(Re)Defining Student Engagement
"The best evidence for student engagement is what students are saying and doing as a consequence of what the teacher does, or has done, or has planned." - Charlotte Danielson
This past week I conducted instructional walks in ten different classrooms. Using only paper and pen, I wrote observations describing ten distinct teaching styles. These initial visits have confirmed what I have known for several years of experience as a school principal and teacher evaluator: Engagement in learning happens most frequently and deeply when students are actively involved in instruction.
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Engagement (student involvement in instruction) can be described in a variety of ways. I think too often engagement is exclusively predefined by educators as "hands on", "students doing more talking than the teacher", or "active". These descriptors may all be key indicators of engagement. But the definition should not stop there.
For example, I was the fortunate observer of a math lesson that would seem to run counter to this pattern, at least at first glance. The learning target: Demonstrate multiple ways to solve multiple digit addition problems. The teacher, who already modeled a few problems by working through them in front of students on the document camera, asked if there were three students willing to show their peers one of three ways to solve a given problem. Several hands shot up. Once selected, the three volunteers headed to the board.
The rest of the class was directed to also try one of the three methods at their desks. As some students completed the problem before others, the teacher, who was roaming around the room doing spot checks and providing quick feedback, announced, "If you solved it one way, why not try it another way?" Every student who was ready took her up on the challenge. This option gave other students more time to work.
Once the students at the front of the room were done with their work, they went back to their desks. Their faces beamed with pride. The teacher went over the process with the whole group: "Yes, you regrouped here...the place value alignments are accurate..." The teacher also asked the rest of the class to show their work on their dry erase boards with their partner sitting next to them. "Did your method work just as well as your partner's? Talk about that." They did.
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We in education talk so much about engagement in concert with terms like "collaboration", "technology", and "passion". Is this where the best learning takes place? Sometimes, maybe even often, but certainly not always. For example, I can have passion about something, but if I don't put the necessary time, thought, and energy into developing the skills and understandings related to it, then it is merely a hobby and possibly not worth knowing well. One passion of mine is writing. If I didn't sit down and "do the work", I'd have nothing but half-developed ideas floating around in my mind.
It's important that we take the concept of engagement and rethink its meaning, as it has been defined within the context of today's classroom. Consider:
If students had been left to their own devices and allowed to work in loose groups, what guarantee would the teacher have that everyone was developing a better understanding while this collaboration was happening?
Speaking of devices, kids could certainly have seen some worked problems online prior to class, and then provided more time during class for the teacher to work with students who needed the support. But could we be assured that every student watched the recorded instruction actively and without distraction?
As a former middle level mathematics teacher myself, I know how challenging it can be to instill a sense of passion for the subject. By including the students in the instructional responsibilities, everyone had a stake in the process and the outcomes. Passion is then connected with purpose and community.
I call on all school leaders, myself included, to put aside our biases and misconceptions regarding student engagement, as we engage in our own learning experiences during our frequent visits to classrooms. When classrooms that are set up in rows of desks are described as "tombstones", we make unfair generalizations of a teacher's abilities to educate their students. When we document the lack of technology integration in a lesson that has no need for it, we show our bias toward a maximalist approach to digital learning. When we find a quiet classroom, it may be inaccurate to assume that learning isn't occurring. Let our student actions and dispositions guide our professional assessments.