sights and pursue less challenging tasks.

Fixed vs. Malleable BeliefsStudent who subscribe to a malleable view of

intelligence are more likely to see failure as an opportunity to get better. These students seek to profit from their mistakes and redouble, rather than dampen, their efforts.

They are more task-persistent, have a more positive attitude toward task involvement, and are less anxious about new learning experiences.

These differences are evident even when students with opposite beliefs about intelligence have equivalent levels of intellectual ability.

Predicting Performance by Belief Type

Students who adopt a malleable view of intelligence generally demonstrate higher levels of achievement…students who adopt a fixed view generally demonstrate lower levels of achievement.

…those students who indicated a malleable view of intelligence continued to use effective learning strategies in the face of failure, whereas those who embraced a fixed view of intelligence abandoned such adaptive strategies.

…most striking was the finding that the more students held a fixed view about intelligence (as measured by the fall term), the lower were their achievement test scores and course grades in the spring.

Feedback and Belief OrientationThese beliefs can be influenced merely by the

feedback or praise that students receive in reaction to their performance (Mueller & Dweck, 1998).

…it is indisputable that children suffer from performance feedback that is overly critical.

Those students who receive ability praise as opposed to effort praise have less desire to persist with more difficult problems, express less task enjoyment, and perform more poorly after experiencing a period of failure. These results are equally evident for Black, White, and Latino students.

Incremental Ability BeliefsDiscuss at your table:

What changes might you make in your classroom to move students from a fixed view of intelligence to a malleable view of intelligence?