Are you listening to me?!… Measuring students’ engagement

What does a student look like when they’re not engaged in learning?

Slack jawed? Sleepy? Distracted? Angry?…..Absent?

And if they are engaged, what does that look like?…Excited? Talking critically about the topic? Full of ideas, enthusiasm and persistence? Anyone who has been a teacher probably has a gut feeling on what this looks like.

And now a report – Measuring student engagement in upper elementary through high school: A description of 21 instruments (from the Institute of Education Science) – has summarised 21 instruments that can be used to quantify the level of engagement in a learning experience, at intermediate and secondary level. Why? Because research is increasingly drawing links between engagement and achievement, particularly research exploring the impact of e-learning/learning through ICTs.

Student engagement measures have been shown to correlate positively with achievement and negatively with the likelihood of dropping out of school (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris 2004)

So, in theory, if you can identify students’ needs, evaluate and track engagement, you might be able to explore reasons behind the data and intervene accordingly. Perhaps.

Instruments for measuring engagement, as cited in the report, include:

• Student self-report questionnaires
• Teacher reports on students
• Observational measures

The challenge, as this report acknowledges, is that engagement can be interpreted in different ways (social, behavioural, emotional…) – and the different tests measure different aspects. Which type of engagement leads to deep, transferable learning. Hmmm….

The most useful part of the report for me is the section that discusses the research behind engagement and it’s importance for learning to occur. The New Zealand Curriculum has engagement at the heart of its guidance on pedagogy – and while we may not be using psychometric tests to gauge engagement, we would do well to keep noticing where we see the excited faces – and the slack jaws –  too.

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What would Pixar do with elearning?

The short film that precedes Toy Story 3  - Day and Night – is a fabulous example of how filmmakers can make the most of the opportunities that are inherent in 3D.

While it’s a bit hard to appreciate this in 2D on your computer, this clip, and the making of Day and Night, show how 3D affords a depth of field that accentuates the differences between the two characters in the short.

And, if Pixar were elearning aficionados, I think they would be looking at tools and technologies to identify those very opportunities (affordances, if we must) that would make their use absolutely right in a given moment, in a teaching experience, in a strategically planned unit. So, for example, the collaborative nature and the tracking of history of a wiki must surely be the prime reasons why this tool is chosen as a channel to support shared, developmental writing. And to not use its features, is to miss an opportunity and risk the use of a tool or technology being ‘busy work’….

The technological-pedagogical-content-knowledge (TPCK) approach captures this idea - but I think Day & Night presents a neat analogy.

Tell me you see a difference between board and screen..?

If there is no difference, then we need to talk.

This video by mokmcdaniel – Online Student Experience – highlights in grim tones, how depressing it is to be in a world in which exciting teaching and learning (with and without technology) is possible, but not happening for him.

While part of me can appreciate the drama and heightened negativity that this skilled filmmaker has amplified, part of me wonders how prevalent this kind of teaching is.

Just replacing a board with a screen, a pen with a keyboard, is clearly not the answer.

So what is? Where would you start?

Thanks to the Committed Sardine for the link.

Monday morning. Period 3. The topic today is Effective Pedagogy

- Right. Books open…
That’s right, get your books out…
What do you mean, which books? The revised curriculum, of course, is there any other?..
Right, turn to page 35. Effective pedagogy.
Pardon? What did you say? You’re already doing this? Don’t be so foolish, of course you’re not. And even if you are, you need to do it better.
So, let’s have a look at one that looks quite important. ‘Teaching as Inquiry’.
Yes, you’re quite right, Grace, it’s minor sentence…but a major issue, ha ha! Very good, ah, just my little joke.
Have a read through the paragraph and then you can ask some questions……

Done? Right then. Thoughts, anyone?

“Miss, do teachers always know what it is important to focus on? What if they’re not subject-specialists? Or if they’re really new?”
“What about the range of strategies they need for the Teaching Inquiry bit, Miss? How will they know what to choose? Or why? What happens to the fun, Miss?”
“Miss, what if teachers don’t have time to reflect for the Learning Inquiry part? Or don’t know what to reflect on? Or don’t have the key competency of ‘Thinking’ or ‘Managing Self’, Miss?”
“What if the teachers are really, really tired, Miss?”

- Well done, class, all good questions. So..

“Miss? Can I ask a question? Who decides that this is the best way forward, Miss?”
- Er…
“Yeah, and what do the teachers do who work in schools without support for long-term, in-depth PD, Miss?”
“Miss, are there any examples to help teachers understand what this will all look like so they can be sure they’re doing it right? Or templates? Something to critique? We got loads for NCEA, didn’t we?”

- Er, yes we did. And no there aren’t. But as soon as some schools have put them on the web we’ll have them.

“But Miss, how will they know what to do?”

Right. That’s enough questions! Just memorise the diagram and get on with it. Now.